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p In 1940 Shostakovich composed one of his most important pre-war works-his Piano Quintet. At the end of October it was performed by the composer with the Glazunov Quartet at the Leningrad Composers’ Union, to an- audience of musicians and critics; the whole work was repeated as an encore. The Board of the Leningrad Composers’ Union decided to recommend the quintet for a Stalin (State) Prize.

p Two weeks later the composer performed the new work in Moscow with the Beethoven Quartet. Then, as always, Shostakovich kept to the tradition of first showing any important new work to his colleagues, to hear their opinion, before submitting it to the public for judgement.

p The official premiere of the Quintet took place on 23 November in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, again as part of a Soviet Music Festival (the programme also included quartets by Shirinsky, Shebalin and Myaskovsky). ’ Shostakovich’s quintet,’ wrote the writer Marietta Shaginyan, ’is a work of genius, in the full sense of the word: it has such power of artistic generalisation that it fully expresses a whole age, that it demonstrates, like a cup filled to the brim, the combined historic efforts and energy of millions of people, that it speaks of everyone. When the magnificent Beethoven Quartet- Tsyganov, Borisovsky and the Shirinsky brothers—solemnly raised their bows, when Shostakovich—a young man yet, pale, not tall, his face with something childlike about it, possessed by music, frail and delicate like Mozart or Chopin—when he placed his fingers on the keys and the first clear, Beethoven-like notes of the prelude scattered through the total silence, the whole hall seemed to lean forward to listen, to drink in and receive, afraid of missing a single drop, like the parched earth under a downpour of rain, I have seen and heard many fine things in my days, but it is hard to remember anything to compare with what I experienced that evening.’ The press was unanimous in its enthusiasm about the work. Sergei Prokofiev had high praise for the quintet during a discussion of the Music Festival at the Composers’ Union. The work immediately earned a regular place in concert programmes, and in the month left before the New Tear it was given several more performances in Moscow and Leningrad (in the composer’s native city he performed it together with the Glazunov Quartet).

p Among Shostakovich’s other work this year was his reorchestration of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre. His reorchestrated version was not performed until later, however.

p At the end of the thirties Shostakovich continued to win new admirers abroad. His Fifth Symphony was particularly successful. In 1940 it was conducted in New York by Rodzinski and in London by Alan Bush. The Quintet was also performed for the first time in London. And in November, Leopold Stokowski included the Sixth Symphony in a concert in Philadelphia, and wrote special notes to accompany its American premiere.

p In 1939, in recognition of his work for the cinema, Shostakovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour,

p At the end of 1939 I began work on a new orchestration of Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov. Rimsky-Korsakov once reorchestrated the opera because he considered that the original contained several shortcomings of a technical kind. Personally, I am not entirely satisfied either by 81 Rimsky-Korsakov’s or by Mussorgsky’s own version. Consequently it occurred to me to do a new version of the work, which is one of the most precious jewels of Russian operatic art,

p Rimsky-Korsakov’s version is very good as regards the orchestration, but on the musical side I feel it is distinctly inferior to the original. What I wanted to do was to leave virtually every note of the original intact, but orchestrate it differently.

Now the work on Boris Godunnv is in full swing. I have already rewritten the Prologue and half of Act One. I am completely wrapped up in the task and deriving enormous pleasure from it. Naturally I am very anxious about the outcome of the work, and am well aware of the huge responsibility I have taken upon myself. In 1940 my version of Boris Godunov is to be staged by the Bolshoi Theatre.^^1^^

For a long time I have been planning to write a symphony in memory of Lenin. This is a large and complex work, conceived in the form of a long symphonic work of an oratorial type. My starting-point for the work is Mayakovsky’s poem Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. I have already written many fragments for the first two movements, and basically outlined the third and fourth. But this does not mean that the most difficult stage is over: indeed, it is only beginning. I hope to complete the work in 1940. My goal is that this symphony should reflect, at least to some extent, the immortal image and majestic ideas of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.^^2^^

p To write a symphony immortalising the name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is an old and cherished dream of mine. The idea first came to me in 1924, when the working people of the whole world mourned the death of their beloved leader.

p I started working on the symphony two years ago. It is a complex and responsible task, and a deeply moving and thrilling one. It is a big symphony involving an orchestra, choir and soloists. The basic text for the work is Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Lenin. The poet’s passionate, fervent words, full of deep love for Lenin, are gratifying material to work with, but the compressed, laconic language characteristic of Mayakovsky’s poetry presents considerable difficulties for the composer.

Apart from Mayakovsky’s poem, I am thinking of using folklore, which vividly reflects the ardent love of the people for their great leader. A lot , of intensive work lies ahead, but by applying all my energies I hope to finish the whole symphony this year.^^3^^

p There are many gifted young composers studying at the Leningrad Conservatoire. This year Georgy Sviridov, a composer of great talent, 82 will graduate from my class. Muskovites may know him by his early piano concerto, which has been performed a couple of times in the capital. The young Sviridov’s personal ‘stamp’ is not yet clearly defined: he is still searching for his own musical language. But his latest Symphony for String Orchestra, which will be performed in the forthcoming music festival in Leningrad, is a very interesting new work.

p The ten-day Festival will also include new works by two other very gifted youngsters from my class: Orest Yevlakhov’s Piano Concerto and Ivan Boldyrev’s Symphony.

p Boris Klyuzner, a student in Mikhail Gnesin’s class, is also very talented. His Piano Concerto is on the programme of the ten-day Festival.

p One of the more interesting new works by older composers represented in the Festival is Maximilian Steinberg’s Armenia, which conveys his impressions of a national Armenian festival. Many new instrumental chamber works by Mikhail Gnesin will also be performed.

This summer I completed a Piano Quintet, which I shall be performing in the ten-day Festival together with the Beethoven Quartet.^^4^^

p I spent the whole summer this year writing my Piano Quintet. The day before yesterday, members of the music section of the Stalin Prize Committee listened to it at the Composers’ Club in Moscow.

I am now getting ready for the ten-day Festival of Music. My Piano Quintet will be performed on 23 November, and on the 30th there will be a concert of my works.^^5^^

p While I was studying piano and composition at the Leningrad Conservatoire, I also worked for a while in one of the city’s cinemas. At that time there were no sound films, and the pictures were accompanied by a pianist playing popular marches and waltzes. My work there gave me the chance to satisfy my passion for improvisation. I have always enjoyed improvising, and even now I write many pieces which I do not publish, but which serve as ‘exercises’ in composition...

p Nearly fifteen years ago, the diploma work of the nineteen-year-old graduate Dmitry Shostakovich, my First Symphony, was premiered in the huge hall of the Leningrad Conservatoire. This year is therefore a kind of jubilee year for me...

p My composing, my teaching and my public activities take up almost every minute of my time. My few spare minutes, I must admit, are usually devoted to sport-for I am an incurable football fan...

p ...Purely as regards the search for form, my work has been subject to diverse influences, but it has always been my desire to create music which would reflect our age, which would convey the thoughts and feelings of Soviet man. This desite lay behind my Dedication to October and May Day symphonies, and behind the music for the films New Babylon, 83 Alone, The Counter Plan, Golden Mountains and the trilogy about Maxim, I was overjoyed that my song for The Counter Plan was eagerly taken up by Soviet young people. I have also written for the stage, my works include the operas The Nose and Katerina Izmailova, and the ballets Bolt, The Golden Age and The Limpid Stream.

p My Fifth Symphony, written in 1937, is central to my works as a whole. The actual writing of this symphony was preceded by a long period of inner preparation. Not everything I had written was of equal value. There had been failures. And it was my intention, while writing the Fifth Symphony, that the Soviet listener should perceive a change in my music towards greater clarity and simplicity.

p I think the work also reveals a step forward in the sphere of orchestration compared with my earlier pieces. I myself am most satisfied by the third movement, the adagio, in which I feel I achieved a gradual, steady motion from beginning to end. I have heard the opinion expressed that the fourth movement differs in style from the first three. I do not think so, for the finale is in accordance with the work’s basic theme and is an answer to all the questions posed in the earlier movements. The central idea of the work is man with all his sufferings, and the finale of the symphony resolves the tragic, tense elements of the first movements on a joyful, optimistic level.

p After the Fifth Symphony, I turned once more to the cinema and wrote the music for the film The Man with a Gun, produced by Sergei Yutkevich.

p After this I wrote my First String Quartet. I began it with no particular thoughts or feelings, and thought that nothing would come of it. For the quartet is one of the most difficult musical genres. But soon the work took a proper hold of me. It turned out to be gay, jolly and lyrical, and I entitled it the ‘Springtime’ Quartet. I was very pleased with the splendid performance of the work by the Beethoven Quartet, who were also the excellent first interpreters of my next chamber work, my Piano Quintet.

p Between the two chamber works I composed my Sixth Symphony, which various symphony orchestras have already added to their repertoires.

p ...I can still remember the pleasure I derived when my newly finished Fifth Symphony was heard by an audience of Party activists from the Leningrad branch. I should like to express my wish that the previewing of new works of music by a Party audience be practised more often. Our Party devotes great care and attention to the development of our country’s musical life. I have felt this concern all through my career. As a student, the Party organisation came to my help by providing me with an instrument for practice at home, and to this day I still feel the Party’s care literally at every step, even in my daily life...

I do not intend here to sum up everything I have done or to hazard a guess as to what I may still achieve. I should like merely to express my aspiration to compose new life-asserting works, capable of inspiring the human soul with courage, joie-de-vivre and a fighting spirit.^^6^^