p This year was marked by the first performances of several of Shostakovich’s important works, including The Nose and the Third Symphony.

p The Nose had its first ’trial run’ on 14 January, when three scenes from, the opera were performed to an audience of workers at the Moscow-Narva House of Culture in Leningrad. The performance was accompanied by comments and explanations by the composer himself and the music scholars Yulian Vainkop and Ivan Sollertinsky. Four days later the official premiere took place at the Maly Opera House (conductor Samuil Samosud, producer Nikolai Smolich, stage-sets by Vladimir Dmitriev). In the audience was Sergei Kirov, who commented that ’one should not be afraid to take a risk if one sets oneself a great goal’. The opera gave rise to a lively debate in the press.

p On 21 January The Third May Day Symphony was heard for the first time, also in the Moscow-Narva House of Culture. It was performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic and the State Academic Choir, conducted by Alexander Gauk. The following day the symphony was repeated in a concert for young people in the Grand Hall of the Philharmonia.

p On 19 March Alexander Gauk conducted a suite from the new ballet The Golden Age, completed by Shostakovich in the spring. On 9 May the Leningrad Young Workers Theatre put on a new play by Gorbenko and Lvov called Virgin Soil, with music by Shostakovich. Finally, on 26 October, the Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet staged The Golden Age ballet, produced and performed by young choreographers and dancers, including Vassili Vainonen, Leonid Yakobson, Galina Ulanova, Konstantin Sergeyev and Vakhtang Chabukiani, the stage-sets were by Valentina Khodasevich and the orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk.

p Despite his growing popularity and success, Shostakovich did not rest on his laurels, but strove to accomplish even more demanding tasks. In the autumn he began work on the libretto for his future opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and on the ballet Bolt. He also continued to give concerts, although AV public appearances grew less frequent as fie devoted more and more time to composing. At a concert in Rostovon-Don Shostakovich performed Chaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto for the last time; thereafter he restricted himself almost exclusively to performing his own music.

p One of the most interesting of the composer’s few published statements this year was his reply to a question in the magazine Proletarsky Muzykant, concerning the fight against ”petty-bourgeois, gypsy foxtrot ensembles’ and his attitude to ^l light music’ (by which was meant the wealth of commercial music, as a rule of a low ideological and artistic quality, which was popular at the time). Despite the sharpness and extremeness of his judgements, the composer’s reply reflects his fundamental point of view on the matter, which was developed further in later public statements.

p I first conceived of the opera The Nose in summer 1927, and in the summer of 1928 it was completed.

p ...Since I felt that an opera based on a classical plot would be most topical today if that plot were satirical, I set about looking for my subject among the three leading lights of Russian satire-Gogol, SaltykovShchedrin and Chekhov.

In the end I plumped for Gogol’s The Nose.

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p Why, then, The Nose, of all Gogol’s works?

p Above all, I am convinced that of all Gogol’s short stories, The Nose is the most powerful satire on the age of Nicholas I. Secondly, I felt that, not being a specialist in literature, I would find it easier to adapt this story for opera than Dead Souls. In general, I find the shorter literary genres easier to adapt for the stage.

p Thirdly, the language of The Nose, is more vivid and expressive than in Gogol’s other ’Petersburg Stories’ and poses the interesting problem of how to transform the text into music. Fourthly, the story was full of potential for the stage.

p About the libretto. The libretto is composed according to the principle of literary montage. The main differences from Gogol are as follows: 1) the scene which in the story takes place in the merchants’ arcade (but which Gogol had originally set in Kazan Cathedral, until this was forbidden by the censors under Nicholas I) is transferred to Kazan Cathedral; 2) the scene in which the Nose is recaptured, which Gogol only adumbrates, is developed fully.

...The music in this opera exists not as an end in itself but as a means to put over the text. I should add that the music is itself not intended as a parody. No, although the action is comic, the music is not. I think this is as it should be, since Gogol relates all the comic events in a serious tone. This is one of the great merits of Gogol’s humour. He does not ’crack jokes’, and the music also tries to avoid ‘jokes’.^^1^^

[In the Third Symphony] ... I tried to corMiy only the general mood of the International Workers’ Day festival. I wished to portray peaceful construction in the USSR. I would point out that the element of struggle, energy and ceaseless work runs through the whole symphony like a red thread.^^2^^

p First of all, I thoroughly welcome the campaign initiated by the Proletarsky Muzykant against this genre of so-called ’light music’. I propose the following means of opposing it:

p 1. The authorities in charge of the publication and performance of music should be requested to issue a decree categorically prohibiting the publication and performance of ’light music’.

p 2. The article stating that membership of a composer’s society is open to anyone who can prove that his works are performed publicly should be deleted from the rules of these societies.

p 3. In view of the fact that ’light music’ is particularly widespread in working people’s clubs, on radio programmes, etc., and therefore is extremely harmful, poisoning the musical consciousness of the broad masses, a campaign should be launched in the clubs and on the radio to explain 29 the harmfulness of listening to this miserable genre oi’ ’light music’, and, most important of all, to explain its class essence.

4. Of course, ’light music’ as a style will not be eradicated by administrative measures alone. The suppliers of musical works will surely be loath to give up their comfortable positions among those entitled to the royalties. Not only will they force upon us gypsy songs and foxtrots. No, they will also give the gypsy songs lyrics which are ’a hundred per cent ideologically sound’... As a result, the Soviet public may often be caught off their guard and swallow the musical poison together with the ’ ideologically sound’ lyrics. In order to combat this genre, the progressive section of the musical public must call on the help of the Party, the Komso^ mol, the trade unions, the radio, the club activists and the organisers of musical entertainments. Only by launching a comprehensive campaign to explain the class essence of ’light music’, will it be possible to liquidate / the genre.^^3^^