Imagine Greater Cincinnati cut-off, surrounded and pummelled by air and artillery day and night for nearly two and a half years, its citizens without utilities and food, where pets became sustenance. In the Summer of 1941 Adolf Hitler turned his Nazi war-machine eastward toward the Soviet Union and Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) — a thriving arts city of nearly 3 million people, of which 1.3M were evacuated just before and early into the 872-day seige. Only 700,000 survived the starvation, cold winters and bombardment. So, how does music fit into a story of genocide?
Composer Dmitri Shostakovich was born, grew up, and worked in Leningrad. When the Nazis set their sites on the U.S.S.R., Shostakovich began his 7th Symphony. As the Nazis encircled the city in late Summer of 1941, the Soviet government ordered its star composer to evacuate with his family. He begrudgingly did so (with two movements complete) and finished his large scale work in Kuybyshev (Samara), where it was premiered by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra (evacuated from Moscow) on March 5, 1942.
Orchestras in the U.S. and the West clamored to be among the first to perform Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony. Micro film of the score traversed oceans and several continents amidst government intrigue. The Symphony had performances in London (June) and New York (July), but its most moving was held in Leningrad on August 9, 1942. (The date Hitler predicted he would hold a victory party in the city’s Astoria Hotel).
To create a diversion the Soviet defenders began an artillery assault on several Nazi positions just before the concert to draw A soldier buys a ticket to the Leningrad premiere attention away from the lit theater across town. Three of the rag-tag group of radio orchestra members and military band musicians, assembled for the Leningrad performance, died of starvation during the 40-rehearsal schedule (The CSO and the KSO prepare this work on 4 rehearsals today). As the historic concert was broadcast throughout the city on loudspeakers, Shostakovich’s epic 7th Symphony fostered a sustaining hope within the musicians and audience in the hall, and those citizens and soldiers listening, instilling the spirit to persevere until the Nazis were driven back in January of 1944.
The Kentucky Symphony orchestra recalls this amazing work’s story in “Back in the U.S.S.R.” The concert opens (not with the Beatles but) with Sergei Prokofiev’s Overture to his opera based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace, followed by Shostakovich’s tribute to his native town and citizens. Those attending will hear (in addition to the up-sized orchestra — 8 horns, 6 trumpets, 6 trombones), the distant sounds of bombardment prior to the concert to help imagine the conditions into which this symphony was born.
Join the KSO for a cold January recollection of tribulation and perseverance via symphonic music — 7:30 p.m. Saturday, January 25 at Greaves Concert Hall on the campus of NKU. For additional info and tickets — kyso.org or (859) 431-6216.
P.O. Box 72810 Newport, KY 41072 ● Phone: (859) 431-6216 ● www.kyso.org
James R. Cassidy, Music Director
