Listening to Shebalin

Vissarion Shebalin

 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. 

A must-follow Twitter account for Russian music fans

 

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).

 [And that's Prokofiev in the middle].