p It was in 1926, with his student days behind him, that the twenty-year-old Dmitry Shostakovich began his independent adult life. By chance, it was in that year that he wrote his first autobiographical note—his curriculum vitae.

p Let us try to sketch in the main landmarks in the composer”! life, starting from that year...

p In the early spring of 1926 Shostakovich and his fellow-student at the Leningrad Conservatoire Pavel Feldt (the future conductor) played a four-handed piano version of his First Symphony to the Director of the Conservatoire Alexander Glazunov, to be judged as Shostakovich’s diploma work in the Department of Composition. The examiners unanimously agreed to recommend him for post-graduate work.

p The main event of the year was undoubtedly the premiere of the symphony in the Grand Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonia on 12 May. The composer attended the rehearsals with his tutor Maximilian Steinberg, who noted in his diary on 10 May: ’Dmitry’s symphony sounds good. He himself is in raptures at the richness of his music, and I could hardly hold him back from gesticulating excitedly to give vent to his feelings? Apart from Shostakovich’s fFirst Symphony) the concert, conducted by Nikolai Malko, included Joseph Schillinger’s March of the Orient, and Julia Weissberg’s cantata The Twelve. The audience, performers and critics welcomed the new work with one accord, sensing its premiere to be an event of great importance. ’/ have the feeling? said Malko after the performance, ’that I have turned over a new page in the history of symphonic music?

p Towards the end of May the composer gave two private performances of the piano version of the symphony in Moscow, first for Nikolai Myaskovsky, then at P. Lamm’s flat. In June Malko conducted the symphony at a concert in Kharkov.

p Shostakovich made many public appearances as a pianist at this time. In Kharkov on 12 July he played Chaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with an orchestra conducted by Nikolai Malko, and three days later gave a, solo concert, including his own compositions and works by Liszt.

p In the autumn Shostakovich completed his First Piano Sonata, which he performed on 2 December in the Small Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonia. In the middle of the month, under the guidance of Leonid Nikolayev, he began working on his repertoire for the approaching International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

p The year also saw the first publication of Shostakovich’s works, including the piano pieces Three Fantastic Dances_£Q/>. 5^.

p I was born on 25 September (new style), 1906 in St. Petersburg, the son of Dmitry Shostakovich, head of the Petersburg Chamber of Standards. In 1915 I was enrolled at Maria Shidlovskaya’s Private College of Commerce, where I remained until the middle of 1918. Then I attended grammar school No. 13 for a year, and completed my secondary education at school No. 108. I began to study music at the age of nine: before then I had shown no interest in it. My first piano lessons I received from my mother, Sophia Shostakovich. I progressed so quickly in the first summer that my mother began to think seriously about giving me a musical education, and immediately sent me to lessons with Ignaty Glyasser. After three years with him, I began to study with Professor Alexandra 10 Rozanova, and in the autumn of 1919 I entered her class at the Conservatoire. A year later, I transferred to Professor Leonid Nikolayev’s class, and in 1923 graduated from the Piano Department.

p My ability to compose began to show very ’early, almost as soon as I started playing the piano. In the summer of 1919 Professor Petrov coached me for the entrance examination to the Composition Department of the Conservatoire. In the autumn I joined Professor Maximilian Steinberg’s class in special harmony. I also studied harmony, instrumentation, fugue and the first class in form under Professor Steinberg, and in 1925 graduated from the Conservatoire in composition. I have composed the following works: Scherzo for Orchestra (1920), 8 Piano Preludes (1919-20), Variations for Orchestra (1921-22), Two Krylov Fables for Voice and Orchestra (1921-22), Three Fantastic Dances (1922), Suite for Two Pianos (1922), Scherzo for Orchestra (1923), Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello (1923), 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano (1923-24), Symphony (1925), and Prelude and Scherzo for String Orchestra (1925). The Fantastic Dances, Symphony and Octet have been accepted for publication by the Music Section of the State Publishing House.

After my father’s death in 1922 I was very hard-up, and had to do a great deal of ’hack work’, including working in the cinema. All this undermined my health and nervous system. Now I am not working anywhere, and however hard-up I may be I shall not go back to the cinema, as it takes up every evening and the task of mechanically reproducing ’human passions’ on the piano is very exhausting. My work in the cinema sapped away my time, health and energy. On 12 May Nikolai Malko conducted my symphony at the Philharmonia, with great success. The success and fine sound of the symphony inspired me with courage and hope. If only I can manage to make ends meet, I shall work ceaselessly in the field of music, to which I stn*H dedicate my whole life. As for the present, I need to take a summer holiday and restore my health.^^1^^