On January 18th, 1930 the Leningrad Maly Theater was offering
the premiere of a satirical opera, The Nose, written by the 25 year-old
composer Dmitry Shostakovich. He had selected for a subject an eponymously-titled
fantastic tale by Nikolai Gogol dealing with an important government official,
who was in reality the incarnated nose of a humble clerk, Major Kovalev,
which vanished from his face at the barber's. The Nose, a stinging satire,
allegorical and expressionist by design, had only a few performances.
The opera made a big stir long before the premiere. Reading the
score, the singers flatly refused to rehearse their parts and conductor
Samuil Samosud had to use all his clout to pacify the indignant company.
Before long, however, the singers were surprised to realize that the music
was much easier to memorize than they initially suspected. The Maly Theater's
artistic director, Nikolai Smolich unleashed his imagination to the limit
resulting in a performance that was real fun to watch.
People especially liked the scene where Major Kovalev wakes up
and tells his servant to bring a mirror to inspect a pimple that had come
up on his face the night before. Just imagine how surprised he was to find
out that the pimple was gone… along with the nose itself!
The local Communist party bigshots were all there, led by Sergei
Kirov, who said he had made neither head nor tail of the music, but hastened
to add that he didn't know a thing about it at all. He said he liked the
opera's innovative spirit and encouraged the theater's managers to keep
up the good job and feel free to experiment.
The critics were divided in their assessment of Shostakovich's
new opera.
"Shostakovich departed from the traditional operatic form"
raved Ivan Sollertinsky, "but he was careful enough to stay clear
of the pseudo-Soviet idiom where the rugged commissars are singing sugary
ariosos a-la "dolce Italia"…"
Another leading critic, Mikhail Yankovsky, was less amused:
"The Nose is an experimental thing, no doubt about that,"
he fumed, "but it strays too clear of what the Soviet opera should
be all about…"
The other critics largely concurred, accusing the composer of
the mortal sin of distracting the listener from the everyday problems of
socialist construction… The "apolitical" intellectuals, however,
were the only ones who appreciated the true magnitude of Shostakovich's
pioneering effort. The famous film director Grigory Kozintsev provided
the following eye-opening description of the new opera:
"Stage scenery was rolling like crazy to the blood-quickening
sound of rollicking galops and dashing Polka dances… Gogol's fantasy was
being translated into sound and color. It looked like the very special
language spoken by the young Russian art had stormed like a hurricane into
the venerated world of Aida and The Troubadour. There was no telling the
difference between farce and prophesy…"
To many well-known Russian artists, actors and poets, the first
performance of Dmitry Shostakovich's new opera was a major cultural highlight
of the 1930s Leningrad.
Meanwhile, another Leningrad theater, the former Mariinsky, was
busily preparing for the premiere of the Golden Age ballet, also written
by Dmitry Shostakovich. Just like The Nose, this one was also tainted by
scandal when members of the theater's ballet company, weaned on classical
tunes, said the music was simply not danceable enough. The younger members
of the troupe disagreed and so Golden Age ballet became the debut work
of the young choreographer Leonid Yakobson and dance school graduates Galina
Ulanova and Konstantin Sergeyev, all enraptured by the new ballet and its
unorthodox music which prompted an all-new dancing technique.
The Golden Age premiered on October 26. Naive as it was, people
still liked it very much offering a standing ovation to the dancers and
the composer. Just like The Nose before it, The Golden Age had only a few
performances. As if anticipating this, Shostakovich made a ballet suite
out of it all and arranged some parts for piano and a string quartet which
have since been frequently performed in Russia and abroad.
In the United States, they were widely celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881.
In 1930 the BSO was conducted by Sergei Koussevitzky under whose baton
the orchestra had gained the well-deserved reputation of a top-notch outfit.
A number of famous composers, including Russians, had been commissioned
to write new music to be played during the anniversary concerts. Igor Stravinsky
contributed his Symphony of Psalms and Sergei Prokofyev - his Fourth Symphony
based on scenes from the ballet The Prodigal Son which Prokofyev wrote
in the 1920s for Sergei Dyagilev's Russian Seasons company. Critics argued
that the new ballet smacked too much of Sergei Rakhmaninoff who, apparently
appreciating the link, always singled The Prodigal Son our of Prokofyev's
musical heritage.
There are two main reasons for Prokofyev's decision to use ballet
music in a symphony. One stems from the composer's previous experience
of rethinking his music. The Third Symphony essentially came out of his
Flaming Angel opera. Secondly, Prokofyev had composed way too much for
The Prodigal Son and the parts that didn't fit in, he later used in the
Fourth Symphony.
The Fourth Symphony was a resounding success. The American composer
Roy Harris wrote after hearing it that "we Americans unanimously agree
that Sergei Prokofyev is by far and without a doubt one of the best musicians
of the 20th century."
In 1930 they set up a symphony orchestra under the State Radio
Broadcasting Committee in Moscow. Since then it's been led by some of this
country's finest conductors and played under the baton of many touring
luminaries from all across the world. For the past 25 years the orchestra
has been led by Vladimir Fedoseyev who is widely admired in Europe and
in Japan.
1930 is the birthday of the Muzgiz music publishers which for
many decades turned out quality and cheap sheet music and books about music.
In the very heart of Moscow, within a few minutes' walk from
Red Square they opened the Scientists' Club in an old mansion which has
since hosted countless conferences and concerts. Russian intellectuals
have always been great followers of fine arts and concerts of symphony
and chamber music are often held here.
In 1930 the Moscow Philharmonic launched a series of regular
concerts for young children and teenagers. Each performance was preceded
by a short introduction made by a professional musicologist a very useful
practice which is still very much in use today. Children's season tickets
to such concerts are selling like hot cakes...
Also in 1930 the inimitable crooner Izabella Yuryeva recorded
a new song which became an immediate bestseller .
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH
CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.
