Shostakovich's 60th

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1966, the 60th birthday of composer Dimitri Shostakovich was celebrated at the Moscow Conservatory with a gala orchestral concert of his music. Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich gave the premiere performance of Shostakovich’s new Cello Concerto No. 2, and the composer’s son, Maxim, conducted his father’s youthful Symphony No. 1 from 1926.

On the morning of the concert, it was announced that, for his outstanding services in the development of Soviet musical culture, the Central Committee had awarded Shostakovich the title “Hero of Socialist Labor,” along with the Order of Lenin and the gold medal “Hammer and Sickle.”

Ironically, earlier that year, Shostakovich had composed a self-deprecating parody piece for voice and piano, Preface to the Complete Edition of My Works and a Brief Reflection apropos of This Preface, whose text included a deadpan recitation of just a small portion of the many honorific titles he had received and the imposing but meaningless official posts with which he had been honored — and now, he found, he had been awarded several more to boot!

All that must have seemed grimly comic to Shostakovich, who, about 30 years earlier, had written an opera which had so offended Joseph Stalin that the composer had come perilously close to disappearing without a trace into the Soviet prison system.

Music Played in Today's Program

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 1; St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Yuri Temikanov, conductor (BMG 68844)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Cello Concerto No. 2; Msistislav Rostropovich, cello; Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa, conductor (DG 437 952)

On This Day

Births

• 1683 - French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, in Dijon

• 1862 - French organist and composer Léon Boëllmann, in Ensisheim, Alsace

• 1896 - Catalonian-born British composer Roberto Gerhard, in Valls (near Tarragona, Spain)

• 1906 - Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Sept. 12)

• 1932 - Canadian pianist and occasional composer Glenn Gould, in Toronto

Deaths

• 1849 - Austrian composer Johann Strauss, Sr., 45, in Vienna

• 1916 - Czech band composer Julius Fucik, 44, in Leitmeritz. He composed the famous "circus" march entitled Entrance of the Gladiators.

• 1997 - French composer and pianist Jean Françaix, 85, in Paris. The composer has written that his family name is pronounced with the final “x” sounded (as in “Aix”-en-Provence), although it's commonly pronounced “Français” by many.

Premieres

• 1870 - Smetana: opera The Bartered Bride (fourth version), in Prague at the Provisional Theater

• 1907 - Sibelius: Symphony No. 3, in Helsinki, with the composer conducting

• 1925 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 4, in Dessau, Germany, conducted by Franz von Hoesslin, with Licco Amar the violin soloist

• 1936 - R. Vaughan Williams: choral suite Five Tudor Portraits, in Norwich, England, conducted by the composer

• 1960 - Paul Ben-Haim: Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, in Tel Aviv

• 1962 - Piston: Lincoln Center Festival Overture, by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, at the third concert scheduled at the newly-opened Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center in New York City.

• 1966 - Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2, in Moscow, by the USSR State Symphony, with Mstislav Rostropovich the soloist and the composer's son, Maxim, conducting

• 1980 - Bernstein: Divertimento for Orchestra, by the Boston Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa

• 1986 - Husa: Concerto for Orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta

• 1997 - John Adams: Piano Concerto (Century Rolls), at Severance Hall, with pianist Emanuel Ax and the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi

Others

• 1966 - On the occasion of his 60th birthday, Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich is nominated as a “Hero of Socialist Labor” by the Soviet government