Historical and musical project
"Memory Score"

In 2022, there will be 80 years of an event that will forever go down in world history: the performance of D. D. Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony in Leningrad. The performance of this work on August 9, 1942 in besieged Leningrad, in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic, by the orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee under the direction of K.I. Eliasberg became not only a unique cultural phenomenon, but also the most important socio-political event during the Second World War. It was also a kind of final chord that completed the “journey” of this musical work through the regions of our country, evacuation associated with the Leningrad Philharmonic, and through the capitals of the countries allied to the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, to the banks of the Neva. Kuibyshev and Moscow, Tashkent and Novosibirsk, London and New York... The historical map of events unites generations, allowing documents, artifacts, and research to recreate a polyphonic picture - the Score of Memory.

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich will talk about the “Memory Score” project, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the siege premiere of the Seventh Symphony, in a special section of its website.

To the 80th anniversary of the performance of the Seventh Symphony by D.D. Shostakovich in Leningrad

On the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade, the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D. D. Shostakovich announces the start of preparation of a new project “Memory Score”, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the performance of the legendary Seventh Symphony, later called “Leningrad”.

The performance of D. D. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was not only a unique event in musical culture, but also the most important socio-political event. Performed on August 9, 1942 in besieged Leningrad by the symphony orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee under the direction of K.I. Eliasberg, it is rightly called “the first salvos in Berlin.”

The project is intended to contribute to the preservation in historical memory of knowledge about one of the significant humanitarian events of the Second World War, to strengthen the image of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D. D. Shostakovich as a creator of genuine spiritual values in the modern sociocultural space, to strengthen interregional ties of the musical, historical and museum communities through cross-industry collaboration.

The project involves a three-part “composition”: a conference, a memorial exhibition and - as a key event - a concert of the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonic - the former Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic on August 9, 2022.

The conference dedicated to the Leningrad Symphony in cultural memory will be attended by musicologists, historians and researchers of the Second World War (Great Patriotic War), archivists and museum workers from various regions of Russia. The main topics are the performance of the Seventh Symphony during the war and its significance, memorialization of the memory of this event, reflection on it, unknown documents about the preparation and premieres of the work in the RSFSR and abroad. Information mail

The exhibition in the foyer of the Great Hall, which will open on August 9, 2022, will show unique exhibits, many of which have never been exhibited: the score, personal correspondence of D. D. Shostakovich, original instruments and belongings of the musicians and conductor K. I. Eliasberg, - participants in the Leningrad premiere, posters, photos, etc. related to the performance of the Symphony in Kuibyshev, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Tashkent, London, New York and, of course, in Leningrad, which will have a key place in the exhibition. In this way, the historical and information space of the existence of a unique phenomenon, which was the Leningrad Symphony, will be “reconstructed” in the domestic and world cultural landscape.

As part of the project, the preparation of an illustrated monograph of the same name will begin, the chapters of which will be devoted to the “geography” of the performance of the Seventh Symphony and the socio-political resonance of this event in our country and abroad, as well as the place of D. D. Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony in the cultural and historical memory.

The final event of the project will be a concert of the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonic in the Great Hall with a live broadcast of the performance of the Seventh Symphony on the Internet and on the radio: a tribute to the feat of the Leningrad creative intelligentsia, through hunger, cold and bombing, who brought the indestructible power of Art to the world.

Author of the idea and curator: Yulia Kantor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director - Chief Researcher of St. Petersburg Institute of the Russian Academy of Science