50 YEARS AGO - 1952

April

24th - In a concert given in the Glinka Hall in Leningrad, Shostakovich featured with David Oistrakh and Serge Knushevitsky in the Second Trio, the Cello Sonata and Four Preludes and Fugues from his newly-completed opus 87.

May

3rd - Moscow: first showing of film The Unforgettable Year 1919 (see DSCH J No. 15, page 31)

8th - A performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps took place in Paris, conducted by Pierre Monteux. This event occurred thirty-nine years after the original premiere that sparked one of the greatest scandals of the century. Commenting on the day's applause and bravos, Monteux said, "There was just as much noise the last time, but of a different tonality!" Monteux had conducted the world premiere on May 29th, 1913.

Shostakovich orchestrated fragments of Musorgsky's opera Khovanschina for the Leningrad's Kirov Opera House.

July

1st - 20th - Shostakovich spent these summer weeks at his dacha in Komarovo. He began work on the cantata The Sun Shines over the Motherland, a patriotic work based on a text by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky, scored for boys' choir, mixed chorus and orchestra. The work was initially entitled "Cantata about the Party", anticipating the 19th Communist Party Congress.

13th - Kirov Opera's performance of Musorgsky's opera Khovanschina (see reference above)

August

12th - Stalin had a number of prominent Jews, including Jewish writers, executed on suspicion of planning to turn the Crimea into a "Jewish national home". He was also planning to ‘frame' certain doctors, chiefly Jewish, on charges of assassinating influential patients by medical means, and to make this the basis for a new nationwide purge.

29th - World premiere of John Cage's 4' 33", for piano, in New York. The event marked the first ever performance of a silent composition - the performer merely attending his instrument for the specified time and then leaving, having awaited the audience's applause.

With the memory of Shostakovich's 1951 performance of his Preludes and Fugues to a meeting of the Union of Composers firmly in mind:

"... the discussion that followed was utterly shameful, and it left the most dismal impression on me… They exploited the political situation to give vent to their black envy, and were only too ready to label Dmitry Dmitriyevich a formalist or cosmopolitan"

- pianist Tatyana Nikolayeva engineered a second meeting to discuss the work, this time called in Moscow by the Committee for the Arts, and at a time when Shostakovich was out of town.

"I wanted to go through this on my own, not wishing Dmitry Dmitriyevich to endure another humiliation. The audience was largely the same as the previous year. However, Skrebkov, Kabalevsky, Livanova and Nestyev - all of whom had previously torn the work to shreds - now praised it to the skies. My aim was achieved as the work was authorized for publication - incidentally, this meant that Shostakovich could get paid for it. He was extremely happy at this outcome, and sent me telegrams of gratitude. Indeed, he dedicated the Preludes and Fugues to me, but this was a secret between us; the dedication was not printed in the published editions."

September

7th - Completion of the first movement of the Fifth String Quartet (opus 92)

16th - Letter to his friend Isaak Glikman:

Moscow

Dear Isaak Davidovich,

If you are able to, please come to Moscow on the 25th. Although I am not in the best of spirits, I have decided to celebrate my 46th birthday. If you can come, please bring two sigi[1] and two eels - smoked, of course[2]. Get them an hour or two before your departure. Send me a telegram telling me the date and number of your train, and I will meet you. I'm arranging dinner on the 25th at 7 o'clock[3]. I don't need to tell you how happy I shall be if you come. Give my greetings to Vera Vasilyevna.

Your,

D. Shostakovich

[1] A white freshwater fish of the salmon family. (Translator's Note)

[2] Shostakovich was not an especially fussy eater, generally being happy with whatever God sent him, but he did have some favourite foods. He was partial to pelmeny [a kind of stuffed ravioli filled with meat - Translator's Note] which his mother Sofia Vasilyevna made to perfection, smoked sigi and eel. On his frequent trips to Leningrad, if he was in the mood he would always buy smoked sigi. They were plentiful in Leningrad, but a rarity in Moscow.

As can be seen, Shostakovich could be pedantic in the way in which he wanted things done, for instance defining the precise time at which the fish should be bought. Whenever he decided to involve himself in any undertaking, large or small, there was no such thing as a trifle, so all details had to be fully explained.

[3] Specifying the hour at which dinner would be served was not incidental. Shostakovich would allow fifteen or twenty minutes' grace, after which the table would be spread and proceedings begin. Guests who were seriously late had only themselves to blame.

Correction

to 50 Years Ago, DSCH J No. 16 - Bruno Walter died on 17th March, 1962, and not in 1952, as stated. Curiously, the erroneous date appears in two (apparently unconnected) published sources. Our apologies nevertheless to the Journal readership and to B. Walter devotees alike.

Sources:

Dmitri Shostakovich - Catalogue - Second Edition (D. Hulme, OUP, 1991)
Dmitri Shostakovich, About Himself and His Times (Progress Publishers 1981)
Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia (Boris Schwarz, Barrie & Jenkins, 1972)
Shostakovich - A Life (L. Fay, OUP, 1999)
Shostakovich - A Life Remembered (E. Wilson, Faber & Faber 1994)
Shostakovich - His Life & Times (Roseberry, Midas 1982)
Shostakovich Reconsidered (A. Ho & D. Feofanov, Toccata Press, 1998)
Story of a Friendship (I. Glikman / A. Phillips, Faber & Faber, 2001)
Twentieth Century Music (R. Burbank, Thames and Hudson, 1984)