RARE: Young Shostakovich Playing end of op.35 (1934?)

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Facts established about this video so far: Pianist: Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Trumpeter: Leonid Yuriev (1913-1971) Conductor: Looks very much like Nikolai Golovanov (1891-1953) Orchestra: Probably the "Old" Moscow Philharmonic Venue: Moscow Conservatory "Great Hall" Date: Some time after 1933, October 15th, and, most likely, before the "official ban" of early 1936. So, 1934-1935. Piano: Bechstein, E270. Year Built: ? (Thanks to everyone whose comments helped in establishing some of these facts. Please, keep them coming.) Original Note: This is the famous surviving video of young Shostakovich playing his first piano concerto. Footage is from 1934 or 1935 (I don't know for sure (I remember hearing about those years, but if anyone knows for sure, please let me know) -- definitely not on or before this concerto's premiere on October 15th, 1933, which happened at the Leningrad Philharmonic Hall). This performance is from Moscow Conservatory's Bol'shoi Zal. We get to hear the very end of that performance (starting with the piano cadenza) - the only footage that, supposedly, survives. Video and audio was taken from a DVD of a movie called "Sonata for Viola". In that movie (and most likely the way the original footage was put together) most of concerto video doesn't coincide with audio and audio is played too fast (resulting in a raised pitch). So, I corrected as much as I could. (The frame rate of this video is 28.534 fps, and it seems to work fine after upload). There is even one place (towards the end of the final "stride" cadenza) where the video footage seems to have come from a different performance! (maybe a rehearsal). He hits (wrong) notes that cannot be heard on the audio. (So I tweaked it a bit there). Either way, enjoy it.

Channel: Music
Uploaded: January 21, 2007 at 10:00 am
Author: a1s2d3f4g5q1w2e3

Length: 0:01:48
Rating: 4.93
Views: 109,012

Tags: shostakovich piano pianist music concerto op.35 no.1 1934 old b&w orchestra virtuoso documentary russia leningrad rare

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Video Comments:
037kondo (Saturday 15th of November 2008 11:32:12 PM)
I dont know why...Im not even a fan of this guy Shoshtakovich and yet I come back to this video everyday to listen to it, as if Im addicted.
theholliswake (Thursday 16th of October 2008 01:02:52 PM)
I read in an Oliver Sacks book that Shostakovich's musical "muse" was a metallic sliver in his brain; every time he leaned his head to the side, he "heard" musical inspiration. Pretty interesting. He apparently was not happy about getting the sliver removed.
babikorean (Friday 10th of October 2008 10:21:47 PM)
i LOVE shostakovich!!!!!!!! thank you!
ghmus7 (Friday 3rd of October 2008 06:57:34 PM)
Thank you for this-what a treasure!
richtomes (Monday 22nd of September 2008 02:12:14 PM)
Wonderful - a rare treat
nathan87 (Monday 8th of September 2008 06:55:14 AM)
what if he meant to play different ones.
a1s2d3f4g5q1w2e3 (Sunday 21st of September 2008 12:12:08 AM)
All this is unrelated to the original point: The term "wrong notes" in this particular case refers to the fact that the piano keys Sh. presses and notes you hear in the audio are not the same. It is very likely that he "meant to play the notes that he played". (It doesn't look like he is "messing up".) Also, it is very common for certain composers to play their music differently from the published version. Hope this settles the whole "wrong note" debate.
nathan87 (Sunday 12th of October 2008 04:41:27 AM)
"the piano keys Sh. presses and notes you hear in the audio are not the same." how could you possibly tell that...heh I think the original point was that if the composer is playing then whatever he plays is automatically right. This is obviously false, because even the composer could accidentally play notes he didn't mean to. I don't know this concerto well enough to pick out particular mistakes, but I think I can hear a couple of screw ups in there.
a1s2d3f4g5q1w2e3 (Sunday 12th of October 2008 10:53:23 AM)
"how could you possibly tell that...heh" By listening. (I even get paid for that). The more original point before the original point here was the point I made in the little video description box over there.
gnolti (Saturday 6th of September 2008 05:26:01 PM)
This is an amazingly good piano concerto, especially for a first one. Too bad we don't have the entire thing.