NOSPR / Dalia Stasevska / Jonathan Roozeman - NOSPR

When Stalin decided to make music understandable for the millions of working class people and unleashed the infamous ‘refurbishment of the artistic front’ with his attack on Shostakovich and his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtcensk District, Kabalewski was one of the first to follow the suit. However as we know - tyrant’s favours are uncertain - and so during the Zdhanov doctrine period Kabalewski alongside Shostakovich were temporarily enlisted as antisocial formalists. Even today it is not clear why Shostakovich was put on that list; his compositions were always simple, full of flowing melodies and formally quite clear in their structure. It all applies to his lyrical Cello concerto  composed in the years 1948-49 for Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, a member of the famous Oistrakh Trio (with Lew Oborin, the pianist). It would be interesting to know Zdanov’s opinion on works by Sibelius, especially on his 7th Symphony which final movement was once interpreted as a musical vision of the Finnish struggle for independence. The work was premiered in Stockholm on 24th March 1924 and it was called  Fantasia sinfonica No. 1 then – probably due to its novel form, ‘condensed in its constant phase-changing flow’ as Bohdan Pociej put it. Sibelius varied it internally, against all the then rules, replacing customary key modulations with sharp changes of tempi, articulation and musical texture. There are no empty gestures here to please the audience. Instead there are deep emotions, stunning though cold colours of sonority, evoking fleeing glimpses of the northern lights.