Seventh Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich - a rare score in the Presidential Library’s electronic collections

This year marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Shostakovich, the world famous Soviet composer, pianist and teacher. One of his most famous works is the Leningrad Symphony, performed in the besieged city. Articles and books are written about the history of its creation and execution, TV shows and films are shot. So, in the near future, the series directed by Alexander Kott The Seventh Symphony will be screened.

The Presidential Library’s electronic collections possess this truly unique document - a digital copy of handwritten score of Symphony No. 7 Leningrad by Dmitry Shostakovich with numerous conductor's notes. The four parts of the symphony are presented in four notebooks: Book No. I Allegretto, Book No. II Moderato - Poco allegretto, Book No. III Adagio, Book No. IV Allegro non troppo.

This score was used in the first performance of the symphony on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev by the orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater directed by Samuil Samosud and on August 9, 1942 in Leningrad by the orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee directed by Karl Eliasberg.

The composer began to work on the sketches, which later formed the basis of the symphony, even before the war. In the spring of 1941 he taught in the composition class of the Leningrad Conservatory, but the beginning of the Great Patriotic War changed the life of him and the whole country. After numerous requests from Shostakovich to be sent to the front, he was enlisted in the air defense fire brigade. In parallel, he began working on a major composition in the symphonic genre.

On September 3, 1941, the first part of the symphony was completed, during September, already in besieged Leningrad, the second and third were written, and during the evacuation in Kuibyshev (now Samara), the last, the fourth part was created.

The first performance of the Leningrad Symphony took place on March 5, 1942 conducted by Samuil Samosud in Kuibyshev, where the USSR State Academic Bolshoi Theater Orchestra was evacuated. Then it was performed under his own direction in Moscow, and in Novosibirsk Evgeny Mravinsky conducted the symphony of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.

A historic event was the performance of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony in besieged Leningrad by the Leningrad Radio Committee's Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Eliasberg. It took place on August 9, 1942 - the day that the German command had planned as the day of the capture of Leningrad. The score was delivered from Kuibyshev over the enemy positions by a special plane.

The concert was prepared and held in incredibly difficult conditions. By the end of the first year of the siege only 15 people remained in the orchestra - the rest died, died of hunger, went to the front, and were evacuated. For the performance of the symphony, an expanded composition of the orchestra was required - 100 people. The musicians were summoned from the front - from a company of machine gunners, from an anti-aircraft regiment.

Emaciated Karl Eliasberg went to hospitals in search of musicians. He found the drummer Zhaudat Aidarov already in the dead, but suddenly noticed that his fingers were moving - he was alive. The rescued musician then beat out a drum roll in the "invasion theme" in the first movement of the symphony. Another musician, a trumpeter, wore felt boots in any weather - his legs were swollen from hunger and did not fit into other shoes. According to the recollections of the orchestra members, during rehearsals, some of them physically could not climb to the second floor of the Great Philharmonic Hall due to hunger, Eliasberg himself got to rehearsals from the hospital and conducted while sitting. Additional rations were given to the musicians to play.

“I dedicate my 7th symphony to our struggle against fascism, our upcoming victory over the enemy, my hometown - Leningrad”, - these words of Dmitry Shostakovich are included in the concert program on August 9, 1942, an electronic copy of which is also kept in the Presidential Library’s collections. The emaciated musicians' desire to perform the Leningrad Symphony was stronger than all the difficulties, and the historic concert took place.

The Philharmonic Hall was overcrowded - front-line soldiers, air defense fighters, exhausted Leningraders came. The concert was broadcast on the radio, it was heard by all residents and defenders of the city, and even the enemy troops. During the entire performance of the symphony, enemy shells did not burst in the city - during the special operation "Storm" announced by the commander of the Leningrad Front Leonid Govorov, German batteries were suppressed by massive artillery fire.

The performance of Shostakovich's new work caused a strong emotional uplift among all listeners, it became popular all over the world. One of the proofs of this is the Letter from the head of the press bureau of the USSR Embassy in China E. Vinogradov to D. D. Shostakovich on the performance of the composer's works in Chongqing dated February 2, 1945: "In August 1944, at one of the concerts, Yours Fifth Symphony and the Seventh in January 1945 were performed. Both times your works were well received by the audience".

According to the writer Alexei Tolstoy, quoted in the concert program, “The Seventh Symphony arose on the conscience of the Russian people, who without hesitation accepted a mortal battle with black forces. Written in Leningrad, it has grown to the size of a great world art, understandable at all latitudes and meridians, because it tells the truth about man in an unprecedented time of his calamities and trials".