Similar in concept to the "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel. A simple theme, harmless at first, evolving against the dry beat of a snare drum, eventually grew into a terrible symbol of suppression. In 1940 Shostakovich showed this composition to his colleagues and students, but did not publish it and did not perform it publicly. When the composer began writing a new symphony in the summer of 1941, the Passacaglia turned into a large episode of variations, replacing the development in its first movement, completed in August.

Premieres

The premiere of the work took place on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev, where the troupe of the Bolshoi Theater was at that time in evacuation. The Seventh Symphony was first performed at the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater by the USSR State Academic Bolshoi Orchestra conducted by Samuil Samosud.

The second performance took place on March 29 under the direction of S. Samosud - the symphony was first performed in Moscow.

A little later, the symphony was performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Mravinsky, who was at that time in evacuation in Novosibirsk.

The foreign premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on June 22, 1942 in London - it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Henry Wood. On July 19, 1942, the American premiere of the symphony took place in New York - it was performed by the New York Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.

Structure

1. Allegretto
2. Moderato - Poco allegretto
3. Adagio
4. Allegro non troppo

Orchestra composition

Symphony performance in besieged Leningrad

Orchestra

Performed the symphony of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee. During the days of the siege, some of the musicians starved to death. Rehearsals were canceled in December. When they resumed in March, only 15 weakened musicians could play. To replenish the number of the orchestra, the musicians had to be recalled from the military units.

Execution

Execution was given exceptional importance; on the day of the first execution, all the artillery forces of Leningrad were sent to suppress enemy firing points. Despite the bombs and airstrikes, all the chandeliers in the Philharmonic were lit.

Shostakovich's new work had a strong aesthetic impact on many listeners, making them cry without hiding their tears. The unifying principle is reflected in the great music: faith in victory, sacrifice, boundless love for one's city and country.

During the performance, the symphony was broadcast on the radio, as well as on the loudspeakers of the city network. It was heard not only by the residents of the city, but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad. Much later, two tourists from the GDR, who had tracked down Eliasberg, confessed to him:

Galina Lelyukhina, flutist:

The film "Leningrad Symphony" is dedicated to the history of the symphony.

Soldier Nikolai Savkov, artilleryman of the 42nd Army, wrote a poem during the secret operation "Shkval" on August 9, 1942, dedicated to the premiere of the 7th symphony and the most secret operation.

Memory

Famous performances and recordings

Live performances

• Among the outstanding interpreter conductors who have recorded the Seventh Symphony are Rudolf Barshai, Leonard Bernstein, Valery Gergiev, Kirill Kondrashin, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Leopold Stokowsky, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Svetlanov, Yuri Temirkanov, Arturo Toscanini, Marie Elions Haytinck , Neeme Järvi.
• Starting from the performance in besieged Leningrad, the symphony had tremendous agitation and political significance for the Soviet and Russian authorities. On August 21, 2008, a fragment of the first movement of the symphony was performed in the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, destroyed by Georgian troops, by the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. The live broadcast was shown on the Russian channels "Russia", "Kultura" and "Vesti", an English-language channel, and was also broadcast on the radio stations "Vesti FM" and "Kultura". On the steps of the parliament building destroyed by shelling, the symphony was intended to emphasize the parallel between the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict and the Great Patriotic War.
• To the music of the first movement of the symphony, the ballet "Leningrad Symphony" was staged, which became widely known.
• On February 28, 2015, the symphony was performed at the Donetsk Philharmonic on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War as part of the charitable program "Siege of Leningrad for the Children of Donbass".

Soundtrack

• The motives of the symphony can be heard in the game "Entente" in the theme of the passage of the campaign or multiplayer game for the German Empire.
• In the animated series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, in the Sagittarius Day series, fragments of the Leningrad Symphony are used. Subsequently, the Tokyo State Orchestra performed the first movement of the symphony at the "Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou" concert.

Notes (edit)

1. Kenigsberg A.K., Mikheeva L.V. Symphony No. 7 (Dmitry Shostakovich)// 111 symphonies. - SPb: "Cult-inform-press", 2000.
2. Shostakovich D. D. / Comp. L. B. Rimsky. // Heinze - Yashugin. Supplements A - Ya. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia: Soviet composer, 1982. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books:

7 symphonies by Dmitry Shostakovich

Shostakovich began writing the Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony in September 1941, when a blockade was closed around the city on the Neva, Shostakovich submitted an application with a request to send him to the front. Instead, he received orders to prepare to be sent to the "mainland".

Soon the composer's family was transported to Moscow.
From Moscow, where he again turned to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to be sent to the front, Shostakovich with his wife and two small children (Galya 5 years old, Maxim - 3) drove about a week to Kuibyshev together with composers PM Glier, A. I. Khachaturyan, V. Ya. Shebalin, D. B. Kabalevsky, pianist E. G. Gilels, conductor B. E. Khaikin, violinist D. F. Oistrakh, artist N. A. Sokolov.

A. I. Khachaturyan recalled how instead of 42 people in the carriage, more than 100 were accommodated ... Some guy who climbed onto the third regiment was persuaded for a long time to give way to Nina Vasilyevna Shostakovich with two children.

One of the Kukryniksy, artist N. Sokolov, left his memories of moving to Kuibyshev: “We slept badly, and there was nowhere. Women rested at night, men during the day - and then in turn. I saw D. Shostakovich going out for boiling water at the stations, washing dishes with snow near the carriage ... He was riding in a single old suit. After wetting my feet, I tried to find some of my things. Not finding it, I was upset. I gave him my socks. - Thanks! This is very noble of you, ”he said. Someone handed him a shirt and something else. He took things, embarrassed, and excitedly thanked everyone. "

With almost no belongings, no money, with two children in his arms, dejected by the loss of a suitcase with the score of the Seventh Symphony, Dmitry Dmitrievich settled in school number 81 on Samara Square. The artists of the Bolshoi Theater lived there, in classrooms separated by sheets and blankets. In the heap of lost things in Ruzayevka, they found a suitcase with a score.

Soon Shostakovich was given a room in apartment No. 13 on Frunze Street, 140. The depression and confusion of the first days on the Kuibyshev land were gradually overcome. After another unsuccessful attempt to volunteer for the front, he took up work.

In November, the family moved to a two-room apartment (Frunze St., 146), received food ration cards, and the composer became closely involved in creativity, in social and concert activities. The unfinished Seventh "Leningrad" symphony was agonizingly calling and attracting the whole being. And in December 1941, she completely captured the composer. The symphony was completed on December 27.

Many years later, Vera Dulova, a harpist for the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, recounted how Shostakovich and the outstanding pianist Lev Oborin played this symphony on the piano in four hands from the newly completed score.

Screenwriter Alexei Kapler recalled: “He was playing, sitting on the edge of a chair - thin, with sharp shoulders, in suspenders, with a tuft sticking out on his head, surprisingly similar to an exemplary student, to a schoolboy from the first desk. Outside the window, the snow was slowly falling ... And nearby ... the war was rattling - terrible and great, here its flame blazed and smelled of bitter fumes of conflagrations, here one could hear the thunder of catastrophes ... "

The Bolshoi Theater chief conductor Samuil Samosud, who lived next door, came to the sound of music. Shostakovich's music shocked everyone present so much that Samosud decided to immediately begin orchestral rehearsals.

Easy to say, start. But what if there was not even music paper? I had to wait for her to be sent on a special flight from Moscow. The musicians of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra painted their parts themselves. They went to rehearsals like on a holiday, Vera Dulova recalled. At first, they were held in the foyer of the amphitheater of the V. Kuibyshev Palace of Culture.

The writer Alexei Tolstoy, who was present at them, described his impressions as follows:

“In the large foyer, between the columns, is the orchestra of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater, one of the most advanced musical groups in the world. At the control panel - Lynching, in a working way, in a vest. Behind him on a chair is Shostakovich, who looks like an angry boy ... Now - after the proofs - all four parts will be played. Swinging wet hair Lynching, piercing space with a stick, violins sing about the unrestrained life of a happy person. The Seventh Symphony is dedicated to the triumph of the human in man. "

Shostakovich himself composed a short explanation and gave an opening speech before the concert.
The reception of the new piece by the public was overwhelming.
Music was perceived not only by hearing ... it was felt by all nerves, it seemed, even by sight. During the performance of the first part, everyone trembled. Eyewitnesses recall that after the final chords there was deathly silence in the hall for ten to fifteen seconds, and then a real storm of applause fell on the musicians and the author.

Alexey Kapler, who was present at the premiere, recalled it this way:

“The words“ ovation ”,“ success ”in no way convey what was happening in the hall. Many had tears in their eyes. Again and again the creator of this creation appeared on the stage, and it was hard to believe that it was he, a 35-year-old thin intellectual with four eyes who looked very young, who could cause such a storm of emotions.

The day after the premiere, a copy of the score of the Seventh Symphony was sent by plane to Moscow.
The first performance in Moscow took place in the Column Hall of the House of Unions on March 29, 1942.

Olga Berggolts recalled:

“I had the good fortune to be at the performance of the Seventh Symphony on March 29, 1942 in the Hall of Columns, when I was in Moscow on a short-term business trip. I will not talk in detail about the shock that I, like all those present (more than half of them were Front-line), experienced while listening to this symphony, no, not listening, but with all my heart, experiencing it as a brilliant story about the feat of my family city, about the feat of our entire country. I remember how Shostakovich with the face of a teenager, thin, fragile, seemingly unprotected, came out to the supernatural ovations of the audience that stood in front of the symphony. And the people, standing, all applauded and applauded to the son and defender of Leningrad. And I looked at him, a boy, a fragile man with big glasses, who, agitated and incredibly embarrassed, without the slightest smile, bowed awkwardly, nodded his head to the audience, and I thought: "This man is stronger than Hitler, we will definitely defeat the Germans."…

Major American conductors - Leopold Stokowsky and Arturo Toscanini (New York Radio Symphony Orchestra - NBC), Sergey Koussevitsky (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Eugene Ormandy (Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra), Arthur Rodzinsky (Cleveland Symphony Orchestra) abroad (VOKS) with a request to urgently send by plane to the United States four copies of the scores of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony and a tape recording of the symphony in the Soviet Union. They announced that the Seventh Symphony would be prepared by them simultaneously and that the first concerts would take place on the same day - an unprecedented event in US musical life. The same request came from England.

The score of the symphony was sent to the United States by military aircraft, and the first performance of the "Leningrad" symphony in New York was broadcast on radio stations in the USA, Canada and Latin America. It was heard by about 20 million people.

"What devil can defeat a people who can create music like this?", - wrote an American music critic in the summer of 1942 about the Seventh Symphony, played by the New York Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini ...

The Soviet intelligence officer, Interior Ministry colonel, Zoya Voskresenskaya (Rybkina), who was in Sweden from 1941 to 1944 as the press secretary of the Soviet embassy, ​​describes in her book:

“Now I can tell the truth” how the Seventh Symphony got to Sweden. “Night ... In our press bureau's rooms, employees“ catch ”news from the Soviet Union on the radio through the chaos of enemy interference. I sit down at the radio. They transmit information from Moscow for regional and district newspapers. Several people write down at once, they catch it by word, sometimes they grasp only the beginning of a word, then put it together. Completed summary. And suddenly music comes from the air. What is it? A powerful melody breaks through the howl, the crackle, like a spring. Everyone freezes ... Music excites with its severity, and bright notes, grief and hope. “We broadcast the Seventh, Leningrad Symphony of the composer Dmitry Shostakovich,” the announcer concludes. And on the same night a telegram flies to Moscow with a request to send the score of the new symphony. A little time passes, and the score, filmed on photographic film, flies through the Middle East and Africa, sails by ship to America, from there to England and then again by plane to Sweden. A few more weeks - and Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony will be performed by the country's best Gothenburg Orchestra. The audience sits spellbound. Women brush away tears. The language of music is international. The concluding chords of the symphony are listened to while standing ... This was the first performance of Shostakovich's symphony in Europe. Foreign Minister Gunther had to listen to the protest of the German embassy against the "violation of Swedish neutrality"…

Life in Kuibyshev

In December 1941, the activities of the branch of the Composers' Union began in Kuibyshev, headed by Shostakovich. “... He diligently took up his new job. He is assisted by L. N. Oborin, musicologist A. S. Ogolovets, composer V. N. Denbsky. "As you can see, people are all good and proven in their business," he shared with Shebalin. " Union meetings were weekly. “They were mainly dedicated to the discussion of new works. Shostakovich considered this form to be the main, the most necessary, productive one, which contributed to the activation of the composer's forces. "

So already in December 1941, the first “Musical Wednesday. “The audience listened to three parts of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony performed by the author for the piano. Then an exchange of views took place, in which the Czech professor Zdenek Nejedly, the Hungarian anti-fascist composer Ferenc Szabo, the Kuibyshev composer Viktor Denbsky and others took part. " Unfortunately, it was not possible to restore the content of subsequent "Musical Environments". According to the memoirs of A.V. Fere and L.F.Drugov, these were creative reports by composers, listening and discussing new works, meetings with writers, artists, artists, and the public.

Community work took a lot of time and effort. Together with the Moscow composer M. M. Cheremukhin, he organizes musical radio broadcasts in Kuibyshev; Together with the singer V.V.Barsova and the artist V.P. Efanov, he worked in the organizing committee of the branch of the Central House of Artists (TsDRI), which was created in the spring of 1942.

Shostakovich was a consultant and a good friend of Music School No. 1. He often played there, met with teachers, listened to the children play, took part in the examination committee, helped talented students in arranging their further studies. When the organizing committee of the Union decided to publish the book "Soviet Music in 25 Years", Shostakovich headed the editorial board. He is involved in inviting eminent musicians to Kuibyshev, arranges meetings and discussions, delves into all the details of the composer's organization, works as a consultant for the Committee for Art Affairs under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, in November 1942 he delivers a fiery speech at an anti-fascist rally of workers of literature and art ...

In March 1942, Shostakovich received a large 4-room apartment with a separate study, a piano and a view of the Volga (Vilonovskaya St., 2 a, apt. 2). The mother, sister and nephew made it safely to Kuibyshev. In January-February 1943, Dmitry Dmitrievich was seriously ill with typhoid fever. On March 3, 1943, he leaves for Moscow. I had to get medical treatment in the Arkhangelskoe sanatorium near Moscow ....

And behind me, sparkling secret
And calling herself "The Seventh",
A feast rushed to an unheard-of,
Pretending to be a music book
The famous Leningrad woman
She returned to her native air.

Anna Akhmatova

But with special impatience they awaited "their" Seventh Symphony in besieged Leningrad.

Back in August 1941, on the 21st, when the appeal of the Leningrad City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the City Council and the Military Council of the Leningrad Front "The Enemy at the Gates" was published, Shostakovich spoke on the city radio:

“An hour ago I finished the second part of my new symphonic work,” he said. “If I manage to write this work well, if I manage to finish the third and fourth movements, then it will be possible to call this work the Seventh Symphony ...” ...

And now, when she sounded in Kuibyshev, Moscow, Tashkent, Novosibirsk, New York, London, Stockholm, Leningraders were waiting for her in their city, the city where she was born ...

On July 2, 1942, a twenty-year-old pilot, Lieutenant Litvinov, under continuous fire from German anti-aircraft guns, breaking through a ring of fire, delivered medicines and four voluminous music books with the score of the Seventh Symphony to the besieged city. They were already awaited at the airport and taken away as the greatest treasure.

The next day, a short piece of information appeared in Leningradskaya Pravda: “The score of the Seventh Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich was delivered to Leningrad by plane. Its public performance will take place in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. "

But when the chief conductor of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee, Karl Eliasberg, opened the first of the four notebooks of the score, he darkened: instead of the usual three trumpets, three trombones and four French horns, Shostakovich had twice as many. And the drums are also added! Moreover, the score is written by Shostakovich's hand: "The participation of these instruments in the performance of the symphony is obligatory"... AND "necessarily" boldly underlined. It became clear that the symphony could not be played with the few musicians who still remained in the orchestra. And they played their last concert on December 7, 1941.

The frosts were fierce then. The Philharmonic Hall was not heated - nothing.

But people came anyway. They came to listen to music. Hungry, exhausted, wrapped up in something, so it was impossible to make out where the women were, where the men were - only one face was sticking out. And the orchestra played, although it was scary to touch the brass horns, trumpets, trombones - they burned your fingers, the mouthpieces froze to your lips. And after this concert there were no more rehearsals. Music in Leningrad froze, as if frozen. Even the radio did not broadcast it. And this is in Leningrad, one of the musical capitals of the world! And there was no one to play. Of the one hundred and five orchestra members, several people were evacuated, twenty-seven died of hunger, the rest became dystrophic, unable to even move.

When rehearsals resumed in March 1942, only 15 weakened musicians could play. 15 out of 105! Now, in July, it is true, there are more, but those few who are able to play were collected with such difficulty! What to do?

From the memoirs of Olga Berggolts.

“The only orchestra of the Radio Committee that remained then in Leningrad was diminished from hunger during our tragic first blockade winter by almost half. I will never forget how, on a dark winter morning, the then artistic director of the Radio Committee, Yakov Babushkin (died at the front in 1943), dictated to the typist another report on the state of the orchestra: - The first violin is dying, the drum died on the way to work, the French horn is dying ... And yet, these surviving, terribly exhausted musicians and the leadership of the Radio Committee were fired up with the idea of ​​performing the Seventh in Leningrad by all means ... Yasha Babushkin, through the city party committee, got our musicians an additional ration, but still people were not enough to perform the Seventh Symphony. Then, across Leningrad, an appeal was announced through the radio to all musicians in the city to appear at the Radio Committee to work in the orchestra ".

They were looking for musicians all over the city. Eliasberg staggered around the hospitals, reeling with weakness. He found the drummer Zhaudat Aidarov in the dead, where he noticed that the musician's fingers moved slightly. "He's alive!" - exclaimed the conductor, and this moment was the second birth of Zhaudat. Without him, the performance of the Seventh would have been impossible - after all, he had to beat the drum roll in the "theme of the invasion." The string group was picked up, but a problem arose with the wind instrument: people simply physically could not blow into the wind instruments. Some fainted during rehearsals. Later, the musicians were attached to the canteen of the City Council - once a day they received a hot lunch. But there were still not enough musicians. We decided to ask the military command for help: many musicians were in the trenches - they were defending the city with weapons in their hands. The request was granted. By order of the head of the Political Directorate of the Leningrad Front, Major General Dmitry Kholostov, the musicians who were in the army and navy were ordered to come to the city, to the House of Radio, having musical instruments with them. And they reached out. Their documents read: "Commander to the Eliasberg Orchestra." The trombonist came from the machine-gun company, the viola player escaped from the hospital. The French horn player sent an anti-aircraft regiment to the orchestra, the flutist was brought on a sled - his legs were taken away. The trumpeter stamped on his felt boots, despite the spring: his feet, swollen from hunger, did not fit into other shoes. The conductor himself looked like his own shadow.

The rehearsals have begun. They lasted five to six hours in the morning and in the evening, sometimes ending late at night. The artists were given special passes allowing them to walk around Leningrad at night. And the traffic police officers even gave the conductor a bicycle, and on Nevsky Prospekt one could see a tall, extremely emaciated man, diligently turning the pedals - hurrying to rehearsal either to Smolny, or to the Polytechnic Institute - to the Front's Political Administration. In between rehearsals, the conductor hurried to settle many of the orchestra's other affairs. The spokes flashed merrily. An army bowler hat tinkled thinly on the steering wheel. The city followed the course of the rehearsals closely.

A few days later, posters appeared in the city, pasted up next to the proclamation "The Enemy at the Gates." They announced that on August 9, 1942, the premiere of Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony will take place in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. The Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee plays. KI Eliasberg conducts. Sometimes, right there, under the poster, there was a light table on which lay packs with the concert program printed in the printing house. Behind him sat a warmly dressed pale woman, apparently still unable to warm up after a harsh winter. People stopped near her, and she held out to them the program of the concert, printed very simply, casually, with only black paint.

Its first page contains an epigraph: “I dedicate my Seventh Symphony to our fight against fascism, our coming victory over the enemy, to my native city - Leningrad. Dmitry Shostako-vich ". Lower, large: "THE SEVENTH SYMPHONY OF DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH". And at the very bottom, finely: "Leningrad, 194 2 ". This program served as an entrance ticket for the first performance of the Seventh Symphony in Leningrad on August 9, 1942. Tickets sold out very quickly - everyone who could walk wanted to get to this unusual concert.

Oboist Ksenia Matus, one of the participants in the legendary performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in besieged Leningrad, recalled:

“When I came to the radio, I was scared at the first minute. I saw people, musicians, whom I knew well ... Some are in soot, who are completely exhausted, it is not known what they are wearing. I didn't recognize people. For the first rehearsal, the entire orchestra could not get together yet. Many simply could not climb to the fourth floor, where the studio was located. Those who had more strength or stronger character took the rest under their arms and carried them upstairs. At first we rehearsed for only 15 minutes. And if not for Karl Ilyich Eliasberg, not for his energetic, heroic character, no orchestra, no symphony in Leningrad would have been. Although he was also dystrophic, just like us. His wife brought him to rehearsals, on a sled. I remember how at the first rehearsal he said: "Well, come on ...", raised his hands, and they were trembling ... So this image remained in front of my eyes for the rest of my life, this shot bird, these wings that - then they will fall, and he will fall ...

This is how we started to work. We were gaining strength little by little.

And on April 5, 1942, our first concert took place at the Pushkin Theater. Men put on quilted jackets first, and then jackets. We also wore everything under the dresses so as not to freeze. And the audience?

It was impossible to make out where the women were, where the men were, everyone was wrapped up, packed, in mittens, the collars were up, only one face was sticking out ... And suddenly Karl Ilyich came out - in a white shirt front, a clean collar, in general, like a first-class conductor. At the first moment his hands trembled again, but then it started ... We played a concert in one section very well, there were no "kiks", no hitch. But we did not hear the applause - we were in mittens, we only saw that the whole hall was stirring, revived ...

After this concert, we somehow rose up at once, pulled ourselves together: “Guys! Our life begins! " Real rehearsals started, we were even given extra food, and suddenly there was news that the score of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was flying towards us on a plane, under bombardment. Everything was organized instantly: the games were painted, and more musicians from military bands were recruited. And now, finally, the parties are on our consoles and we begin to study. Of course, something didn't work out for someone, people were exhausted, their hands were frostbitten ... Our men worked in gloves with their fingers cut off ... And so, rehearsal after rehearsal ... We took the parts home to learn. So that everything is perfect. People from the Committee for Art Affairs came to us, some commissions constantly listened to us. And we worked a lot, as we had to learn other programs at the same time. I remember such a case. They played some fragment where the trumpet had a solo. And the trumpeter has an instrument on his knee. Karl Ilyich addresses him:

- First trumpet, why aren't you playing?
- Karl Ilyich, I have no strength to blow! Tired.
- What do you think we have the strength? Let's get to work!

These were the phrases that made the whole orchestra work. There were also group rehearsals, at which Eliasberg approached everyone: play it for me, like this, like this, like this ... That is, if it were not for him, I repeat, there would be no symphony.

… Finally, August 9th, the day of the concert, is coming. In the city, at least in the center, there were posters. And here's another unforgettable picture: the transport didn't go, people walked, women - in smart dresses, but these dresses hung like on stretchers, they were great for everyone, men - in suits, also as if from someone else's shoulder ... The military drove up to the Philharmonic cars with soldiers to the concert ... In general, there were quite a lot of people in the hall, and we felt an incredible uplift, because we understood that today we were holding a big exam.

Before the concert (the hall was not heated all winter, it was icy), spotlights were installed upstairs to warm the stage so that the air was warmer. When we went to our consoles, the projectors went out. As soon as Karl Ilyich showed up, deafening applause rang out, the whole audience stood up to greet him ... And when we played, we were also applauded standing. From somewhere a girl suddenly appeared with a bunch of fresh flowers. It was so amazing! .. Behind the scenes, everyone rushed to hug each other, kiss. It was a great celebration. We did a miracle after all.

This is how our life began to go on. We are resurrected. Shostakovich sent a telegram, congratulating us all.»

Preparing for the concert and on the front line. One day, when the musicians were just writing the score of the symphony, the commander of the Leningrad Front, Lieutenant General Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov, invited the commanders of the artillerymen. The task was formulated briefly: During the performance of the Seventh Symphony by the composer Shostakovich, not a single enemy shell should explode in Leningrad!

And the gunners sat down at their "scores". As usual, the timing was done first. The symphony is performed for 80 minutes. Spectators will begin to gather at the Philharmonic in advance. Know cheat, plus another thirty minutes. Plus the same amount for the audience traveling from the theater. For 2 hours and 20 minutes, the Nazi cannons should be silent. And consequently, our cannons should speak for 2 hours and 20 minutes - to perform their “fiery symphony”. How many shells will it take? What calibers? Everything had to be taken into account in advance. Finally, which enemy batteries should be taken out first? Have they changed their positions? Have you brought up new weapons? Intelligence was to answer these questions. The scouts did their job well. Not only the enemy's batteries were plotted on the maps, but also his observation posts, headquarters, communications centers. Cannons with cannons, but the enemy artillery should also be "blinded" that destroyed the observation posts, "deafened" by interrupting communication lines, "decapitated" by destroying the headquarters. Of course, in order to perform this "fiery symphony", the artillerymen had to determine the composition of their "orchestra". It included many long-range guns, experienced artillerymen, who have been conducting counter-battery battles for many days. The "bass" group "or-kestra" consisted of the main caliber guns of the naval artillery of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. For the artillery accompaniment of the musical symphony, the front allocated three thousand large-caliber shells. Major General Mikhail Mikhalkin, commander of the 42nd Army, was appointed as the "conductor" of the artillery "orchestra".

So two rehearsals went side by side.

One sounded the voices of violins, horns, trombones, the other was performed in silence and even secretly for the time being. The Nazis, of course, knew about the first rehearsal. And undoubtedly they were preparing to disrupt the concert. After all, the squares of the central sections of the city had long been targeted by their artillerymen. Fascist shells more than once rumbled on the tram loop opposite the entrance to the Philharmonic. But they knew nothing about the second rehearsal.

And the day came on August 9, 1942. 355th day of the Leningrad blockade.

Half an hour before the start of the concert, General Govorov walked out to his car, but did not get into it, but froze, intently listening to the distant rumble. He glanced at his watch again and noticed to the artillery generals standing next to him: - Our "symphony" has already begun.

And at the Pulkovo Heights, Private Nikolai Savkov took his place at the gun. He did not know any of the orchestra's musicians, but he understood that now they would work together with him, at the same time. The German guns were silent. On the heads of their artillerymen fell such a flurry of fire and metal that it was no longer up to the shooting: to hide somewhere! Bury yourself in the ground!

The Philharmonic Hall was filled with listeners. The leaders of the Leningrad party organization arrived: A. A. Kuznetsov, P. S. Popkov, Ya. F. Kapustin, A. I. Manakhov, G. F. Badaev. General DI Kholostov sat next to L.A. Govorov. We got ready to listen to the writers: Nikolai Tikhonov, Vera Inber, Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Lyudmila Popova ...

And Karl Ilyich Eliasberg waved his baton. He later recalled:

“It is not for me to judge the success of that memorable concert. I can only say that we have never played with such inspiration. And there is nothing surprising in this: the majestic theme of the Motherland, on which the ominous shadow of the invasion finds, a pathetic requiem in honor of the fallen heroes - all this was close, dear to every orchestra player, to everyone who listened to us that evening. And when the overcrowded hall exploded with applause, it seemed to me that I was again in peaceful Leningrad, that the most cruel of all the wars that had ever raged on the planet was already over, that the forces of reason, goodness and humanity had won. "

And the soldier Nikolai Savkov, the performer of another - "fiery symphony", after its completion, suddenly writes verses:

... And when, as a sign of the beginning
The baton went up
Above the front edge, like thunder, majestic
Another symphony has begun -
Symphony of our guards cannons
So that the enemy does not beat the city,
So that the city listens to the Seventh Symphony. ...
And there is a flurry in the hall,
And along the front - a flurry. ...
And when people dispersed to their apartments,
Full of high and proud feelings
The soldiers lowered the barrels of their guns,
Having protected the Arts Square from shelling.

This operation was called "Flurry". Not a single shell fell on the streets of the city, not a single plane managed to take off from enemy airfields at the time when the audience went to the concert in the Great Philharmonic Hall, while the concert was going on, and when the audience, after the end of the concert, returned home or to their military parts. There was no transport, and people walked to the Philharmonic. The women are in smart dresses. On the emaciated Leningrad women, they hung like on a hanger. Men - in suits, also as if from someone else's shoulder ... Military vehicles drove up to the Philharmonic building directly from the front line. Soldiers, officers ...

The concert has begun! And to the roar of cannonade - She, as usual, thundered around - The invisible announcer said to Leningrad: "Attention! The siege orchestra is playing! .." .

Those who could not get into the Philharmonic listened to the concert on the street at the loudspeakers, in apartments, in dugouts and pancake-evens of the front line. When the last sounds died down, there was a standing ovation. The audience gave a standing ovation to the orchestra. And suddenly a girl got up from the stalls, went up to the conductor and handed him a huge bouquet of dahlias, asters, gladioli. For many it was some kind of miracle, and they looked at the girl with some kind of joyful amazement - flowers in a city dying of hunger ...

The poet Nikolai Tikhonov, returning from the concert, wrote in his diary:

“Shostakovich's symphony ... was played not as, perhaps, grandiosely, as in Moscow or New York, but the Leningrad performance had its own - Leningrad, something that merged the musical storm with a battle storm rushing over the city. She was born in this city, and, perhaps, only in this city she could have been born. This is her special strength ”.

The symphony, which was broadcast on the radio and loudspeakers of the city network, was listened to not only by the residents of Leningrad, but also by the German troops besieging the city. As they said later, the Germans just went crazy when they heard this music. They thought that the city was almost dead. After all, a year ago Hitler promised that on August 9 German troops would march along Palace Square, and a solemn banquet would take place at the Astoria Hotel !!! A few years after the war, two tourists from the GDR, who had tracked down Karl Eliasberg, confessed to him: “Then, on August 9, 1942, we realized that we would lose the war. We felt your power to overcome hunger, fear and even death ... "

The work of the conductor was equated to a feat, having been awarded the Order of the Red Star "for the fight against the German fascist invaders" and awarded the title "Honored Artist of the RSFSR".

And for Leningraders, August 9, 1942 became, in the words of Olga Berggolts, "Victory Day in the midst of the war." And the Seventh Leningrad Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich became the symbol of this Victory, the symbol of the triumph of Man over obscurantism.

Years will pass, and the poet Yuri Voronov, a boy who survived the blockade, will write about this in his poems: “... And the music rose over the darkness of the ruins, Crushed the silence of the dark apartments. And the stunned world listened to her ... Would you be able to do that if you were dying? .. ".

« 30 years later, on August 9, 1972, our orchestra -recalls Ksenia Markyanovna Matus, -
again received a telegram from Shostakovich, who was already seriously ill and therefore did not come for the performance:
“Today, like 30 years ago, I am with you with all my heart. This day lives on in my memory, and I will forever retain a feeling of deepest gratitude to you, admiration for your dedication to art, your artistic and civic feat. Together with you, I honor the memory of those participants and eyewitnesses of this concert who have not survived to this day. And to those who have gathered here today to mark this date, I send my heartfelt greetings. Dmitry Shostakovich ".

Symphony No. 7 "Leningradskaya"

Shostakovich's 15 symphonies constitute one of the greatest phenomena of musical literature of the twentieth century. Several of them carry a specific "program" related to stories or war. The idea of ​​"Leningradskaya" arose from personal experience.

“Our victory over fascism, our coming victory over the enemy,
to my beloved city of Leningrad, I dedicate my seventh symphony "
(D. Shostakovich)

I speak for everyone who died here.
Their deaf steps are in my lines,
Their eternal and hot breath.
I speak for everyone who lives here
Who went through fire and death and ice.
I say, like your flesh, people,
By right of shared suffering ...
(Olga Berggolts)

In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and soon Leningrad was in a blockade that lasted 18 months and entailed countless hardships and deaths. In addition to those killed in the bombing, more than 600,000 Soviet citizens died of hunger. Many have frozen or died due to a lack of medical care - the number of victims of the blockade is estimated at almost a million. In the besieged city, suffering terrible hardships along with thousands of other people, Shostakovich began work on his Symphony No. 7. He had never dedicated his major works to anyone before, but this symphony became an offering to Leningrad and its inhabitants. The composer was driven by love for his hometown and these truly heroic times of struggle.
Work on this symphony began at the very beginning of the war. From the first days of the war, Shostakovich, like many of his fellow countrymen, began to work for the needs of the front. He dug trenches, was on duty at night during air raids.

He made arrangements for concert crews going to the front. But, as always, this unique musician-publicist had already matured in his head a large symphonic plan dedicated to everything that was happening. He began writing the Seventh Symphony. The first part was completed in the summer. The second he wrote in September already in besieged Leningrad.

In October Shostakovich and his family were evacuated to Kuibyshev. Unlike the first three parts, which were created literally in one breath, the work on the finale was going badly. Unsurprisingly, the last part didn't work out for a long time. The composer understood that a solemn victorious finale would be expected from the symphony dedicated to the war. But so far there was no reason for this, and he wrote as his heart suggested.

On December 27, 1941, the symphony was completed. Starting with the Fifth Symphony, almost all of the composer's works in this genre were performed by his favorite orchestra - the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by E. Mravinsky.

But, unfortunately, the Mravinsky orchestra was far away, in Novosibirsk, and the authorities insisted on an urgent premiere. After all, the symphony was dedicated by the author to the feat of his native city. Political significance was attached to it. The premiere took place in Kuibyshev with the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra conducted by S. Samosud. After that, the symphony was performed in Moscow and Novosibirsk. But the most remarkable premiere took place in besieged Leningrad. Musicians were gathered from everywhere to perform it. Many of them were emaciated. I had to put them in the hospital before the start of rehearsals - to feed them, to heal them. On the day of the symphony's performance, all artillery forces were sent to suppress the enemy's firing points. Nothing was supposed to interfere with this premiere.

The Philharmonic Hall was full. The audience was very diverse. The concert was attended by sailors, armed infantrymen, air defense fighters dressed in sweatshirts, emaciated regulars of the Philharmonic. The symphony was performed for 80 minutes. All this time, the enemy's guns were silent: the artillerymen defending the city received an order to suppress the fire of German guns at all costs.

Shostakovich's new work shocked the audience: many of them cried, not hiding their tears. Great music managed to express what united people at that difficult time: faith in victory, sacrifice, boundless love for their city and country.

During the performance, the symphony was broadcast on the radio, as well as on the loudspeakers of the city network. It was heard not only by the residents of the city, but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad.

On July 19, 1942, the symphony was performed in New York, and after that it began its triumphant march around the world.

The first movement begins with a broad, chanting epic melody. It develops, grows, and is filled with more and more power. Recalling the process of creating the symphony, Shostakovich said: "While working on the symphony, I thought about the greatness of our people, about its heroism, about the best ideals of mankind, about the wonderful qualities of man ..." intonations, bold wide melodic moves, heavy unison.

The side part is also song. It is like a calm lullaby song. Her melody seems to dissolve into silence. Everything breathes with the calmness of a peaceful life.

But from somewhere from afar, a drum roll is heard, and then a melody appears: primitive, similar to verses - an expression of commonness and vulgarity. As if the puppets are moving. This is how the "invasion episode" begins - a stunning picture of an invasion of destructive force.

Sounds harmless at first. But the theme is repeated 11 times, increasing more and more. Its melody does not change, it only gradually acquires the sound of more and more new instruments, turning into powerful chord complexes. So this topic, which at first seemed not threatening, but stupid and vulgar, turns into a colossal monster - a grinding machine of destruction. It seems that she will grind into powder all living things in her path.

The writer A. Tolstoy called this music "the dance of learned rats to the tune of the rat-catcher." It seems that the learned rats, obedient to the will of the rat-catcher, enter the battle.

The invasion episode is written in the form of variations on an unchanging theme - passacaglia.

Even before the start of World War II, Shostakovich wrote variations on an unchanging theme, similar in design to Ravel's Bolero. He showed it to his students. The theme is simple, as if dancing, which is accompanied by the beat of a snare drum. It grew to enormous power. At first it sounded harmless, even frivolous, but grew into a terrible symbol of suppression. The composer postponed this work without performing or publishing it. It turns out that this episode was written earlier. So what did the composer want to portray for them? A terrible march of fascism across Europe or an offensive of totalitarianism on a person? (Note: A totalitarian regime is called a regime in which the state dominates all aspects of the life of society, in which there is violence, the destruction of democratic freedoms and human rights).

At that moment, when it seems that the iron colossus is moving with a crash right at the listener, the unexpected happens. Resistance begins. A dramatic motive appears, which is usually called the motive of resistance. Moans and screams are heard in the music. As if a grandiose symphonic battle is being played out.

After a powerful climax, the reprise sounds gloomy and gloomy. The theme of the main party in it sounds like a passionate speech addressed to all mankind, full of the great power of protest against evil. Especially expressive is the melody of the side part, which has become dreary and lonely. An expressive bassoon solo appears here.

It is no longer a lullaby, but rather a cry interrupted by excruciating spasms. Only in the code, the main part sounds in major, as if affirming the overcoming of the forces of evil. But a drumbeat is heard from afar. The war is still going on.

The next two parts are designed to show the spiritual wealth of a person, the strength of his will.

The second movement is a scherzo in soft colors. Many critics in this music saw the picture of Leningrad as transparent white nights. This music combines smile and sadness, light humor and self-depth, creating an attractive and light image.

The third movement is a stately and soulful adagio. It opens with a chorale - a kind of requiem for the dead. This is followed by a pathetic utterance of the violins. The second theme, according to the composer, conveys "the ecstasy of life, admiration for nature." The dramatic middle of the part is perceived as a memory of the past, a reaction to the tragic events of the first part.

The finale begins with a barely audible tremolo timpani. As if forces are gradually gathering. This is how the main theme is prepared, full of indomitable energy. This is an image of struggle, of popular anger. It is replaced by an episode in the rhythm of sarabanda - again the memory of the fallen. And then begins a slow ascent to the triumph of the completion of the symphony, where the main theme of the first movement sounds at the trumpets and trombones as a symbol of peace and future victory.

No matter how wide the variety of genres in Shostakovich's work, in terms of his talent, he is, first of all, a composer-symphonist. His work is characterized by a huge scale of content, a tendency to generalized thinking, the severity of conflicts, dynamism and strict logic of development. These features were especially clearly manifested in his symphonies. Fifteen symphonies belong to Shostakovich. Each of them is a page in the history of the life of the people. It was not for nothing that the composer was called the musical chronicler of his era. Moreover, not an impassive observer, as if observing everything that happens from above, but a person who subtly reacts to the shocks of his era, living the life of his contemporaries, involved in everything that happens around him. He could have said about himself in the words of the great Goethe:

- I'm not an outsider spectator,
And a participant in earthly affairs!

Like no one else, he was distinguished by his responsiveness to everything that was happening with his native country and its people, and even more broadly - with all of humanity. Thanks to this sensitivity, he was able to capture the characteristic features of that era and reproduce them in highly artistic images. And in this respect, the composer's symphonies are a unique monument to the history of mankind.

August 9, 1942. On this day, in besieged Leningrad, the famous performance of the Seventh ("Leningrad") Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich took place.

The organizer and conductor was Karl Ilyich Eliasberg, the chief conductor of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra. While the symphony was being performed, not a single enemy shell fell on the city: by order of the commander of the Leningrad Front, Marshal Govorov, all enemy points were suppressed in advance. The cannons were silent while Shostakovich's music sounded. It was heard not only by the residents of the city, but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad. Many years after the war, the Germans said: “Then, on August 9, 1942, we realized that we would lose the war. We felt your power to overcome hunger, fear and even death ... "

Starting from the performance in besieged Leningrad, the symphony had tremendous agitation and political significance for the Soviet and Russian authorities.

On August 21, 2008, a fragment of the first movement of the symphony was performed in the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, destroyed by Georgian troops, by the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

"This symphony is a reminder to the world that the horror of the blockade and bombing of Leningrad should not be repeated ..."
(V.A.Gergiev)

Presentation

Included:
1. Presentation of 18 slides, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
Symphony No. 7 "Leningradskaya", Op. 60, 1 part, mp3;
3. Article, docx.

The Seventh "Leningrad" Symphony is one of the greatest scores of the 20th century. The history of its creation and first performances, the power and scale of the impact of this music on contemporaries are truly unique. For a wide audience, the very name of Shostakovich turned out to be forever welded with the "famous Leningrad woman" - that is how Anna Akhmatova called the symphony.

The composer spent the first months of the war in Leningrad. Here on July 19 he began working on the Seventh Symphony. “I have never composed as quickly as I do now,” admitted Shostakovich. Before the evacuation in October, the first three parts of the symphony were written (during the work on the second part, a blockade was closed around Leningrad). The finale was completed in December in Kuibyshev, where on March 5, 1942, the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra under the baton of Samuil Samosud performed the Seventh Symphony for the first time. Four months later, in Novosibirsk, it was performed by the Honored collective of the republic under the direction of Evgeny Mravinsky. The symphony began to be performed abroad - in June it premiered in the UK, in July - in the USA. But back in February 1942, the newspaper Izvestia published the words of Shostakovich: "My dream is that the Seventh Symphony will be performed in Leningrad in the near future, in my native city, which inspired me to create it." The siege premiere of the symphony is akin to the events about which legends passed down from generation to generation in the old days.

The main "character" of the concert was the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee - this was the name of the current Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society during the war years. It was he who had the honor of being the first to play Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in Leningrad. However, there was no alternative - after the beginning of the blockade, this group turned out to be the only symphony orchestra that remained in the city. For the performance of the symphony, an expanded composition was required - front-line musicians were seconded to the team. Only the score of the symphony was delivered to Leningrad - the parts were painted on the spot. Posters appeared in the city.

On August 9, 1942, the day previously announced by the German command as the date of entry into Leningrad, under the direction of Karl Eliasberg, the Leningrad premiere of the Leningrad Symphony took place in the Great Philharmonic Hall. The concert took place, according to the conductor, “in a completely overcrowded hall” (security was provided by the fire of Soviet artillery), and was broadcast on the radio. “Before the concert… floodlights were installed upstairs to warm the stage, so that the air would be warmer. When we went to our consoles, the projectors went out. As soon as Karl Ilyich showed up, deafening applause rang out, the whole audience stood up to greet him ... And when we played, they also gave us standing ovation ... From somewhere suddenly a girl appeared with a bunch of fresh flowers. It was so amazing! .. Behind the scenes, everyone rushed to hug each other, kiss. It was a great celebration. We did a miracle after all. This is how our life began to go on. We are resurrected, ”- recalled the participant of the premiere Ksenia Matus. In August 1942, the orchestra performed the symphony six times, four times in the Great Philharmonic Hall.

“This day lives on in my memory, and I will forever retain a feeling of deepest gratitude to you, admiration for your dedication to art, your artistic and civic feat,” Shostakovich wrote to the orchestra for the 30th anniversary of the blockade performance of the Seventh Symphony. In 1942, in a telegram to Karl Eliasberg, the composer was shorter, but no less eloquent: “Dear friend. Many thanks. Give my heartfelt gratitude to all the artists of the orchestra. I wish you health and happiness. Hi. Shostakovich ".

“An unprecedented thing has happened, which has no significance either in the history of wars or in the history of art — the“ duet ”of a symphony orchestra and an artillery symphony. Formidable counter-battery guns covered an equally formidable weapon - Shostakovich's music. Not a single shell fell on the Arts Square, but an avalanche of sounds fell on the enemy's heads from radios and loudspeakers in a stunning all-conquering stream, proving that the spirit is primary. These were the first volleys across the Reichstag! "

E. Lind, founder of the Seventh Symphony Museum,

about the day of the blockade premiere

During the Great Patriotic War, interest in real art did not wane. Artists of drama and musical theaters, philharmonic societies and concert groups contributed to the common cause of fighting the enemy. Front-line theaters and concert brigades were very popular. Risking their lives, these people proved with their performances that the beauty of art is alive, that it is impossible to kill it. Among the frontline artists, the mother of one of our teachers also performed. We bring her memories of those unforgettable concerts.

Front-line theaters and concert brigades were very popular. Risking their lives, these people proved with their performances that the beauty of art is alive, that it is impossible to kill it. The silence of the front-line forest was broken not only by the artillery shelling of the enemy, but also by the admiring applause of the enthusiastic spectators, calling on the stage again and again their favorite performers: Lydia Ruslanova, Leonid Utesov, Klavdia Shulzhenko.

A good song has always been a faithful assistant to a fighter. With the song, he rested in the short hours of calm, recalled relatives and friends. Many veterans still remember the battered trench gramophone, on which they listened to their favorite songs to the accompaniment of artillery cannonade. The writer Yuri Yakovlev, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, writes: “When I hear a song about a blue kerchief, I am immediately transported to a cramped front-line dugout. We are sitting on bunks, the meager light of a smokehouse flickers, firewood crackles in the stove, and on the table is a gramophone. And the song sounds, so dear, so understandable and so tightly merged with the dramatic days of the war. "A modest little blue handkerchief fell from his lowered shoulders ...".

In one of the songs popular during the war, there were the following words: Who said that one should abandon the Songs in the war? After the battle, the heart asks for Music doubly!

Given this circumstance, it was decided to resume the production of gramophone records, interrupted by the war, at the Aprelevsky plant. Beginning in October 1942, from the press of the enterprise, records went to the front along with ammunition, cannons and tanks. They carried the song that the soldier needed so much, into every dugout, into every dugout, into every trench. Together with other songs, born in this difficult time, he fought with the enemy and "Blue Handkerchief", recorded on a gramophone record in November 1942.

Seventh Symphony by D. Shostakovich

Form start

End of form

Events 1936-1937 for a long time they discouraged the composer from the desire to compose music with verbal text. Lady Macbeth was Shostakovich's last opera; only during the years of Khrushchev's "thaw" will he be able to create vocal and instrumental works not "on occasion", not to please the authorities. Literally devoid of words, the composer concentrates his creative efforts in the field of instrumental music, discovering, in particular, the genres of chamber instrumental music-making: the 1st string quartet (1938; a total of 15 works will be created in this genre), the piano quintet (1940). He tries to express all the deepest, personal feelings and thoughts in the genre of a symphony.

The appearance of each of Shostakovich's symphonies became a huge event in the life of the Soviet intelligentsia, who expected these works as a true spiritual revelation against the backdrop of a squalid semi-official culture crushed by ideological oppression. The broad mass of Soviet people, the Soviet people knew Shostakovich's music much worse, of course, and was hardly able to fully understand many of the composer's works (that is why Shostakovich was “worked through” at numerous meetings, plenums and sessions for the “over-complexity” of the musical language) - and this with that reflections on the historical tragedy of the Russian people were one of the central themes in the artist's work. Nevertheless, it seems that none of the Soviet composers could so deeply and passionately express the feelings of his contemporaries, literally merge with their fate, as Shostakovich in his Seventh Symphony.

Despite persistent proposals to evacuate, Shostakovich remains in besieged Leningrad, repeatedly asks to enroll him in the people's militia. Finally enrolled in the fire brigade of the air defense forces, he contributed to the defense of his hometown.

The 7th symphony, completed already in evacuation, in Kuibyshev, and performed there for the first time, immediately became a symbol of the resistance of the Soviet people to the fascist aggressors and faith in the coming victory over the enemy. So they perceived her not only at home, but also in many countries of the world. For the first performance of the symphony in besieged Leningrad, the commander of the Leningrad Front L.A. Govorov ordered to suppress enemy artillery with a fire blow so that the cannonade would not interfere with listening to Shostakovich's music. And the music deserved it. The ingenious "episode of the invasion", the courageous and strong-willed themes of resistance, the mournful monologue of the bassoon ("Requiem for the victims of the war"), for all their journalism and poster simplicity of the musical language, really have a tremendous power of artistic influence.

August 9, 1942, Leningrad besieged by the Germans. On this day, the Seventh Symphony of D.D. Shostakovich. 60 years have passed since the orchestra of the Radio Committee was conducted by K.I. Eliasberg. The Leningrad Symphony was written in the besieged city by Dmitry Shostakovich as a response to the German invasion, as a resistance to Russian culture, a reflection of aggression at the spiritual level, at the level of music.

The music of Richard Wagner, the favorite composer of the Fuehrer, inspired his army. Wagner was the idol of fascism. His dark majestic music was consonant with the ideas of revenge and the cult of race and power, which reigned in German society in those years. Wagner's monumental operas, the pathos of his titanic masses: Tristan and Isolde, The Ring of the Nibelungen, The Rhine's Gold, Valkyrie, Siegfried, The Death of the Gods - all this splendor of pretentious music glorified the cosmos of German myth. Wagner became the solemn fanfare of the Third Reich, which conquered the peoples of Europe in a matter of years and stepped to the East.

Shostakovich perceived the German invasion in the key of Wagner's music as the victorious ominous tread of the Teutons. He brilliantly embodied this feeling in the musical theme of the invasion that runs through the entire Leningrad symphony.

In the theme of the invasion, one can hear the echoes of Wagner's onslaught, the culmination of which was "Flight of the Valkyries", the flight of female warriors over the battlefield from the opera of the same name. Her demonic features in Shostakovich dissolve into the musical roar of the oncoming musical waves. In response to the invasion, Shostakovich took the theme of the Motherland, the theme of Slavic lyricism, which in a state of explosion generates a wave of such force that cancels, crushes and discards Wagner's will.

The Seventh Symphony immediately after its first performance received a huge resonance in the world. The triumph was universal - the musical battlefield also remained with Russia. Shostakovich's brilliant work, along with the song "The Holy War", became a symbol of the struggle and victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The “Invasion Episode”, which seems to live a life separate from the other sections of the symphony, with all the caricature and satirical sharpness of the image is not at all so simple. At the level of concrete imagery, Shostakovich depicts in it, of course, a fascist war machine that has invaded the peaceful life of Soviet people. But Shostakovich's music, deeply generalized, with merciless directness and gripping consistency, shows how an empty, soulless insignificance gains monstrous strength, trampling on everything human around. A similar transformation of grotesque images, from vulgar vulgarity to cruel, overwhelming violence, is found more than once in Shostakovich's works, for example, in the same opera The Nose. In the fascist invasion, the composer recognized, felt something familiar and familiar - something about which he had long been forced to remain silent. When he found out, he raised his voice with all fervor against the anti-human forces in the world around him ... Opposing non-humans in fascist uniforms, Shostakovich indirectly painted a portrait of his acquaintances from the NKVD, who for many years kept him, as it seemed, in mortal fear. The war with its strange freedom allowed the artist to express the forbidden. And this inspired further revelations.

Soon after the end of the Seventh Symphony, Shostakovich created two masterpieces in the field of instrumental music, deeply tragic in nature: the Eighth Symphony (1943) and the piano trio in memory of I.I. Sollertinsky (1944), a music critic, one of the composer's closest friends, like no one else who understood, supported and promoted his music. In many respects, these works will remain unsurpassed peaks in the composer's work.

Thus, the Eighth Symphony is clearly superior to the textbook Fifth. It is believed that this work is dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War and is located in the center of the so-called "triad of military symphonies" by Shostakovich (7th, 8th and 9th symphonies). However, as we have just seen in the case of the Seventh Symphony, in the work of such a subjective, intelligent composer as Shostakovich was, even “poster” ones, equipped with an unambiguous verbal “program” (for which Shostakovich was, by the way, very stingy: the poor musicologists, no matter how hard they tried, could not extract from him a single word that clarifies the imagery of his own music) the works are mysterious from the point of view of specific content and do not lend themselves to superficial figurative-illustrative description. What can we say about the 8th symphony - a composition of a philosophical nature, which still amazes with the grandeur of thought and feeling.

The audience and the official critics at first accepted the work quite well-wishingly (in many respects in the wake of the ongoing triumphal march through the concert venues of the 7th Symphony world). However, a harsh retribution awaited the daring composer.

Everything happened outwardly as if accidentally and absurdly. In 1947, the aging leader and Chief Critic of the Soviet Union, JV Stalin, together with Zhdanov and other comrades, deigned to listen at a private performance to the last achievement of multinational Soviet art - Vano Muradeli's opera Great Friendship, which had been successfully staged by that time in several cities of the country ... The opera was, admittedly, very mediocre, the plot extremely ideologized; In general, the Lezginka to Comrade Stalin seemed very unnatural (and the Kremlin Highlander knew a lot about lezginka). As a result, on February 10, 1948, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was issued, in which, following the harsh condemnation of the ill-fated opera, the best Soviet composers were declared “formalistic perverts” alien to the Soviet people and their culture. The resolution directly referred to the controversial articles of Pravda in 1936 as a fundamental document of the party's policy in the field of musical art. Is it any wonder that Shostakovich's surname was at the head of the list of "formalists"?

Six months of incessant vilification, in which each was refined in his own way. Condemnation and actual prohibition of the best compositions (and above all the brilliant Eighth Symphony). A heavy blow to the nervous system, which was already not very stable. Deepest depression. The composer was overwhelmed.

And they brought him to the very top of the semi-official Soviet art. In 1949, against the composer's will, he was literally pushed out as part of the Soviet delegation to the All-American Congress of Scientists and Cultural Workers in Defense of Peace - to make fiery speeches on behalf of Soviet music in condemnation of American imperialism. It turned out pretty well. From that time on, Shostakovich was appointed as the “front facade” of Soviet musical culture and mastered the difficult and unpleasant craft: to travel to various countries, reading prepared propaganda texts in advance. He could no longer refuse - his spirit was completely broken. The capitulation was reinforced by the creation of appropriate pieces of music - no longer just compromise, but completely contradicting the artist's artistic vocation. The greatest success among these crafts - to the horror of the author - was won by the oratorio "Song of the Forests" (to the text of the poet Dolmatovsky), which glorifies Stalin's plan for the transformation of nature. He was literally overwhelmed by the enthusiastic reviews of his colleagues and the generous rain of money that fell on him as soon as he presented the oratorio to the public.

The ambiguity of the composer's position was that, using the name and skill of Shostakovich for propaganda purposes, the authorities did not forget to remind him on occasion that no one had canceled the 1948 decree. The whip organically complemented the gingerbread. Humiliated and enslaved, the composer almost abandoned true creativity: in the most important for him genre of symphony, an eight-year caesura appears (just between the end of the war in 1945 and the death of Stalin in 1953).

By creating the Tenth Symphony (1953) Shostakovich summed up not only the era of Stalinism, but also a long period in his own work, marked primarily by non-programmed instrumental compositions (symphonies, quartets, trios, etc.). In this symphony - consisting of a slow, pessimistically self-deepening first movement (sounding over 20 minutes) and three subsequent scherzos (one of which, with a very harsh orchestration and aggressive rhythms, is supposedly a kind of portrait of a hated tyrant who has just died) - as in no other the other revealed a completely individual, unlike anything else, the composer's interpretation of the traditional model of the sonata-symphonic cycle.

Shostakovich's destruction of the sacred classical canons was not carried out out of malice, not for the sake of a modernist experiment. Very conservative in his approach to musical form, the composer could not but destroy it: his worldview is too far from the classical one. The son of his time and his country, Shostakovich was shocked to the depths of his heart by the inhuman image of the world that had appeared to him and, unable to do anything about it, plunged into gloomy reflections. Here is the hidden dramatic spring of his best, honest, philosophically generalizing works: he would like to go against himself (say, joyfully come to terms with the surrounding reality), but the “vicious” insides take its toll. Everywhere the composer sees banal evil - disgrace, absurdity, lies and impersonality, unable to oppose it with anything but his own pain and sorrow. The endless, forced imitation of a life-affirming worldview only undermined strength and devastated the soul, simply killed. It is good that the tyrant died and Khrushchev came. The "thaw" has come - the time for relatively free creativity.