"SOVIET UNION - 1936" "Valery Gergiev" " Conductor" "Our bloody tyrant was in a bad mood one day." "He was irritated by something." "And then he went to the opera." ""LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK" ACT TWO, SCENE FOUR" "Now I'm really hungry." "Is there any dinner left?" "Hey there!" "Are you deaf?" "There are some mushrooms." "Just the thing!" "Bring me some mushrooms." "I've poisoned him," "The old man will die, from rat poison!" ""Pravda" was the official organ of the Central Committee." "Karen Khachaturian - composer" "It published a devastating editorial, viciously attacking the opera." "Flora Litvinova - friend" "We knew that the Pravda editorial meant the end of this music, and even that Shostakovich' very life was in danger." "Call for the priest, Katerina dear," "Call for the priest, maybe death is approaching." "How it burns!" "It burns like fire!" "My life has been long, and my sins many," "Bring the priest here, the priest," "God, Oh, God!" "It' so painful!" "So painful!" "Where are the keys?" "I never heard him complain even once." "Abram Gozenpud - musicologist" "But he knew he was vulnerable to unjust criticism." "And clearly this criticism was absolutely unjust." "How is it possible to accuse of soulless formalism, the music of a bleeding heart, a heart laid bare." ""Suliko"" " Stalin' favourite folksong" "Long I searched for your grave." "Long I roamed, Suliko." "But it is impossible to find." "Where are you, my Suliko?" "The ban on Shostakovich was in force." "Dmitri Tolstoy - composer" "And the whole population was so terrorised that they didn't know how to relate to Shostakovich." "Many thought he'd soon be in prison." "Many betrayed him." "Those in the Composer' Union who had once praised his music, now began to denounce him." "4TH SYMPHONY - 1936" "The 4th Symphony was about the times, the cruel times, about the nightmare of repression." "Mariana Sabinina - musicologist" "And he, himself, withdrew the 4th from performance." "He had been warned to do this because its tragedy is so sharp, so cutting that it was impossible not to notice." "It would have provoked horrible controversy." "The system suspected that something was wrong here." ""Life has become better, life has become merrier", said Stalin, but Shostakovich insisted on writing tragic themes." "Mariya Konniskaya - friend" "They sensed with their snouts that something was wrong here." "Stalin declared, " Life has become better, life has become merrier"." "And this at a time when the concentration camps were full of hundreds of thousands of political prisoners." "They often declared, "Let' make life better."" ""Let' have 5-year plans and life will be better"." "But, in fact, life didn't often get better." "So Shostakovich had this toast which he liked to propose, full of a certain sarcasm." "The toast went like this," ""Let' drink to life not getting any better!"" "LENINGRAD" "He didn't remember the time before the Revolution." "He was 11 years old, what could he remember?" "He grew up during Soviet times." "That' why he absorbed everything from our epoch:" "The New Economic Policy, all these frightening years, the 20s, the 30s, the exiles, arrests, collectivisation, all that." "This optimism that was imposed on everything." "Cinema which sugar-coated reality." "Like this..." "The morning greets us with a cool breeze" "The river greets us with the wind." "Curly Locks, why are you not cheered" "By the happy song of the factory whistle?" "Don't sleep, wake up, Curly Locks." "There is a ringing in the woods." "The country rises in glory To welcome the day." "This song is very reflective of the day." "Excerpt from the film "Counterplan" (1932) Music by Shostakovich" "The gloomy, severe Shostakovich of his last years was very cheerful in his youth." "He wrote children' pieces, I can show you how sweet this waltz for children is by Shostakovich." "Natan Perelman - friend" "It seems that for those who know Shostakovich' symphonies, the 4th, the 8th, and other symphonies, it would seem incredible." "How could he have written this?" "He was like that, he was remarkably full of life in his youth." "And afterwards the difficult life of our generation had to leave its mark." "5TH SYMPHONY - 1937" "I was at the premiere of the 5th Symphony in the Great Hall of the Conservatory." "It made a stunning impression." "Really stunning." "I remember how the audience rose and stood there for over half an hour." "The applause lasted that long." "There was such a feeling of joy, of happiness:" ""Finally we have heard the music which we wanted to hear."" "It was during a very difficult time, a time of terror in our country." "Vladimir Rubin - composer" "Many people close to Shostakovich were swept away by this bloody meat-grinder." "This symphony was crucial for his destiny because his very life was at the brink of extinction." "When the 5th Symphony appeared, the official opinion was that Shostakovich had seen the light." "Ilya Musin - conductor" "It seemed that he had become a Soviet man." "But, in fact, with the 5th Symphony," "Shostakovich expressed allegorically everything he had endured, all these persecutions." "Labour Camps - 1937" "Under Stalin, many people were repressed and imprisoned." "Galina Shostakovich - daughter" "Those arrested included friends and even relatives of Shostakovich." "For instance, his sister Maria' husband was arrested and died in prison." "My grandmother, that is, my mother' mother, was also arrested and exiled." "So this couldn't fail to affect Shostakovich' character or his optimism." "This makes a profound impression on your life." "He was austere, very reticent about this subject." "February 6, 1937" "The wrath of the entire nation was aroused by the trial of the disgusting Trotskyist agents of international Fascism." "Our whole country, young and old, demands one thing:" "That the traitors and spies who sold our country to the enemy be shot like filthy dogs." "They were trying to steal from the working class of the whole world, our beloved comrade Stalin." "Death to the betrayers of the homeland!" "Until late last night, columns of Moscow workers were marching in support of the justice system which destroyed the vile Trotskyists." "The Soviet people became even more closely united around the great leader, comrade Stalin." "In 1937 he received a summons from the "Big House", as we used to call it, from the KGB." "Veniamin Basner - composer" "He went and was received by this investigator, who seemed very friendly, but suddenly he asked, "Do you know Tukhachevsky?"" ""Yes, I know him."" ""And what about the plot to assassinate Comrade Stalin?"" "And here, Shostakovich, paralysed, was unable to speak." "He felt shivers run up and down his spine." ""You have to recall, it is very important for you."" ""Now, I will sign your summons, you will go home."" ""Today is Saturday." "On Monday at 12 o'clock you will return here,"" ""but I advise you to remember it at all costs."" "Shostakovich said, " I realised that this was the end."" ""People I knew, to whom I was very close,"" ""were disappearing around me every day"" ""and it was clear that I had fallen into this bloody wheel"." "When he returned on Monday at 12, having said goodbye to his wife and his family, knowing that he would never return, there was a soldier on duty." "He gave his name, the soldier started going through all the lists and then asked, "Whom are you here to see?"" "Shostakovich said, "Investigator Zakovsky"." ""Well, he can't see you today." "Go home now, they'll inform you when..."" ""I returned home and I learned that Zakovsky, himself,"" ""had been arrested the day before, on Sunday."" "This decided Shostakovich' fate." "When I listen to my father' work, it evokes in me some kind of nervousness." "I can't say that I picture my father, but I can sense his nervousness." "And if anyone ever saw how Father listened to his own music, he listened to it very nervously, covering his mouth with his hands." "He was all tense, listening and repeating it." "If it were a work with words, he'd actually be singing it." "So this kind of nervousness is transmitted to me." "It' not by accident that he was attracted to tragic themes, themes of world significance, to conflict." "Shostakovich juxtaposed the individual and subjective to the collective and the national." "Yes, he speaks about the tragedy of the self in a cruel world, a world which threatens the very existence of mankind." ""On June 22, 1941, Hitler' bands treacherously and viciously invaded the Soviet Union."" "Comrades, soldiers of the Red Army, sailors, commissars and partisans." "The whole world is looking on you as a power capable of destroying the bandit hordes of German invaders." "All the nations temporarily under the yoke of German tyranny are looking at you as their liberators." "Let the unconquerable flag of the great Lenin guide you to the complete annihilation of the German invaders." "Death to the German occupiers!" "Under Lenin' flag towards victory!" "7TH SYMPHONY - 1941" "My 7th Symphony was inspired by the tragic events of 1941." "To our struggle against Fascism, to our future victory over the enemy, and to my native city of Leningrad, I dedicate this piece." "The Siege began." "The Germans completely surrounded us and the famine began." "First all the shops closed down." "Then the lights went out." "Then the water supply and the sewage system stopped." "Then the heating." "Winter was coming." "We had no light, no water, nothing." "We went to the ice-hole and people were dying there." "They would go with their bucket and freeze there." "I'd go to work - from Tolmachov Street to Zhdanov Street," "I went by foot." "I'd go, I'd see people there." "And in the evening there were corpses lying there." "You walk, someone falls, and you haven't even got strength to help them get up." "These were very difficult times at the beginning." "It was already difficult in Leningrad before February." "And then the deaths began." "I lived through it." "I began having fainting fits from hunger in January." "But my mum arranged through friends for me to go to a shelter where people were fed kasha." "Kasha saved people because on 125 grams of bread a day it was difficult not to die." "At times you feel such pain that the stomach demands food, and everything inside you is clenched." "Your psychological state changes." "At these moments it seems you are ready to jump at the table, the chair, the walls, to gnaw at them, if only you could extinguish this." "And if you yield to this urge, that' the end." "They ate nothing." "Oh, yes, they boiled glue, leather straps from suitcases, things like that." "All the cats and dogs had already been eaten by November or December." "All the cats and dogs were gone." "I never saw people eating each other." "Did you see it?" "You were in the militia." "I never saw it first hand, but when we went to the apartments to carry the corpses away, a part of their body would be missing." "Either a leg or an arm, wherever there was flesh." "Flesh, indeed!" "When people were barely able to move." "Of course this happened." "Not everyone could control themselves." "Some were weak." "He was stunned by this Siege, and at first didn't even want to be evacuated, except he had little kids and Nina, and worried about the whole family." "So they managed to take him out of there." "But he suffered intensely about Leningrad." "He told me, " I have started a new symphony."" ""I'm not sure anybody needs it when this terrible war rages."" ""But listen to this." And he sat at the piano." "Isaak Glikman" " Shostakovich' Secretary" "He played the first part, and then the theme and variation which depicts the fascist invasion." "I absolutely lost my head." "My mouth was dry." "I was shaken by the radiant beginning and by the tapped out sound of the executioners invading Russia and the world." "We both remained silent." "The musicians who stayed behind to work for the radio were dying." "But they organised a concert." "Eliasberg was the conductor during the Leningrad Siege." "So he counted, how many violins are left?" "Half have died." "There is one oboe, the other died." "There is one bassoon." "But in the end, they performed the 7th Symphony." "I grabbed my instrument and when I opened the case it also turned out to have dystrophy." "Ksenia Matus - oboeist" "All the pads had turned green, the valves had turned green." "The oboe wouldn't play, but I took it as it was." "And when I got to the hall I became frightened." "Those I had known before the war were so emaciated." "Some were covered with soot, their faces were blackened with smoke." "They were hungry, and all dressed in I don't know what." "But they came." "Eliasberg stood up at the podium." "He lifted his hands and they were trembling, and to my imagination, he was a wounded bird, whose wings are hurt, and is about to fall." "But he didn't fall." "I came for the 7th Symphony and I had this same seat." "Tatiana Vasilyeva" " Siege survivor" "When I entered the hall, tears came to my eyes because there were many people, all elated." "We listened with such emotion, because we had lived for this moment, to come and hear this music." "This was a real symphony which we lived." "This was our symphony." "Leningrad'." "They performed in the Philharmonic, and outside bombs and shells were exploding." "It was incredible." "This proved that the spirit prevails over matter." "The spirit is more important than matter." "It was so meaningful for all of us." "We realised that this concert might be the last thing we'd do in our lives." "Music was everything." "Never mind the kasha, or that we were hungry." "No one could feed us, but music inspired us and brought us back to life." "In this way, this day was our feast." "Comrades, The Anti-Fascist meeting of Artists has been called in these historic days." "In our gigantic battle against German vandalism, history has entrusted us with a mission:" "To liberate mankind from the brown plague." "And let the slogan:" ""Everything for the Front", become our daily inspiration." "Soon happier times will come." "Let us continue our fight, so that when peace comes, everyone can say with pride that he has devoted his work to the struggle against bloody Fascism for the bright future of Mankind." "MOSCOW - 1943" "For me the 8th Symphony is his best symphony." "It clearly lets you understand what it' about." "In plain language we can say that it is about totalitarianism." "This horrible reality, and the pitiable human soul which is looking for a place to hide from it." "Like that." "In Shostakovich, slowly, gradually, from symphony to symphony, the tension assumed a more vivid, a more tragic form." "And history has exposed all the forces that prevented Dmitri from living and creating quietly." "But apparently such is the fate of the great artist." "1943" "The foundations of human existence are crumbling." "It' some kind of devilishness, Satan' Feast." "That' what it is." "The 8th Symphony is a great work." "It is an enormous canvas of the cataclysm of the 20th century." ""My century, my savage beast, who will dare look into your pupils?"" "So wrote Mandelstam." "And in the 8th Symphony" "Shostakovich looked into the pupils of this century." "Moscow, the Red Square." "On June 24, 1945, by the walls of the sacred Kremlin, 200 flags of the defeated Hitler armies bow at the feet of the victors." "On the tribune of the Mausoleum are comrade Stalin, and the leaders of the Party of the Soviet Union." "When the war ended," "I was spending the 9th of May in Moscow." "Dmitri did not come out to the square that day because his joy over the victory was mixed with a feeling of bitterness." "He hid this feeling." "He told only me about it." "He was afraid that on the crest of this victory," "Stalin would consolidate his tyranny, consolidate his despotism, and his inhumanity." "9TH SYMPHONY - 1945" "When he first showed it, some asked, "Is he serious about all this?"" "And many Communist zealots and idealogues said," ""What, is he making fun of our victory?" "What is this?"" "This kind of melody." "A kind of street whistling." "Too light, I would say, for a symphony." "Shostakovich did what is called giving the finger in the pocket." "Will our friends understand this?" "It means to do this but in your pocket so no one sees it..." "That is, of course, sarcasm." "Sarcasm is characteristic of Shostakovich' work, but it is a sarcasm which does not reject everything in life." "It is directed only against evil, only against violence." "The National Congress of Composers February 1948" "The Resolution of the Party' Central Committee commands us to obey the demands of the Soviet people in the matter of the musical creative activity." "Against Shostakovich and other prominent Russian composers," "Myaskovsky, Prokofiev, Shebalin, Popov, an accusation of "formalism" was made." "The composers named in the Resolution were labelled "Against the People", whatever that meant." "This is almost the same as the label, "Enemy of the People"." "This was at a time when all those who were to be arrested were branded "Enemies of the People"." "Here, the association is strong." ""Composers Against the People"." "Our duty is to mobilise our creative forces, and to answer the call of our great leader, comrade Stalin." "Tikhon Khrennikov Secretary of the Composer' Union" "Yes, my first assignment was to read the Party' Resolution at the Congress." "Tikhon Khrennikov - 48 years later" "But I didn't write this speech." "I just began my public activities and not only couldn't I write speeches, but I spoke very badly as an orator." "Khrennikov acted reprehensibly, but at least he did not support the arrest campaign." "He did not participate in these repressions, and he is very proud of this." "But he did think that Shostakovich was a formalist, and that this formalist should be taught a lesson." "They say Shostakovich lived in fear." "You know what?" "I think all of this has been terribly exaggerated." "Shostakovich was such a cheerful man." "Well, maybe he had some fears, I don't know." "But he was a normal man who reacted normally to everything that was going on, and there was nothing for him to be afraid of, because everyone saw him as the peak of our culture." "The wolf cannot speak about the fear of the sheep." "Shostakovich was subordinate to Khrennikov." "And Khrennikov was Shostakovich' curator from the Party." "Khrennikov has said that he himself had nothing to be afraid of but I don't trust this statement." "All were afraid." "Khrennikov had his fear, Shostakovich his." "We were programmed with it, it infiltrated our innermost life." "As he approached the podium the deputy minister of culture, a big official, handed him these pieces of paper and said," ""Dmitri, read this, it says all that is necessary."" "Shostakovich stood at the podium holding these papers." "He began to read them." "They said everything," ""I've been writing music against the people, I this, I that"." "In short, it was terrible slander of himself, a very unpleasant repentance." "And when he reached the place where it said that his music was "against the people", he tore himself away from the papers, looked somewhere into the far end of the hall, and said somewhat perplexed, in a child-like way," ""You see, I thought that if I express sincerely my feelings in music,"" ""it couldn't be against the people."" ""I myself, who am I?" "I thought I am also to an extent 'the people'."" "Here he recollected himself, looked down and continued to read what they had given him." "Comrades, people' composers always write realistic music." "RAYOK - 1948 - (to the tune of "Suliko")" "While anti-people composers always write formalistic music." "All musicians perceived the absurdity of this Resolution." "And Shostakovich' reaction to this, when he returned from the Congress, was to write "Rayok"." "We must forbid these dubious experiments in the field of formalistic music." "Shostakovich had written a satire but of whom?" "Evidently of Stalin, Zhdanov and all those who criticised him." "Alisa Shebalina - friend" "And Shostakovich played it for my husband, Shebalin." "He wanted his opinion, so my husband warned him," ""Destroy it immediately, or hide it well."" "Because he was afraid that if it were made public," "Dmitri would be in danger, maybe even of death." "In Caucasian operas Lezghinka should be rousing, popular, and truly Caucasian." "It must be authentic, always authentic, and only authentic." "Yes, yes, yes, authentic." "In Caucasian operas Lezghinka should be rousing, popular, and truly Caucasian." "It must be authentic, always authentic, and only authentic." "Yes, yes, yes, authentic." "That is what I call a scientific discourse, sparkling with so many profound ideas!" "This miserable Resolution had a very cruel effect not only on the work but on the very existence of our best composers," "I would say geniuses, Prokofiev and Shostakovich." "In this period Shostakovich had to write music for films." "Very, very bad films in which Stalin or the Revolution were exalted." "Very bad films and bad music." "But he had to live, he had to feed his family." ""The Fall of Berlin" - 1949" ""The Fall of Berlin" was a strange film, in which Stalin was glorified." "He was forced to write it." "This was an order from Stalin." "Stalin understood that this was a great composer, a great name." "And he wanted all the greatest artists to be the creators of this film about him." "Comrades, today we celebrate our great victory over German fascists." "May I kiss you, comrade Stalin?" "For everything." "For everything you did for our people." "For us." "Long live Russia!" "Long live Stalin!" "Long live Stalin!" "Long live Russia!" "Let' guard the peace." "For the future." "Peace and happiness to all of you, my friends." "4TH SYMPHONY PERFORMED ONLY AFTER STALIN'S DEATH" "Throughout the city, an endless river of people rises up, and on this day of mourning they rush towards the House of Unions," "for a final farewell to the glorious leader and teacher of the workers," "Josef Vissarionovich Stalin." "The tyrant was gone, the unprecedented tyranny of the last 30 years had ended." "And naturally the whole country experienced a sense of relief." "It would be three more years until 1956, and the condemnation of the cult of Stalin' personality, but changes quietly began to take place." "This was crucial to Shostakovich." "In many of Shostakovich' works there is a struggle between the power of evil," "seemingly unbeatable, and the power of good, which becomes more powerful as the struggle unfolds." "It opposes evil, but Shostakovich never ends his symphonies with celebratory, pompous, rejoicing chords, which proclaim happiness and peace on earth." "He was too sober and wise an artist to depict heaven on earth at a time when hell was on earth."