Information
- BFI identifier283095
- Date1969-03-06 (Television)
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- SynopsisA film from Russia about the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich. NB Throughout the following synopsis "St Petersburg" is used despite the changing names of the city. The film opens with footage of Shostakovich on board a train with the Seventh Symphony on the soundtrack. The composer's son Maxim rehearses the finale of the First Symphony, and the opening movement underpins the story of Shostakovich's childhood, his cinema career and shots of the Barricad Cinema, on the Nevsky Prospect, St Petersburg, where Shostakovich worked as a pianist. There is a snatch of the Song of the Counterplan from the film VSTRECHNYI (1931) (no clip) after which there are clips from VOZVRASHCHENIYE MAXIMA (1937) (the billiard game scene), GAMLET (1964) (carrying Hamlet's corpse at the end of the film) and KATERINA IZMAILOVA (1966) (the wedding party - in b/w; the original film is in colour). There are also some stills from the original stage production of the opera and a brief clip of Shostakovich playing an extract of the opera on the piano to the theatre-director Nemirovich-Danchenko in the 1930s. Sviatoslav Richter and the Borodin String Quartet rehearse the finale of the Piano Quintet, Mstislav Rostropovich plays and talks about the Second Cello Concerto (Yevgeny Svetlanov conducting), Yevgeny Mravinsky conducts the end of the Fifth Symphony. The Seventh Symphony "Leningrad" accompanies scenes of the siege of Leningrad, Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery in St Petersburg and Shostakovich and his son Maxim stood by the eternal flame. There is also a brief newsreel clip of Shostakovich playing the piano at the time he was composing the symphony in 1941. On August 9th 1967 - the 25th anniversary of the symphony's premiere - those members of the orchestra and audience who had been at the premiere and were still alive reconvened. The conductor Karl Eliasberg was one of these. The Eleventh Symphony "The Year 1905" accompanies scenes of St Petersburg, and then a ballet which was produced to the music. Stills of the composer accompany the 'Anna Frank' episode from the first movement of the Thirteenth Symphony "Babi Yar". There is a shot of Kiril Kondrashin conducting though it is unlikely that this is the first performance of the work. A shot of Shostakovich in Gorky for a festival devoted to his music with violinist David Oistrakh, and conductors Arvid Yanssons and Kondrashin. Shostakovich playing his Piano Quintet with the Beethoven Quartet at the festival. Shots of St Petersburg are accompanied by the an arrangement for harp and strings of the Romance from the film score The Gadfly. Shots of Shostakovich at a St Petersburg festival devoted to his music. The titles are accompanied by a fragment from the Eighth Symphony. (NFA Catalogue)
- Work historyShown in the Omnibus series under the title SHOSTAKOVICH. Russian title means SKETCHES FOR A PORTRAIT OF A COMPOSER.
- Genre
- Subject
- Credits
- Cast
Title
Eskizy K Portretu Kompozitory (Original)
Shostakovich (Alternative)
Category
Non Fiction- Collections
No collections held by the BFI. This record is for information only.
- Omnibus
Series Work - 768323
United Kingdom - TV - Non Fiction
- Eskizy K Portretu Kompozitory
Work - 283095 - 1969-03-06 (Television)
United Kingdom - TV - Non Fiction
No film or video materials are
held by the BFI National Archive
- Eskizy K Portretu Kompozitory
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