Socialist realism, kitsch and the middlebrow symphony

It seems unlikely that the label of socialist realism will ever break free from its taint of artistic compromise and mediocrity. Yet the enduring popularity of Soviet music from the Stalin era seems to challenge these long-held associations. While some have been quick to draw links between these “socialist realist” symphonies and the Europe-wide shift away from 1920s modernism, it would be disingenuous to pretend that compulsion played no role in shaping the Soviet symphony under Stalin. But equally, this epoch in Soviet musical history produced works of lasting global popularity, making it difficult to insist that they must be somehow compromised. In this chapter I argue that we need to both acknowledge the pressures composers and critics were under and admit that socialist realism, as a literary concept, was implied rather than fulfilled by even the most successful Stalin-era symphonic works. Here, I contend that “middlebrow” is a more useful umbrella term for this repertoire, acknowledging both the element of compulsion and the potential for artistic success within its confines.