p This was in many ways a noteworthy year in Shostakovich’s life. For one thing, by writing his string quartet, the composer made his debut in a new genre which was later to become one of his most successful genres. The premiere of his First String Quartet took place in Leningrad on 10 October, played by the Glazunov Quartet. In Moscow the work was performed by the Beethoven Quartet, who thereafter did much to popularise Shostakovich’s music.
p All year the Fifth Symphony continued to arouse excitement. On 29 January it was first heard in Moscow, performed by the State Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Gauk in the Grand Hall of the Conservatoire. A few days later, the work was discussed at a special meeting of the Composers’^^1^^ Union. In the autumn the symphony had two more performances in the capital, the second one at the Bolshoi Theatre in the final concert of a ten-day festival of Soviet music.
p Two foreign premieres of the symphony were also big events—in Mew York, conv ducted by Toscanini, in March, and in Paris under Roger Desormiere in June. The I Paris performancTwas one of a series of concerts dedicated to international solidarity against fascism.
p Meanwhile Shostakovich was engrossed by an important new plan: to write a vocal-symphonic work about Lenin. This intention was not finally realised until two decades later, in the Twelfth Symphony, but in 1938 the composer searched hard for suitable literary material for the future work (at first it was assumed that this would be the Sixth, then the Seventh Symphony). Shostakovich readily revealed his plans to journalists, and it is clear from his comments that the work on the projected symphony was already at a fairly advanced stage. Other works planned in 1938 (e. g. an opera on a theme from Lermontov and an operetta based on Twelve Ilf and Petrov) were never realised.
p and more films appeared with music by Shostakovich: Volochayevka Days was followed by A Great Citizen (Part One), Friends and The Man with a Gun. The composer began the music for the last part of the trilogy about Maxim. His great interest in the cinema and film music was reflected in several of his public statements in the thirties.
p My latest work may be called a lyrical-heroic symphony. Its basic ideas are the sufferings of man, and optimism. I wanted to convey .optimism asserting itself as a world outlook through a series of tragic conflicts in a great inner, mental struggle.
During a discussion at the Leningrad section of the Composers’ Union, some of my colleagues called my Fifth Symphony an autobiographical work. On the whole, I consider this a fair appraisal. In my opinion, there are biographical elements in any work of art. Every work should bear the stamp of a living person, its author, ;and it is a poor and tedious work whose creator is invisible.’
p Yevgeny Mravinsky’s talent is vivid, temperamental and individual. He can be distinguished immediately from other conductors by his 73
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p Many of the greatest performers-such as Liszt, Chopin, Mahler-were also first-class composers. For this reason I think it is useful for any performer to study composition: in this way he can acquire a more considered approach to the works he performs. One can only welcome the fact that Mravinsky studied in both the composition and the conducting departments of the Conservatoire,
p Another characteristic of Mravinsky is his extreme exactingness towards himself. I once asked him which work he considered he had performed most successfully. He replied, ’I haven’t conducted that work yet.^^1^^
p Every real artist should feel this kind of dissatisfaction with what he has accomplished, this desire always to be moving ahead.
p I got to know Mravinsky best when we were working together on my Fifth Symphony. I must confess that at first I was rather put off by his methods, I felt that he was too preoccupied with small things, that he paid too much attention to detail, and it seemed to me that this would damage the overall plan and intention. Mravinsky subjected me to a veritable interrogation about every bar and every thought, demanding an answer to his every doubt. But after we had been working together for five days I realised that this method was perfectly correct. Seeing how seriously Mravinsky worked, I began to treat my own work more seriously, too. I realised that a conductor should not sing like a nightingale. Talent must be combined with long, laborious work.
In most cases the first performance of a work decides its fate. At this first hearing, the listener naturally pays more attention to the composer than to the conductor, whose primary task is therefore to present the work just as the composer himself would like it. Thanks to his extreme thoroughness, Yevgeny Mravinsky presented my Fifth Symphony precisely as I wanted. I am very grateful to him for this.^^2^^
p Things are on the move in Soviet music. Only recently it seemed that we were rich only in excellent pianists and violinists. But at the First Soviet Conductors’ Competition new masters emerged, and were given deserved recognition. At every stage in the competition Soviet symphonic works were performed, and both the judges arid the competitors realised that Soviet music abounds in priceless works, diverse in genre, character and scale.
p What a long way we have come in the relatively short time since works by Soviet composers were mainly heard in concerts timed to mark important dates, or at special reviews...
75p We Soviet musicians must assimilate our Russian and European classical heritage. Only when a composer knows his great predecessors well, and learns from them, can he find his own individual musical idiom, his own creative style. The history of music is full of convincing examples of this. Beethoven felt the beneficial influence of Mozart and Haydn; and even such an original genius as Chopin drew a great deal from Beethoven, especially the musical ideas contained in the adagio of his sonata, Op. 106. Verdi was a composer of exceptionally vivid individuality, and was ill-disposed towards Wagner, yet at various stages his music showed the influence of Wagner.
p All the greatest composers knew the music of the world perfectly. In each case this knowledge was interpreted differently by the individual personality and helped give rise to such inimitable and distinct styles as those of Bach and Mozart, of Chopin and Beethoven.
p Unfortunately our young composers know little of their own musical culture and little of European music in general. I have come across examples of dangerous ‘nihilism’, expressed in the attitude that the less one knows about other people’s music, the more original one’s own writing will be...
p For a year I have been teaching practical composition and instrumentation at the Conservatoire. I am extremely fortunate in that most of my pupils are undeniably talented. What is the right way to go about learning the art of composition? Every day, as well as composing pieces themselves, my pupils learn about the musical classics.
p I have lately done a lot of work on film music: Maxim’s Return, Volochayevka Days, A Great Citizen, Friends and Vyborg District.
p For a long time I have been nurturing the idea of writing an opera based on Lermontov’s The Masked Ball. Every time I read this brilliant work, I find it incomprehensible that all Russian composers have so far passed it by.
p But I shall not take up this opera until I have written my symphony dedicated to the memory of Lenin. To embody the titanic figure of our leader in art is unbelievably difficult task. I am well aware of this fact, and when I speak about the subject of my symphony, I mean not the historical events or biographical facts of Lenin’s life, but merely the general theme, the overall idea, of the work.
p I have been thinking hard about how to convey this theme in music. I envisage the symphony as a work performed by an orchestra with a choir and solo singers. I am carefully studying the poetry and literature written about Lenin. The words for the symphony will mainly be based on Mayakovsky’s long poem about Lenin, and I also wish to use the best folk tales and songs about him, as well as poems written about him by poets from the non-Russian Soviet peoples. I am presently sifting all the available material.
p I am not afraid of combining the works of different poets in the symphony. The artistic unifying force in the text will be that feeling of love which fills every word written by our people about Lenin. Literary and musical integrity should also be sustained by the music of the symphony, 76 which will be homogeneous in intention and means of expression. The symphony will use not only the words of folk songs about Lenin, but also their melodies,^^3^^
...I have recently received dozens of letters from all over the Soviet Union, sent by people from all walks of life, offering me advice and personal preferences regarding the content of my forthcoming symphony. The most valuable piece of advice I received was to incorporate as much folk music and folk poetry as possible. All the letters were united by their desire to help me create as vivid and multifaceted an image of Lenin as possible.^^4^^
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