Koussevitzky and Soviet-Era Composers

Grechaninov - Missa oecumenica, performed by the BSO and conducted by Serge Koussevitzky

Featuring Maria Kurenko, soprano; Dorothy Cornish, alto; Roland Hayes, tenor; Robert Hall Collins, bass; E. Power Biggs, organ; Cecilia Society Chorus & Apollo Club of Boston (Arthur Fiedler, conductor)

Alongside his prolific programming of American composers (examined in last week’s episode), Serge Koussevitzky also continued to promote the composers from his birthland. He conducted works by composers who, like him, had left Russia’s Soviet regime (Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Grechaninov), and by those who created from within the tightly monitored Soviet artistic system (Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Shostakovich). This week’s episode features one composer from each camp. 

Like Koussevitzky, Aleksandr Grechaninov (1864-1956) was a Russian émigré to America by way of Paris, leaving Russia a few years after the Soviet revolution. According to the BSO’s 1944 program notes, Grechaninov had completed the Missa oecumenica in 1943 for the Koussevitzky Music Foundation (which was established in 1942 shortly after Natalie Koussevitzky’s death). Koussevitzky led the work’s first performances on February 25 and 26, 1944, at Symphony Hall. However, the Mass is not in fact a Koussevitzky Music Foundation commission: Grechaninov began work on the Mass in the 1930s, well before the Foundation’s creation. Koussevitzky, who had premiered Grechaninov works in Moscow, offered the composer one thousand dollars for the rights to perform the work, predicated on the condition that the score be dedicated to Natalie. The score has never been published, but the manuscript is held in the Library of Congress’s collections, with the dedication on the cover. Grechaninov’s aim was to unite Eastern and Western Christian traditions in an ecumenical expression of faith; he set the Latin text used in Catholic services to a blend of Russian, Gregorian, and Hebrew-derived musical traditions. In addition to being part of the world premiere performances, this radio broadcast notably includes African American tenor Roland Hayes, who in 1923 had been the first Black performer to perform as a soloist with the BSO. 

Among the composers working behind the Iron Curtain that Koussevitzky championed was Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). Koussevitzky conducted Shostakovich’s First symphony, as well as his Fifth through Ninth symphonies, and gave the live audience U.S. premiere of the Seventh and the U.S. premiere of the Ninth (the latter being the last symphony composed during Koussevitzky’s lifetime). In all, Koussevitzky conducted 96 performances of Shostakovich’s works with the BSO and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. As part of the celebration of Koussevitzky’s 150th birthday, the Boston Public Library has digitized many of Koussevitzky’s personal scores, including his score to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6, featured in this week’s episode. When Koussevitzky introduced Shostakovich’s Sixth to Boston audiences in 1942, he programmed it two weeks in a row, and then took the symphony on tour. This radio broadcast features a reprise at Symphony Hall the following season. While Koussevitzky never commercially released the Sixth Symphony with the BSO, he did record the first movement of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 and the entirety of Symphony No. 9 for RCA Victor in 1945 and 1946, respectively. Under Andris Nelsons, the BSO has recorded all 15 Shostakovich symphonies on six albums for Deutsche Grammophon, three of which have won Grammy Awards.