Recollections of a Man

Recollections of a Man Shostakovich was a man of contradictions. Of course, he had a group of devoted The family memories collected in the musicians who can also be regarded as his monograph by Seroff convey the picture of friends: the Beethoven Quartet, David an unusually gifted young man, incredibly Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Moisei hard-working, caring for, improving Vainberg - but these were, mainly, artistic the living standards of his family - and, friendships. simultaneously, an everyday nuisance. These inborn character features became This stemmed not only from the fact that, more and more prominent as, throughout during the composer’s most difficult years, the years, his life was submitted to severe people broke with him for their own security, tests and experience, when the problem but also because Shostakovich used to keep was not to provide himself and his family people at bay. It suffices to mention that he with adequate livelihood, but how to addressed very few people by their survive and avoid repression. Christian names and he would refer even to So, his difficult character underwent his closest friends in a formal way or by changes, which eventually led him to a means of their patronymic. Hence, to state wherein it would be hard to speak Sollertinsky he would say ”Ivan Ivanovich”, about Shostakovich as a human being to Glikman ”Isaac Davidovich”, although responding in an ordinary way, thinking not always consistently. All of his life rationally and acting consistently. he used ”Mister” to Mravinsky, and with Oistrakh they called each other by their His behaviour was beyond unequivocal first names only in Shostakovich’s final evaluation. Some people saw an opportunist years. A factor in his isolation was his in him, others judged his actions as signifying latent inability to build up contacts. his disapproval of the Soviet authorities, He himself wrote about that while recalling still others saw him as an embodiment of a his first encounter with Sollertinsky; typical Russian possessed man who pretends yet when raging terror created general fear, to be not quite sane and, under the guise of Shostakovich could become absolutely mental deficiency, discloses to the world in detached. The proof for that comes from an obscure manner what is true, and, by the memoirs by Nicholas Nabokov, Arthur coarse, colourless, and deliberately awkward Miller, and Hans Mayer. Having few words, reveals his thoughts. friends, Shostakovich inevitably socialised with people who played a very ambiguous Probably he was partly all of these things, role in the cultural life of the Soviet Union. and they came inseparably together in him - like his remarkable modesty and lack of My desire to make contact with Shostakovich belief in his own potentials, blended with arose in the late Fifties. The reason why his morbid (sic) ambition to be the first and was certainly his music rather than him as the best. a person, because what I knew from official sources in those days did not encourage Obviously, his behaviour and demeanour one to make an acquaintance. In Poland, did not win people’s hearts, though many as in all communist countries, considered themselves his friends. Shostakovich was associated first of all However, in his whole life he had only a with pieces like Song of the Forests and, few real friends; their names can be reeled at best, the Leningrad or the Fifth Symphony off quickly: apart from Sollertinsky, there (defined solely as ”the answer of a Russian were undoubtedly Isaac Glikman and Leo composer to just criticism”). Arnshtam. His friendship with Mravinsky was irrevocably broken in the early Sixties. Apart from such works, there were his His relations with Shebalin were also clouded, many unbearable propaganda-ideological as well as with the young Denisov, whom statements, blatantly mirroring the attitude he strongly supported for some time. of the communist Party, which, for a majority of the Polish intelligentsia, were enough to condemn him. Such masterpieces as The Nose and Lady Macbeth and his early symphonies (except the First) were not 9 n°4 - winter 1995 widely known, Soviet propaganda insisting that I will be away from Moscow...” Yet I did not they were artistically degenerate. drop out of my trip and when I reached Moscow, Thus, for me Shostakovich existed only as the I made up my mind to try my luck come what composer of the First, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth may. symphonies, the Piano Quintet, and the Cello Sonata, since, in those years, practically nothing I went to the office of the Composers’ Union else was performed. where Khrennikov’s personal secretary informed me with forced politeness that Dmitri The First and Tenth symphonies sufficed, however, Shostakovich was at home (!) and would stay in to open to me, as a teenage music student, Moscow for a week, but that he was too busy to a fascinating new world of sound. receive visitors. Giving me his telephone number The rarity of his music in itself made me eager was out of the question. I sensed that my wish to to get to know as many of his pieces as possible, meet him was not welcome among the officials yet the chances to do so were extremely restricted. of the Union - yet I never managed properly to A few people privileged to meet Shostakovich assess the extent and depth of their resentment personally brought him closer to me and, in their towards Shostakovich. When in the late Eighties descriptions, an official advocate of peace and I asked one of the more polite high-ranking the principles of Socialist Realism was replaced Union functionaries to hand over a small parcel by a tragic victim of the communist regime, to the composer’s widow, I found out after seve- an intimidated man, deprived of the liberty to create ral months that it had not been delivered because and act. Unfortunately, school obligations did not ”no one knows where Mrs Shostakovich is”. allow me to attend the ”Warsaw Autumn” of Meanwhile the ”unobtainable” person lived four 1959 (I lived in Cracow then), so I lost a chance floors above in the same building throughout all to meet him in person. Yet since his music made that time! me more and more impressed (I got to know the then-new Eleventh Symphony at that time), The following year, having wasted several weeks I decided to write a letter to the master and on arranging passport formalities I set off again unfold to him my feelings under the influence of to Moscow. At that time the composer did not his art. It was a long letter and I think I enclosed dwell in Kutuzovsky Prospect, but in the very some of my own pieces. As I didn’t expect to centre of Moscow in a small street previously hear from him, my joy was great when, contrary called Brusovsky Close, for years inhabited by to hearsay about his inaccessibility, a reply came many outstanding artists. Among others, after a couple of weeks, including a photo with a Vsevolod Meyerhold lived there from 1928 till dedication. It coincided with my composer’s his death. In this street there also lived debut, so, full of excitement, I described this in the outstanding singer Antonyna Niezdanova, my next letter, simultaneously thanking him for whose name the street assumed after her death. his quick answer. Another letter arrived, this time Here too stands a small Orthodox Church, one of on a piece of thin card, perhaps the remains of a few not closed down even during the worst some package, contained these few words : years. Niezdanova Street is an offshoot from one ”Dear Krzysztof! I congratulate you on your first of the main Moscow traffic arteries, Tverska concert. Wishing you creative success. (renamed Gorky Street when Gorky was still Affectionately yours, D. Shostakovich”. alive) and ends near Hertzen Street, known for This is how a correspondence began - as yet, the Conservatoire with its famous Piotr of course, not intensive - between a world- Tchaikovsky Great Concert Hall. The first part of famous composer and a teenage highschool Niezdanova Street is connected by a small alley pupil, later a conservatoire student. Shostakovich’s to the equally small Ogariev Street which runs letters were always very concrete and brief parallel with it. In the late Fifties this alley was though warmhearted, which made me resolve to built over by a complex of many-storied edifices visit Moscow one day and meet him in person. in the Socialist Realist style. This wing of Niezdanova Street was occupied by the Soviet In those times, a trip abroad - even to the so-called Composers’ Union and its branch, the Russian countries of the people’s democracies and Republic Composers’ Union, which for eight the Soviet Union - was an exceedingly difficult years was headed by Shostakovich. Here also undertaking. Private trips were basically not allowed was the editorial office of the Sovetskaya Muzika and places in group excursions were hard to monthly, a concert hall, the department of foreign come by. After a couple of months of various contacts, and a low-priced but (by Moscow standards) problems, I finally succeeded in arranging the elegant restaurant open only to Composers’ formalities, and wrote to Shostakovich that I was Union members. Those blocks of flats were inhabited coming to Moscow and would be delighted to by over a hundred families belonging to the see him there. On the eve of my departure country’s most eminent composers, musicologists, I received the following letter : ”...Unfortunately and performers - among them, on floor 6, I will not be able to meet you, since at that time Shostakovich, and a floor below him, 10 n°4 - winter 1995 Aram Khachaturian and Dmitri Kabalevsky.

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