Presidential Library’s collections: Shostakovich’s music gives an insight into the meaning of life, the beauty of a free personality

Rightfully seeing himself as a successor to the Russian symphony school, Dmitri Shostakovich was anxious to avoid stereotypes in his oeuvre. The composer looked for his personal style, and this inevitably affected the structure and style of his symphonies – fifteen in total that he managed to create during his lifetime. The Symphony No. 7, titled Leningrad, which is believed to be the most famous, became the musical symbol of stoicism of our city. An electronic copy of the symphony score is available on the portal of the Presidential Library along with another relic  - the bill of the concert “Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7” of August 9, 1942 – the day of the premiere of the piece in the Leningrad Philharmonia Hall.

On September 25, 2018 we are going to celebrate the 112th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Few composers were so highly recognized and glorified during their lifetime as he was. People's Artist of the USSR, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of Lenin and state prizes – these  were his awards in his Soviet homeland. What is more, there is a long list of foreign awards and certificates, honorary titles of a number of universities and music societies: the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, the Italian Academy, the Honorary Doctor of Music in Oxford, the holder of the Order of Arts and Literature in France (the first foreigner awarded this prize), along with titles in Austria, Finland, and America. Nevertheless, after the war Shostakovich suffered ostracism "for formalism in music".

The family of Shostakovich were musicians. Concerts were frequently held at home in the evenings. That is why it came as no surprise when at the age of nine Dmitry Shostakovich presented his debut work, a piano piece. At the age of thirteen Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Conservatoire, which remained the best in the country. A puny bespectacled man, who for a long time looked too young despite his age, Shostakovich was shy, laconic, and rather awkward.

Dmitry Shostakovich was 18 when he composed his first symphony. In 1926 it was performed for the Leningrad public. And a few years later it was performed in the concert halls of America and Germany. It was a tremendous success at that time. Critics wrote that the genius of Shostakovich was universal. Along with very profound music, he composed simple music, that was clear to any listener, for example, "The Song about the Counterplan (Soviet Planning)”, Emma's song from the film "The Gadfly". In 1964, the composer wrote music for the film "Hamlet" directed by Grigory Kozintsev.

It was the creative perfectionism that enabled him in the besieged Leningrad to create a symphony that became truly national in the homeland, and the greatest anti-fascist manifesto abroad.

The Leningrad Symphony was premiered in Kuybyshev, where the Shostakovich family had been evacuated, and later in Moscow. Meanwhile, the residents of the besieged Leningrad were getting prepared for the performance of this piece: the musicians were recruited from everywhere, even from the front. After all, the Leningrad Radio Orchestra had only nine musicians left: others either starved to death or were evacuated.

Specialists of the Presidential Library, who carefully studied the few lines of the small concert bill, conducted a small historical investigation. The bill features the name of Igor Ivanovich Karpets (trombone), who was recruited from the front to take part in the symphony performance. It turned out, that before the war Igor Karpets finished the music school (trombone) with honors. After the war he graduated with honors from Leningrad State University, Faculty of Law and became a prominent Soviet and Russian lawyer, a scholar and a brilliant expert in criminology.

Musicians of the besieged city are in the focus of the study, which is currently underway. The periodicals of that time is also a source for study. “Leningradskaya Pravda” newspaper set during the Great Patriotic War, that was digitized by the library, features the issue of August 7, 1942 that reads about the preparation for the performance of Symphony No. 7, the event the besieged city was eagerly anticipating. On that special day, the Leningrad Radio Orchestra was conducted by Karl Eliasberg, who gave the interview to TASS: "We are through with the preparatory work. The score for the Symphony No. 7 is written for the doubled orchestra. In the conditions of the besieged city we are facing some challenges. Musicians from the army orchestras have been recruited to join the work over the symphony. <...> Shostakovich wrote the symphony under the bombing and artillery attacks. Perhaps this is the reason why he managed to express the feelings of millions of heroic fighters for freedom, culture and happiness of the Soviet people in such a profound and emotional way”.

It is worth noting that the Leningrad premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 took place on August 9, 1942 in the Grand Philharmonia Hall, which is named after Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Along with the brilliant performance of Shostakovich’s work, another "fire symphony was performed in the sky of Leningrad to prevent the enemy from interfering with the concert”, newspapers read.

This large 4-part 70-minute work became another impressive document in the history of our country, portraying the apparent spiritual superiority of the Soviet people over the enemy.

A year ago, on the 75th anniversary of the premiere of Dmitry Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in the besieged Leningrad, the Presidential Library signed a cooperation agreement with the D. D. Shostakovich St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia. Under the agreement, on September 14, 2017, the performance of the Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad) in the Grand Philharmonia Hall was recorded. The video recording of the concert was processed by the library specialists and provided to the Philharmonia. It is also available in the collections of the Presidential Library.

In January 2018, St. Petersburg Radio provided the Symphony No.  7 score to the Presidential Library for digitization. The video available on the portal of the library covers this event.