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Lot 227
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Shostakovich Signs Program in Cold War Cultural Exchange
Shostakovich Signs Program in Cold War Cultural Exchange
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Description:

Shostakovich Dmitri

Shostakovich Signs Program in Cold War Cultural Exchange

 

This autographed program comes from the National Symphony’s “A Salute to the Cultural Exchange Program” that featured as “Honor Guests” five Soviet composers and a musicologist, who was also an official in the Union of Soviet Composers. The concert, led by Music Director and Conductor Howard Mitchell also featured Dmitri Kabalevsky as a Guest Conductor and a performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, which had premiered in Leningrad in 1953, after the death of Joseph Stalin.

 

The controversial 1979 book Testimony, which purports to be the memoirs of Shostakovich, has him claim, “I did depict Stalin in my next symphony, the Tenth. I wrote it right after Stalin's death and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It's about Stalin and the Stalin years. The second part, the scherzo, is a musical portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course, there are many other things in it, but that’s the basis.” [DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH.] Printed Document Signed, Program for National Symphony concert, “A Salute to the Cultural Exchange Program,” with five other “Honor Guests” from the Soviet Union, four of whom also signed the cover of the program with Shostakovich, October 24, 1959, Washington, D.C. 3 pp. 5.5" x 8.5". Very good.

 

Excerpt:

“It is a great privilege to present this special concert marking the opening of the 30-day tour of the United States by this distinguished delegation of musical figures from the U.S.S.R. Their visit is a concrete example of active, productive cultural exchange between our country and the Soviet Union. Even more, it exemplifies the highly valuable programs carried out by the Department of State, the President’s Special Program for Cultural Presentations in cooperation with such organizations as the American National Theatre and Academy, American Council on Education and the Music Committee of the President’s People to People Program.”

 

During the Cold War between the United States-led West and the Soviet Union-led East, artistic competition was among the metrics that both sides used to judge their relative success. Signed in Washington, D.C., on January 27, 1958, the Lacy-Zarubin Agreement called for a broad array of cultural, educational, and scientific exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union. Among many other types of delegations ranging from Congress and the Supreme Soviet to youth groups, the agreement arranged to allow Soviet and American groups of writers, composers, and painters and sculptors to make reciprocal visits to the two nations.

 

The quantity and quality of these exchanges immediately became an issue of Cold War diplomacy. In 1958, the President’s Fund sponsored thirteen performing arts projects. During that same time, by contrast, the Soviet Union had sent 118 arts delegations to the West, and another 82 came from the Soviet-controlled East Bloc. In October 1958, a delegation of music composers visited the U.S.S.R.—Ulysses Kay, Roger Sessions, Roy Harris and Peter Mennin—but the Russians felt that U.S. delegation was not as good as their delegation, because they had not heard of the American composers. This program represents what the Soviets considered to be the best of their composers.

 

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and showed musical talent when he began taking piano lessons at age nine. He began study at the Petrograd Conservatory at age 13, and he wrote his First Symphony as his graduation piece at the age of 19. He began a career as a concert pianist and composer, but his style of playing was often unappreciated, and he concentrated more on composition. He continued to produce patriotic music, though Joseph Stalin and the official Communist Party newspaper Pravda criticized some of his work as incomprehensible to the masses. During World War II, Shostakovich continued composing in Leningrad and then Moscow. In 1948, the Supreme Soviet denounced Shostakovich and other composers for their inappropriate and formalist music. Most of his works were banned as anti-proletarian, and he was dismissed from the Moscow Conservatory. Over the next several years, he composed film music for income, official works to gain official rehabilitation, and serious works that he hid away. In 1949, Stalin sent Shostakovich to New York for the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace, but Shostakovich could read only from prepared texts in interviews. After Stalin’s death in 1953, Shostakovich’s rehabilitation moved forward. In 1960, he joined the Communist Party, and from 1962, he served as a delegate in the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. His Twelfth Symphony of 1961 was dedicated to Vladimir Lenin. Before his death from lung cancer, Shostakovich composed fifteen symphonies and six concerti, in addition to fifteen string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. He also wrote three operas and much film music.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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