(A) one of the great composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich courageously resisted the Soviet government's harassment and endured censure from envious, carrion-feeding careerist colleagues. At first a dazzling young composer (Symphony No. 2), his greatest works memorialized victims of oppression (String Quartet No. 8, From Jewish Folk Poetry, Symphony No. 13) while skirting the twin black holes of 20th-century music--surrealism and electronic music--and affirming the lasting value of tonality (Preludes and Fugues for Piano, Violin Concerto No. 1, and reams of chamber music).

(B) a talented but overrated 20th-century composer. Compared to Igor (The Rite of Spring) Stravinsky, Shostakovich resembles a superannuated Rachmaninoff. Shostakovich's insensibility to developments in music after 1940 (electronic music, surrealism, free improvisation, invented instruments) renders his work an irrelevant refuge for ears that fear the music of today. This icon of resistance is every program note writer's wet dream, but such scribblings devolve his work into program music: "Listen closely, this movement parodies Stalin."

(C) a marginally influential yet perhaps great 20th-century composer. Although he was not, as one writer for the Seattle Times swooned last week, "a godfather of 20th-century composers"--that title indisputably belongs to John Cage--Shostakovich created works of undeniable power (Symphony No. 10). His place outside the musical avant-garde raises the terrifying prospect that Music History is not a line of forward progress, but a vortex where the past percolates in a perpetual now.

The final concert of the Seattle Symphony's Shostakovich Uncovered festival features Shostakovich's mighty Tenth Symphony. Elmar Oliveira is the soloist in the Violin Concerto No. 1, which the SSO plays Thursday and Saturday. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI

The Seattle Symphony performs Thurs Jan 30 at 7:30 pm, Sat Feb 1 at 8 pm, and Sun Feb 2 at 2 pm (Benaroya Hall, Third Ave & Union St, 215-4747), $11-$75.chris@delaurenti.net