Yet in purely creative terms the young Stravinsky and Prokofiev could be placed in Rimsky-Korsakov’s orbit much more than Shostakovich. Stravinsky’s early symphony, when first publicly performed in Petersburg in 1908, was perceived as a composition, according to Asafyev, “displaying the complete mastery of the methods of his favorite teachers, including Glazunov.”36 Rimsky-Korsakov even felt that in this symphony Stravinsky was “imitating too much” both Glazunov and himself. It is not difficult to determine that Stravinsky’s first ballet,
Rimsky-Korsakov’s influence on Prokofiev is probably even more profound. Prokofiev’s symphonies are built more as paintings in the style of Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic poems than as developing psychological dramas in the manner of Rimsky-Korsakov’s rival, Tchaikovsky. It was Shostakovich who picked up Tchaikovsky’s symphonic technique.
But Shostakovich also adopted Rimsky-Korsakov’s attitude toward orchestration as a quality of musical thought and not something external that is added to the composition like a dress on a hanger. Rimsky-Korsakov said this about his
For Shostakovich this idea became a leading artistic principle, and it explains why he was dubious about Prokofiev’s later practice of allowing other musicians to orchestrate his works. Shostakovich was not satisfied by the explanation that Prokofiev made rather detailed preliminary sketches for them. Shostakovich usually imagined a new composition in the form of a full score that he had to write down himself, even though in his last years, when he had difficulties in using his right hand, doing so was quite a problem for him.
As he did with Prokofiev, Glazunov persuaded Shostakovich’s parents to let the youth study composition at the conservatory. Glazunov was the guest of honor at Shostakovich’s fifteenth birthday party in 1921, when the young composer’s father, a noted chemist at the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, was still alive. Mitya was made uncomfortable by the close relations between the conservatory director and his parents. He told me the reasons much later.
Glazunov was subject to bouts of heavy drinking. Early in their regime, the Bolsheviks had banned the official sale of wine and vodka. Yet Shostakovich’s father had access to strictly rationed spirit alcohol through his work. Learning this, Glazunov sometimes asked him to get him some of the precious liquid. These requests were transmitted through Mitya, who was bothered by this for two reasons. First, he feared Glazunov’s requests were endangering his father. The times were hard and it was impossible to guess whom the Bolsheviks would suddenly decide to shoot as a lesson to others. The recent execution of Gumilyov was on everybody’s mind. Second, Mitya did not want his success at the conservatory to be attributed to bribery.
Maximilian Steinberg, Shostakovich’s teacher, was head of the composition department of the conservatory then. He adored his student, according to Bogdanov-Berezovsky.38 Steinberg was a typical representative of the Belyaev Circle, but his conservative orientation did not keep him from considering Shostakovich the most talented young composer in Leningrad and the hope of Russian music.
Then and later, Shostakovich could be rather skeptical about Steinberg, but it was nothing compared with the violent emotions Stravinsky seemed to have about the teacher. Stravinsky told the conductor Malko in 1934 (and only partly tongue in cheek, it seems), “So many people died in the revolution, why did Steinberg survive? I’m not bloodthirsty but … they shot engineers, why did these people keep on living? I left because I couldn’t bear the life that those obscurantists created for me. And now Steinberg’s at the conservatory.” A bit taken aback, Malko reminded Stravinsky that he must have liked Steinberg at one time; he had dedicated the orchestral fantasy
