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p Preparations for the staging of "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk were underway in two theatres - the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre in Moscow and the Maly Opera House in Leningrad. Shostakovich took an active part in the work of both. The stage rehearsals, however, did not start till the second half of the year, and so the composer had plenty of time to devote himself to his creative work and to give concerts.

p In January the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra premiered the musical suite from the ballet Bolt. Meanwhile, the news came from Chicago that Shostakovich’s Third Symphony had had its first performance in America, conducted by Frederick Stock.

p A concert devoted entirely to Shostakovich’s works, which took place in Moscow in April, was described by the newspaper Sovetskoye Iskusstvo as ’the greatest event of the musical season’. The programme included the First Symphony, the suite from the ballet Bolt (played in Moscow for the first time), and works for the piano. The press published rapturous reviews, but there were also criticisms; several reviewers reproached Shostakovich for lapsing into bad taste and frivolity, citing as an example his music for the ballet The Golden Age.

p On 24 May, in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Shostakovich gave the first performance of his newly completed cycle of Twenty-Four Piano Preludes. (Soon, they were also played by Lev Oborin and Heinrich Neuhaus). He performed this work again in Baku in June. On 15 and 17 October his First Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Orchestra was premiered at the Leningrad Philharmonia, conducted by Fritz Stiedry. The soloists were the composer, and the trumpeter A. Schmidt. The concert was performed again in Voronezh on 20 December.

p By now, the rehearsals of Lady Macbeth were in full swing. In Leningrad they were directed by Nikolai Smolich, and in Moscow by Vladimir NemirovichDanchenko, who staged the first full dress rehearsal, in the presence of the composer, on 1 December. On 11 November, Shostakovich attended a concert of Polish music in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, and wrote about his impressions of the concert in the newspaper Sovetskoye Iskusstvo.

p A sign of Shostakovich’s standing as a public figure was his election in 1933 to\\ a District Soviet in Leningrad. This was the first of many posts to which Shostako-’ ’ vich was elected.

p We must resolutely oppose the revengeful mood of those musicians who, after the publication of the Resolution of 23 April, on meeting each other embraced joyfully, and proclaimed - like the inhabitants of Sillyville learning that there had been a change in Mayor-Wow we’ll show them!..,’ Theirs is a vulgar conception. The class struggle is still taking place in our country, and still taking place in music, because music naturally reflects everything that is going on in the country... While giving the leftists a forceful rebuff, however, we must never forget the danger threatening us from the right.^^1^^

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p The twelve months since 23 April, 1932 have been marked by the consolidation of the country’s creative forces, and a steady rise in creativity. Two outstanding works are nearing completion: namely, the symphonies of Popov and Shaporin. Shcherbachev and Deshevov are both working hard. The first movement of Shebalin’s grand new symphony entitled Lenin is completed. The list of achievements could be continued, but it would take up too much space, and is not my main intention here. What I would like to do is express some hopes for the future.

p The Union of Soviet Composers should, of course, lead and guide all creative activity. This is a serious and responsible task. It has already achieved much in the sphere of consolidating creative forces, but as yet the Union’s work remains largely abstract.

p I once heard the following ‘aphorism’ (I no longer remember who said it, or whether I read it somewhere): ’Critics are those people who, either through lack of talent or for some other reason, have not succeeded in joining the ranks of those who are criticised.’

p One is involuntarily reminded of this unfortunate ‘aphorism’ on reading through the musical sections of newspapers such as Rabochy i Teatr or Vechernyqya Krasnaya Gazeta. When a critic writes that in some symphony or other the Soviet office-workers are represented by the oboe and clarinet, and the Red Army men by the brass instruments, one feels like crying out ’It’s just not true!’

I should like to conclude with a few words about myself. I am on the crest of a creative wave at the moment. I have finished my opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and writen Twenty-Four Piano Preludes. Just now I am writing a piano concerto and music for a cartoon film The Tale of the Priest and His Helper, Dolt, based on Pushkin.^^2^^

p All the librettos I was offered were extremely schematic. Their stereotyped heroes aroused neither love nor hate in me. Several times I approached highly qualified workers, all of whom refused-for various reasons-such ‘trifling’ work as writing a libretto for an opera. Nikolai Aseyev did at least write a libretto for a comic opera for me, but it was not really to my taste. Our best writers have a rather casual attitude to the musical theatre.

p Given the specific nature of opera, the characterisation of the heroes must be clear and strong. It is impossible to write an opera about the five-year plan ’in general’, or about socialist construction ’in general’; one must write about living people, about the builders of socialism. Our librettists have not grasped this yet. Their heroes are anaemic and impotent, and evoke neither sympathy nor hatred. They are too mechanical. This is why I turned to the classics (Gogol, Leskov). Their characters have the power to make us laugh and to make us weep,

p I appealed to our leading writers to help us composers in the creation of a new Soviet operatic art. Several of them did: for example Osip Brik wrote excellent librettos for the opera The Kamarinsky Peasant and the 37 ballet The Gypsies. Very few, however, have followed Erik’s example. Soviet opera will never be successful unless the specific nature of the musical theatre is taken into account. Composers ought to know the literary skills, and librettists should be musically ‘literate’.

p The libretto for my future opera must satisfy the following requirements :

p The libretto must reflect the heroism and inspiration of the remarkable life of the Soviet people.

p The libretto should take into account the specific nature of the musical theatre. An opera is sung, not spoken, and consequently the text should be singable, and afford the composer every opportunity to create free, flowing melodies.

p The libretto should excite the spectator by its tragic or comic situation, its captivating plot, and its swiftly unfolding action.

p The libretto should take into account the psychology of the spectator, and must not include a large number of intervals between acts. It must be remembered that in an opera the music, not only the action, attracts much of the spectator’s attention.

p The composer should be able to introduce arias, duets, quartets and choral singing into the opera, and this should be to be done quite naturally, so as not to produce a ludicrous effect.

p While adopting the best aspects of our classical heritage, they should be critically reworked, and not just blindly followed.

p Our age demands and deserves new, wonderful art forms.

p What is needed is more daring, boldness, and lively experiment!

p What subjects do I want for my librettos?

p I find it difficult to answer this question, but undoubtedly I want a libretto which reflects the great struggle of the victorious class, building socialism in our country.^^3^^

p I first became acquainted with the music of Karol Szymanowski a long time ago. He is a ver\ distinctive composer, with an excellent command of the orchestra’s full potential. His miniatures are much more successful than his large-scale works, and in- general lyricism, reverie and contemplation are more suited to his talent than action, heroics and ‘big’ themes.

p Tadeusz Kassern’s Concerto was, in my opinion, the least successful item in the concert. The composer has clearly not yet found his own musical language. His music is unexpressive, though technically fine.

p Roman Palester’s Polish Dance is just a charming bagatelle.

p The concert was conducted in spirited fashion by the talented Grzegorz Fitelberg.

p Whatever my impressions of the individual works may have been, for me the most important and most enjoyable aspect of the concert was that it acquainted us with the distinctive and interesting music of our Polish neighbours,*

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p Nikolai Leskov portrays the heroine of his story Lady Macbeth of MtsensK as a demonic figure. He justifies her neither on moral nor on psychological grounds. My own concept of Katerina Izmailova is as a vigorous, talented, beautiful woman, who perishes in her dark, cruel family milieu in serf-owning Russia. In Leskov’s story she is a murderess, responsible for the deaths of her husband, her father-in-law, and her husband’s young nephew. The last of these murders appears particularly wicked and unjustified, motivated as it is by pure self-interest, by the desire to do away with the main claimant upon her husband’s legacy.

p I tried to give the principal characters psychological authenticity, and at the same time-in various mass scenes-to depict the social backdrop of Russia of that period.

p Katerina’s father-in-law, Boris Izmailov, is a typical stolid merchant of feudal Russia. He is an imperious despot, who takes great pleasure in wielding his power over all around him. His character is dominated by his inhuman cruelty (his part, written for a baritone, is lacking in lyricism). The music conveys his changes of mood without modulation; profound psychological changes are not part of his nature.

p Katerina’s husband, Zinovy, is a weak-willed, pitiful creature, who live"s in mortal fear of his father. Not possessing the strength of character to resist his father’s despotic power, he tries to imitate him in everything he does, and has adopted a tyrannical attitude towards Katerina and all those below him. His part is written for a high tenor. To reveal his character I used the technique of ’exposure through music’. Thus, at the end of Act Two, in the scene in Katerina’s bedroom before the entrance of Zinovy, who is now convinced of his wife’s infidelity, the music is solemn, with fanfares, leading the spectator to expect a stormy, tragic scene. In fact, however, Zinovy appears as an indecisive, petty, slow-witted coward.

p •â€™•*

p Her love for the bailiff Sergei is the only ray of happiness in Katerina’s dismal life. But Sergei himself is not a positive character: he is portrayed as a suave, sugary nonentity. He is a self-interested person, whose affair with a beautiful woman flatters him no less than his liaison with the mistress of the house. For the more romantic episodes, in which Sergei is the main character-his declaration of love to Katerina, etc.-1 used exaggerated musical devices, emphasising his sugariness and suavity. His part is sung by a tenor.

p In Act Four, where Sergei behaves in a cruel, disgusting manner, I used vulgar, frivolous music to portray him.

p I treat Katerina Izmailova as a complex, earnest, tragic character. She is an affectionate, sensuous woman, devoid of sentimentality. To outline her character and her moods, therefore, I have used deeply lyrical music. In the scene in Act Four, when Katerina is stripped of her illusions about Sergei, who so lightly and coarsely casts her aside for Sonetka, the music is dramatic, free from tearfulness and cheap sentiment.

p The opera includes several crowd scenes, principally choruses of labourers. In my interpretation, they are not intended as a contrast to the merchant milieu; they are vulgar grovellers, feudal merchants in 39 40 41 42 43 embryo, who only think of how to become like Boris Izmailov. Sergei is one of them, distinguished from the others only by his handsomeness.

p The beginning of Act Four shows a convoy of prisoners heading for Siberia. The scene begins with a tragic prisoners’ song, evoking a grim picture of tsarist Russia. The same chorus appears at the end of Act Four. It is consistent in style and character with convict songs of that period.

p As composer, I am extremely satisfied with the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre’s work on my opera. The collective recognises the leading role of the composer. Both the director Mordvinov and the artist Dmitriev base their work, above all else, on the musical content of the opera. There is not the slightest hint of unnecessary pomposity in the artistic design, which so often goes against the musical style of an opera. Much of the work on this production has been done by the theatre’s artistic director himself, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

p ... At both of the concerts I gave recently in Moscow I played a work which I wrote between March and July 1932, my -Concerto for Piano, String Orchestra and Trumpet, This was my first attempt at filling an important gap in Soviet instrumental music, which lacks full-scale concerto-type works.

p What is the basic artistic theme of this concerto? I do not consider it necessary to follow the example of many composers, who try to explain the content of their works by means of extraneous definitions borrowed from related fields of art. I cannot describe the content of my concerto by any means other than those I used to write the concerto...

I am a Soviet composer. Our age, as I perceive it, is heroic, spirited and joyful. This is what I wanted to convey in my concerto. It is for the audience, and possibly the music critics, to judge whether or not I succeded.^^5^^