p At the beginning of the year Shostakovich was in Moscow. On 9 January he performed his Piano Sonata in the Mozart Hall (now the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre) and again a few days later in the Beethoven Hall, specially for an audience of musicians. Meanwhile, he continued to prepare for the forthcoming Chopin Competition, and on 14 January participated in a concert given by the future competitors in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. On the 21st the Soviet delegation left for Warsaw.

p Shostakovich’s performance at the First International Chopin Competition (28-30 January 1927) brought him a diploma of merit (Lev Oborin was outright winner, Grigory Ginzburg won fourth prize, and Yuri Bryushkov a diploma of merit). After the competition Shostakovich gave concerts in several Polish cities, played his Sonata at the Warsaw Conservatoire, and then went with Oborin to Berlin, where he played some of his own works and met the conductor Bruno Walter.

p On his return home, fie gave many concerts. On 11 March he took part in an evening given by Professor Nikolayev’s pupils in the Philharmonia, and again a week later in the Moscow Conservatoire. Shostakovich also frequently appeared with chamber ensembles, playing, e.g., Schumann’s Piano Quintet and Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and accompanying the singer Lidia Vyrlan.

p The musician’s main interest was still composition, however. Shortly after returning from abroad, he composed Aphorisms, a piano cycle. In the spring he was commissioned to write a symphonic work to mark the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The composer used poetry by Alexander Bezymensky as the basis for this, his second symphony. The Dedication to October, as it was called, was completed by the summer, after which the composer began work on the libretto, and then the music, for his opera The Nose.

p It was in this year that the young composer met Sergei Prokofiev for the first time, during the latter’s visit to Leningrad in February. Later, Prokofiev noted in his Autobiography: ’Theyoung Leningrad composers showed me their works. The most interesting of them were Shostakovich’s sonata and Gavriil Popov’s septet? * X^ The 27 October saw the start of rehearsals of the Second Symphony., which won the highest award in the Leningrad Philharmonia’s competition for the best sym\.phonic work to mark the tenth anniversary of the Revolution. The work was first performed on the eve of the anniversary in the Grand Hall of the Philharmonia, conducted by Nikolai Malko, and on 4 December it was conducted by Konstantin Saradzhew in the Columned Hall of the Moscow’s Trade Union House. On 22 November Shostakovich’s First Symphony was heard for the first time abroad-in Berlin, conducted by Bruno Walter,

p Until I began to learn to play the piano I expressed no desire to learn, although I did feel a certain interest in music. Sometimes when a quartet was playing next door I would listen with my ear to the wall.

p Seeing this, my mother, Sophia Shostakovich, insisted on my taking piano lessons. I put up every kind of opposition. In the spring of 1915 I went to the theatre for the first time, to see The Tale of the Tsar Saltan. I enjoyed the opera, but this still did not overcome my reluctance to study music.

p ’Learning to play is such a bitter pill to swallow,’ I thought to myself. But my mother insisted, and in the summer of 1915 began to give me piano lessons. Things progressed quickly: I proved to have perfect pitch and a good memory. I could learn the notes and memorise them quickly-they imprinted themselves on my memory-and I could read music easily. It was then, too, that I made my first attempts at composition. Seeing my success, my mother decided to send me to the music school of Ignaty Glyasser (who died in 1925). I can remember playing almost half of Ghaikovsky’s Children’s Album at an examination concert. The following year (1916) I transferred to Glyasser’s class; until then I had been taught by his wife. In his class I played Mozart and Haydn sonatas, and the next year Bach’s fugues. Glyasser had a very sceptical attitude towards my compositions and did not encourage me to carry on with them. Nonetheless I did carry on and composed a great deal at that time. In February 1917 I grew tired of Glyasser’s classes, and my mother decided to take both my sister and myself to an audition with Professor Rozanova at the Conservatoire, who had once taught my mother music. She accepted us both as pupils. From 1917 to 1919 I studied under Professor Rozanova and in autumn 1919 entered her class at the Conservatoire. She considered that I should study composition as well as the piano. For this purpose we were advised by a music-teacher we knew to approach G. Yu. Bruni, who gave lessons in improvisation. When 1 was taken to see him, Bruni sat me at the piano and asked me to improvise a Blm Waltz- Satisfied by my improvisation, he then asked me to play something oriental. This did not work out so well, but nevertheless Bruni thought I showed promise and took me as a pupil. The lessons consisted of the following: Bruni would walk around the room, asking me to improvise, and then, dissatisfied, drive me^Sway from the piano and start improvising himself. These lessons lasted the spring and summer of 1919 and then I gave them up. In the summer, in view of my persistence in composing, I was taken to see Alexander Glazunov. I played my compositions and Glazunov said I must without fail study composition. He advised me to enter the Conservatoire. A month before the entrance examinations my parents realised I would have to be coached in elementary theory and solfeggio. Professor Petrov agreed to teach me these subjects. At the same time I was taken to Professor Steinberg who after listening to me approved my decision to enter the Conservatoire and agreed to accept me into his class. In autumn 1919 I matriculated at the. Conservatoire-with Rozanova for piano and Steinberg for composition. In autumn 1920 I transferred from Rozanova to Nikolayev, from whose class in piano I graduated in 1923. I graduated in composition in f925, under Professor Steinberg, with whom I had studied harmony, instrumentation, fugue and form. I also studied counterpoint and fugue with Professor Sokolov.

p When, in February 1922, my father died, rny family found itself in difficult financial straits. On top of that, at the beginning of the next year I developed tuberculosis of the bronchial and lymphatic glands, and the doctors found it necessary to send me to the Crimea for treatment. When 13 I returned, there were debts to be cleared. At the end of 1923 I had to take work in a cinema. But before I could do this I had to obtain a qualification as a silent-film accompanist in the Art Workers’ Union. The test was very similar to my first visit to Bruni. First I was asked to play a Blue Waltz and then ’something oriental’. At Bruni’s I had not been able to play in an eastern style, but by 1923 I already knew Rimsky- Korsakov’s Skeherazade and Cui’s Orientate. I passed the test and in November started work at the Svetlaya Lenta cinema. It was hard work, but since the cinema had two pianists I managed somehow or other to combine , • my work there with visits to concerts and theatres. Since, during my two t months of work at the Svetlaya Lenta, the cinema paid me my wage only once, I was forced to leave and seek other sources of income, while appealing to a court of law to obtain the wages I was due. It was not until 1924 that I found more work, and again it was of the same type. In the Splendid Palas cinema a pianist went on leave for two months and I took his place. A couple of months later I was out of work again. But even when working I was able to go to concerts because I shared the job with another pianist. At last at the beginning of February 1925 I found permanent work in the Pikadilli. Then the management decided that both pianists should work from the time the cinema opened until it closed each day, changing over half-way through each showing. This clever arrangement was put into force after one pianist had fallen ill and there had been no other to take his place. As a result of it, however, I stopped going to concerts and theatres entirely. In the end I left the cinema; so far I have not returned, and I hope I shall never have to.

p My cinema work completely paralysed my musical pursuits. It was only once I had left the cinemas for good that I could start composing again. At the beginning of 1925 my Three Fantastic Dances, two pieces for string octet and Symphony were accepted for publication. The Symphony was first performed on 12 May, 1926 by the Leningrad Philhar-, monia under Nikolai Malko. In the autumn of 1925 I was accepted for post-graduate work at the Leningrad Conservatoire.

p In January 1927 I travelled as a member of the Soviet delegation to the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. I was also in Berlin. It was an unsuccessful trip, as I fell ill with appendicitis on the first day in Warsaw, and the pains were with me right through till the operation, which was carried out only at the end of April in Leningrad.

Towards the end of 1926 I had written a Piano Sonata, and when I returned from abroad I composed a piano suite - Aphorisms, At the end of March I was commissioned by the Music Section of the State Publishers to write a symphonic composition to commemorate, the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. I composed a Symphonic Dedication to October, my Second Symphony.^^1^^

p I have just got back from a rehearsal, where the Philharmonic Orchestra under Malko was playing my October Symphony for the first time. It 14 sounded great, and there were no misprints in the score. Today they rehearsed it without the choir; the choir practice will be on Friday or Saturday, I have spoken to some of the singers and they said that the parts are easy and well-suited to their voices. The first performance will be on 6 November, The programme of the concert is:

p Gnesin: A Symphonic Monument
Shostakovich: Symphonic Dedication to October
Deshevov: Suite from the ballet Red Tornado

My work will be sung by the State Academic Choir.^^2^^

p Yesterday and the day before (5th and 6th) my Symphonic Dedication t October was performed at the Philharmonia. Let me describe it to you ii detail. There were only six rehearsals. The first was a preliminary one and I was not even informed, but I attended all the others and gave Malko instructions. I didn’t think I need mention the sound: everyone liked it, especially the beginning and middle section. It turned out very well. The choir harmonised excellently. By the way, there is a short interlude in the choir part after the words ’...the name of our fate was “ struggle”^^1^^. The strings categorically refused to play pizzicato. I would stake my life on the fact that that pizzicato is playable, but when a young composer writes something difficult the players always say it is impossible. I had to give way, and agreed. to let them play it area. It turned out fine. But I still hope that someday the passage will be played properly. In his Requiem, Mozart wrote a trombone solo which no trombonist at the time could play. So they replaced it by a bassoon. Nowadays the trombone copes with the solo perfectly.

Both concerts were preceded by meetings. On the 5th the meeting began at 9 o’clock and finished at 11. My Symphony was not played until 11.45, by which time the orchestra-and the audience-were exhausted by having to wait so long. Despite all that, everything went splendidly. The choir, the orchestra and the conductor all rose to the occasion. The success was quite considerable. I was called onto the stage four times, and even then they went on clapping, but I did not go up again. I was hoping that it would go even better on the 6th, but it turned out differently. After six rehearsals and two concerts the orchestra was dead beat. That evening the meeting started at 7 and finished at 9. They started playing my piece at 10,15. It came off considerably worse this time-one could feel the exhaustion of the performers, who put less into it than on the 5th. The audience, too, was tired after the meeting. It was fairly successful, but less so than on the 5th, I took two bows..^^3^^