Dmitry Shostakovich. Sketches for a portrait of the composer (1967)

Intercut with: view from train window, D.D.Shostakovich standing by the window.

White Nights in Leningrad.

View of St.

Isaac's Cathedral.

Camera passes under the bridge, view of Peter and Paul Fortress.

Leningrad Philharmonic.

Orchestra on stage.

Conductor M.D.Shostakovich. D.D.Shostakovich speaks to M.D.Shostakovich. D.D.Shostakovich enters auditorium.

Rehearsal of First Symphony underway. D.D.Shostakovich in the auditorium.

View of auditorium and stage from above.

Photographs from Shostakovich family album.

Corridors of Petrograd Conservatory where D.D.Shostakovich studied.

Rimsky-Korsakov classroom.

Portrait of N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov on the wall, piano at the entrance.

Piano keyboard.

Photographs.

Photos from rehearsals of V.V. Mayakovsky's play "The Bedbug".

A scene from the play, with I. Ilyinsky in the role of Prisypkin.

Photos.

Transport on the city streets.

The "Barrikada" cinema, where D.D. Shostakovich worked as a pianist in his youth.

Stills from the film "The Return of Maxim".

Transport on the street in front of the Barrikada cinema.

Stills from the film Hamlet.

Trolleybuses and buses pass by the Barrikada cinema.

The Lenfilm studio pavilion.

Filming of the opera film Katerina Izmailova. G.P. Vishnevskaya narrates.

Newsreel from the 1930s. D.D. Shostakovich plays the piano score of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko speaks.

Leningrad Maly Opera Theatre (Mikhailovsky Theatre).

Photographs of the premiere of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in 1934. Photographs by D.D. Shostakovich.

Premiere of the second version of the opera in 1962. The audience applauds. D.D. Shostakovich walks through the auditorium and shakes handshakes with the conductor and the first violin.

A woman hands flowers to D.D. Shostakovich.

Alternation: audience applause, the composer and the artists take a bow. L.B. Kogan narrates. S.T. Richter and the Borodin Quartet rehearse a quintet.

M.L. Rostropovich narrates. D.D. Shostakovich and M.L. Rostropovich with musicians at a rehearsal of Concerto No. 2 for cello and orchestra.

Fragment of the rehearsal.

The Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra performs the 5th Symphony.

The finale of the symphony is heard, conducted by E.A. Mravinsky.

Applause from the audience.

View of the stage and the hall from above.

View of the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery.

The Motherland Monument.

The Eternal Flame is burning.

Photographs of Leningrad during the siege.

The empty Philharmonic Hall.

Newsreel 1941-1942. Leningrad during the siege. D.D. Shostakovich at the piano working on the 7th Symphony.

The composer turns off the light and raises the curtain.

View from the window of destroyed and burning houses.

Dissolve: burning trees and houses, sheet music.

Program of the concert in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic on August 9, 1942. Meeting of the surviving listeners and performers of the 7th Symphony in the Philharmonic Hall 25 years later.

View of the auditorium.

Mutual greetings of the audience and the orchestra.

The conductor is preparing to begin the performance.

Faces of the audience.

The 7th Symphony is playing.

Music stands with sheet music.

In the orchestra, musical instruments lie and stand in empty places.

The eternal flame burns. D.D. Shostakovich with his son at the "Motherland" monument at the Piskarevskoye Cemetery.

Presentation of the prize "For Strengthening Peace Among Nations" to D.D. Shostakovich.

Applause from the audience.

Nazim Hikmet Ran, I.G. Ehrenburg, A.I. Khachaturian congratulate the composer. T.N. Khrennikov presents the Lenin Prize to D.D. Shostakovich for the creation of the 11th Symphony dedicated to the 1905 Revolution.

Congratulations from the composer.

Leningrad Maly Opera Theatre. D.D. Shostakovich in the hall.

The 11th Symphony is playing.

Faces of the audience.

White Nights, views of Leningrad.

Fragment of a ballet production to the music of the 11th Symphony.

Views of Leningrad.

Photographs of D.D. Shostakovich, work on the 13th Symphony.

Trains rush towards each other in the night.

Alternation: D.D.Shostakovich on a train, raindrops on a window pane.

Views from the train window.

View from above onto the auditorium.

Faces of the spectators. D.D.Shostakovich.

Yerevan.

Airplane on the airfield.

Greeters with bouquets of flowers. D.D.Shostakovich descends the steps and greets the audience.

Decade of Russian Music.

Alternation: faces of the audience, D.D.Shostakovich's performance on the platform.

Edinburgh. D.D.Shostakovich descends the steps of the plane.

Guests of the Edinburgh Festival disperse to buses.

Streets of Edinburgh. D.D.Shostakovich talks with a foreign colleague.

Ceremonial procession of the bagpipe orchestra.

Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod).

Monument to M.Gorky. D.D.Shostakovich and other participants of the contemporary music festival walk along the street. D.F.Oistrakh, A.K.Yansons, K.P.Kondrashin are talking.

Entrance to the Philharmonic building.

The audience applauds D.D.Shostakovich.

A quintet is playing. D.D. Shostakovich with musicians.

Faces of the audience.

White nights, views of Leningrad.

A chandelier under the ceiling of the Philharmonic.

A spotlight glides across the empty hall.

An ambulance rushes through the city (partially shot from a car).

Old trees around the Sverdlov Leningrad Hospital. D.D. Shostakovich walks through the rows of musicians.

The composer greets the audience.

Alternation: ovations from the audience, congratulations from the orchestra members.

A line of people with flowers near the stage.

A view from the window of a moving train. D.D. Shostakovich stands by the window.