User talk:107.140.225.147

Shostakovich in Shanghai
I reverted your edit about Shostakovich's Op. 35. Although your reference information was incomplete, I eventually realized I had a sealed copy of Lang's book sitting among my stacks!

My rationale for reversion was proven correct after reading the book. For one thing, nowhere does it say that Itkis' Shanghai performance was the first played outside the USSR by a pianist other than the composer. It only states that the work was locally "introduced" by Itkis in 1936 (p. 111); a note later clarifies that the date was January 5 (p. 219). The first performance outside the USSR, in fact, occurred in the US on December 15, 1934; it was played by Eugene List, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. List became identified with the concerto for a time and he regularly performed it on tour.

Generally, there was strong interest in Soviet music both in the West and in Japan during the 1930s. The music of Alexander Mosolov, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Gavriil Popov, et al were performed in the West, but Shostakovich was the best known and most frequently played of all. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 and suite from The Golden Age were popular works, as Otto Klemperer commented to the composer himself in 1936. Artur Rodziński's 1935 performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District in New York City was broadcast nationally in the US and made the composer something of a controversial figure in American music at the time. Lang's assertion that performances of Soviet music outside the USSR were rare at the time is incorrect. —CurryTime7-24 (talk) 20:55, 8 May 2024 (UTC)