The Symphony That Conquered the World: Diplomatic Support of the Foreign Premiere of D. D. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in 1942–1943

Abstract

This article analyses the plots of international life concerning the premieres of D. D. Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony outside the USSR, their preparation, and their effect on the political establishment, the humanitarian elite, and ordinary listeners in 1942–1943. The competition of outstanding conductors such as A. Toscanini, L. Stokowski, H. Wood, S. Koussevitzky, etc. for getting the right of the Western premiere, the correspondence with them of the composer himself, the formation of public opinion, and, finally, the episode associated with Shostakovich’s failed trip to the US in 1942, make it possible to significantly complement the retrospective picture of the “journey” of Symphony No. 7 around Europe and the US. The documents the author refers to focus on the socio-political results of the process of presenting a work that “contributes to the support of the unyielding spirit underlying our common hopes for ultimate victory” and “expresses the power of Russia in a way that words can never do” to the West and the role of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in it, encouraging reflections on the role of Art in the world at war. They make it possible not only to trace the chronology of the diplomatic “accompaniment” of the premieres of the Leningrad Symphony in the West in 1942–1943, but also to see who “conducted” its truly victorious sounding not only in the allied countries but also in neutral states. This article uses documents from the Archive of Russian Foreign Policy concerning the performance of the Leningrad Symphony outside the USSR, which have never been introduced into scholarly circulation previously.