Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7

Background#

Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich completed his Symphony No. 7 on 27 December 1941 and dedicated it to his native Leningrad. At the time the city was about 16 weeks into its 872 day week siege by Nazi German forces, which would kill about a third of the city’s pre-war population. Shostakovich wanted the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra to première the symphony, but that group had been evacuated to Novosibirsk as part of the government-led cultural exodus. The world première was instead held in Kuybyshev on 5 March 1942, performed by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under conductor Samuil Samosud.

Preparation#

The Leningrad Radio Orchestra under Karl Eliasberg was the only remaining symphonic ensemble in Leningrad after the Philharmonic was evacuated. The Radio Orchestra’s last performance had taken place on 14 December 1941 and its final broadcast on 1 January 1942. A log note from the next scheduled rehearsal reads “Rehearsal did not take place. Srabian is dead. Petrov is sick. Borishev is dead. Orchestra not working”. On 2 April 1942, Boris Zagorsky and Yasha Babushkin of the Leningrad city arts department announced preparations for the symphony’s performance. The hiatus in musical broadcasts was quickly ended by Andrei Zhdanov, a Soviet politician involved in the defence of Leningrad, to allow for rehearsals and provide a morale boost for the city. Performing the symphony “became a matter of civic, even military, pride”. According to an orchestra member, “the Leningrad authorities wanted to give the people some emotional stimulation so that they could feel cared for”. It was considered an important political act because of its potential value as propaganda. Of the original 40-member Leningrad Radio Orchestra, only 14 or 15 still lived in the city; the others had either starved to death or left to fight the enemy. Shostakovich’s symphony required an expanded orchestra of 100 players, meaning the remaining personnel were grossly insufficient. The first rehearsal in March 1942 was intended to be three hours long, but had to be stopped after 15 minutes because the musicians present were too weak to play their instruments. They frequently collapsed during rehearsals, especially those playing brass instruments. A report by Yasha Babushkin noted that “the first violin is dying, the drum died on his way to work, the French horn is at death’s door …”. Orchestral players were given additional rations (donated by civilian music enthusiasts) in an effort to combat starvation, and hot bricks were used to radiate heat; nevertheless, three performers died during rehearsals. Posters went up around the city requesting all musicians to report to the Radio Committee for incorporation into the orchestra. Performers were also recalled from the front or reassigned from Soviet military bands with the support of the Soviet commander of the Leningrad front, Leonid Govorov. In addition to the Seventh Symphony, the makeshift orchestra also rehearsed traditional symphonic works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. A concert of Tchaikovsky excerpts was held on 5 April. Some players protested the decision to perform Shostakovich’s symphony, not wanting to expend their little strength on an “intricate and not very accessible” work. Eliasberg threatened to rescind the additional rations, quelling any dissent. During the rehearsals, Eliasberg was criticised for his harsh demeanour: musicians who missed rehearsals, were late, or did not perform to expectations lost their rations. One performer lost rations because he had attended his wife’s burial and was late for rehearsal. Although some sources suggest a team of copyists was employed, according to other sources musicians were made to copy out their individual parts by hand from the score. Rehearsals were held six days a week at the Pushkin Theatre, usually from 10 am to 1 pm. They were frequently interrupted by air-raid sirens, and some musicians were required to undertake anti-aircraft or firefighting duties. To enable them to attend rehearsals, performers were granted orchestral ID cards to show at checkpoints. Members of the military orchestra (and some ordinary troops) were dispatched to the rehearsals to supplement the performers. Rehearsals were moved to the Philharmonia Hall in June, and in late July were increased to 5–6 hours a day. Instruments were in poor condition and few repairmen were available; one oboist was asked for a cat in exchange for a repair, as the starving repairman had already eaten several. The orchestra played the entire symphony all the way through only once before the première, at a dress rehearsal on 6 August.

Performance#

The concert was given in the Grand Philharmonia Hall on 9 August 1942. This was the day German Chancellor Adolf Hitler had previously designated to celebrate the fall of the city with a lavish banquet at Leningrad’s Astoria Hotel. The performance was preceded by a pre-recorded radio address by Eliasberg, aired at 6 pm: Lieutenant-General Govorov ordered a bombardment of German artillery positions in advance of the concert in a special operation, code-named “Squall”. Soviet intelligence personnel had located the German batteries and observation posts a few weeks before, in preparation for the attack. Three thousand high-calibre shells were fired at the German troops. The purpose of the operation was to prevent them from targeting the concert hall and to ensure that it would be quiet enough to hear the music over speakers he ordered to be set up. He also encouraged Soviet soldiers to listen to the concert via radio. Musicologist Andrei Krukov later praised Govorov’s actions as providing the “incentive” for the concert, adding that his choice to allow soldiers to participate was “a quite exceptional decision”. Govorov himself later remarked to Eliasberg that “we played our instrument in the symphony, too, you know”, in reference to the artillery fire.

Reception and legacy#

Shostakovich scholar Laurel Fay suggests that this concert was “an event of legendary import all by itself”. Journalist Michael Tumelty calls it “a legendary moment in Soviet political and military history”. The blockade was breached in early 1943 and ended in 1944. Eliasberg concurred with Dhuga’s assessment, saying that “the whole city had found its humanity … in that moment, we triumphed over the soulless Nazi war machine”. There was no official recognition of the significance of the concert: one musician noted that afterwards “there was no feedback, nothing, until 1945”. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 was popular throughout the Western world during the war, but from 1945 it was rarely performed outside the Soviet Union. It became a point of controversy in the 1980s after Solomon Volkov’s Testimony suggested it was a critique not of the Nazis, but of the Soviet government. The veracity of Volkov’s account, which he claims is rooted in interviews with Shostakovich, has been disputed. Other issues of contention about the symphony include whether it was inspired by the attack on Leningrad (as Soviet authorities and official accounts had asserted) or planned earlier and repurposed for propaganda, as well as its artistic merit compared to Shostakovich’s other works. The première made Eliasberg a “hero of the city”. Shortly after the concert, he married Nina Bronnikova, who had played the piano part. But once the siege ended and the Philharmonic returned to Leningrad, he fell from favour. Eliasberg was a “poor and largely forgotten” travelling conductor when he died in 1978. However, at the fifty-year anniversary of the première his remains were moved to the prestigious Volkovskoye or Alexander Nevsky Cemetery. The 1992 performance featured the 14 remaining survivors. The 1942 concert was also commemorated in the 1997 film The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin. There is a small museum dedicated to the event at School No. 235 in St. Petersburg, which includes a statue of Shostakovich and artefacts from the performance.

Sources#