The Fire-Watcher's First

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 283, 24 November 1944, Page 8

The Fire-Watcher's First

F every New Russian composer who sets out to write the monster symphony of the century has a name that offers as many spelling possibilities as that of the Fire-watcher of Leningrad, linotype operators are in for a hard time in the coming years of cemented relations with the U\S.S.R. You are permitted to call him Schostakovitch, or you may delete two letters on the ‘grounds that they are superfluous and call him Shostakovich. Alternatively you may follow the style of one recording company’s label and call him Szostakowicz. In any of these cases you are still at liberty to vary the pronunciation at will, placing one strong accent on the second syllable only, or making two trochees, with accents on the two O’s, There are still further possibilities, according to the station you tune your set to: for instance, Sostovitsky (3YA, with confidence), or Shokatoffovitch (2YA, with diffidence). ma a

tae ; UT if you hold out for democratic . individualism in the uttering of his surname, regimentation will claim you when you come to uttering your opinion of Shostakovich’s music. For if it is permissible to hold any one of a dozen views of Schubert, Schumann, or Szymanowski, only two views of Shostakovich are permitted in the best musical circles. You must adore or abhor, You may regard him as the Saviour of Modern Music, and be greeted with indulgence and gentle tolerance by Those Who Know. Or you may side with Khaikosru Sorabji, music critic to the New English Weekly, who calls him "the inordinately boomed Russian musical nonentity." But when I listened for the first time to the

new recording of the Symphony No, 1 in F (from 2YA), as one of a group representing both camps, I nodded appreciatively when told "Of course he was 19 when he wrote it"; and afterwards, being expected to venture an opinion, sought escape in that haven of the diffident, "Well, I’d like to hear it again, you know."