The 1948 Zhdanov condemnation of composers for "formalism" targeted many of my favorite composers, such as Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Popov, and so it seemed like a good idea to check out another of the condemned composers, Vissarion Shebalin.
This statement in the Wikipedia biography summarizes nicely what is often written about Shebalin: "Shebalin was one of the most cultured and erudite composers of his generation; his serious intellectual style and a certain academic approach to composition make him close to Myaskovsky."
The Freegal streaming music service offered at some public libraries has the first four of Shebalin's five symphonies, so I listened to them. I liked the first (1925) and the second (1929); the third (1935) and fourth (also 1935) made less of an impression on me.
When I tried researching Shebalin, I noticed he doesn't seem to get a lot of love. I could not find a website devoted to his music, and generally there just isn't much material out there.
Caption for the above photo, taken from Twitter, "The infamous Tikhon Khrennikov (10 June 1913-2007) with the famous Sergei Prokofiev."
The photo is from the myaskoviev 2 Twitter account, which is run by a gentleman from Australia named Melvyn Madigan. The name of the account refers to Nicolai Myaskovsky and his pal Sergei Prokofiev. The current account is a successor to the myaskofiev Twitter account, where Mr. Madigan states his musical preferences: "TCHAIKOVSKY & PROKOFIEV are justly the most performed Russians. Also love Myaskovsky and others. (But, not Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov)."
This is half a loaf from my point of view, as I like Shostakovich and Stravinsky, but it's a very tasty half loaf, as I love Prokofiev and also enjoy Myaskovsky. But in fact, photos related to Shostakovich and Stravinsky do crop up. Below is another photo from the account I liked (I've copied Mr. Madigan's captions):
Prokofiev diary (Moscow), 16 April 1933: "Shostakovich, just back from Sverdlovsk, called in. He wanted me to take a score of his to Lenfilm. I told him about performances of his works in the West I had attended. We went to the Central Telegraph with his wife, charming woman."
The little guy is Vissarion Shebalin (11 June 1902-1963).
1948 was a dramatic year in Soviet music; it saw the condemnation of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Myaskovsky, Popov, Shebalin and Popov. As Russian music specialist Marina Frolova-Walker notes in the interesting video lecture, above, the condemnation damaged all of the top composers at the time.
While some elements of the story did not surprise me, I learned many interesting or amusing details. For example, it's well-known that Shostakovich wrote the Song of the Forests to please Stalin, but I did not know that a tune from the work is a popular children's song in Japan. The remarks on what officials had to come up to award the Stalin Prize with so many top composers essentially ruled ineligible also was interesting. I have the video above, but for a transcript and other information, go here. Frolova-Walker is a Russian native but now a professor of music history at Cambridge University.
I would love to see a full list of the works condemned and banned from performance in 1948. I could not find it, the best I could do was this: "A signifcant part of denounced composers and their works are as follows: Shostakovich’s opera The Nose, Symphony Nos. 2, 3, 8, 9 and Second Piano Sonata; Prokofiev’s ballets The Prodigal Son, On the Boristhenes, Pas Dacier and his operas The Flaming Angel, War and Peace, Symphony Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, Piano Concerto, Fifth Piano Sonata, and a number of piano works; Khachaturian’s Symphonie-Poeme; Mossolov’s Iron Foundry, Newspaper Advertisements; Knipper’s opera North Wind, Tales of a Porcelain Buddha; Shebalin’s Lenin Symphony, Symphony No. 2, the Quartet and String Trio; Popov’s Symphony No. 1; Liatoshinsky’s Symphony No. 2 and songs; Boelza’s Symphony Nos. 1, 2 and songs; Litinsky’s: Quartets and Sonatas; Shcherbachev’s Symphony No. 3, Popov’s Symphony No. 3, Miaskovsky’s Symphony Nos. 10, 13, Third Piano Sonata, Fourth Piano Sonata, etc." (Source).
