Walt Disney and the Seven Soviets

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robcat2075
Posts: 1867
Joined: Sep 03, 2018

by robcat2075 »

c. 1959 Shostakovich was visiting Disneyland as part of a cultural exchange with other Soviet composers/musicians.

<ATTACHMENT filename="DisneySovietComposersC.jpg" index="0">[attachment=0]DisneySovietComposersC.jpg</ATTACHMENT>

[url=https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=939604421543374&set=a.661115342725618]From Facebook, left to right; Shostakovich, Fikret Amirov, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Walt Disney, Konstantin Dankevich, Tikhon Khrennikov, unknown, and Boris Yarustovsky. Anyone know who unknown is? Yarustovsky wrote extended comments on the venture but I can't find a free online version

The LP album under Shostakovich's arm has a label that seems to say "Good Time Jazz".

In return, the Soviets got Roy Harris, Peter Mennin, Ullyses Kay and Roger Sessions.

Mr. Silly Symphony meets Mr. Not-so-silly Symphony.

I can recall when those glasses seemed like an example of embarrassing Soviet backwardness... and now they're in style!
<ATTACHMENT filename="DisneyShostakovitch.jpg" index="1">[attachment=1]DisneyShostakovitch.jpg</ATTACHMENT>

Fun fact: while searching to see if pic this had been posted before, I found that "Shostakovich" outnumbers "Shostakovitch" by 10 to 1 on this forum.

Wikipedia and Google prefer "ich" but my browser spelling corrector wants me to use "itch".
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Posaunus
Posts: 5018
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by Posaunus »

[quote="robcat2075"]Fun fact: while searching to see if pic this had been posted before, I found that "Shostakovich" outnumbers "Shostakovitch" by 10 to 1 on this forum.

Wikipedia and Google prefer "ich" but my browser spelling corrector wants me to use "itch".[/quote]

Fun memory of interesting times past.

It's actually Дмитрий Шостакович !
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robcat2075
Posts: 1867
Joined: Sep 03, 2018

by robcat2075 »

Apropos of Disney and Shostakovich... a 1939 Soviet cartoon for which Shostakovich wrote most(?) of the music. (Boosey & Hawkes notes "Score for the cartoon-film by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky")

Various commentaries say he wrote this mini-opera for the cartoon but it is also performable as a stage work.

I have trouble watching Soviet-bloc animation. It is like they were paid to make them long.

"The Silly Little Mouse"

<YOUTUBE id="K2IV1JiC80E">[media]https://youtu.be/K2IV1JiC80E</YOUTUBE>

<YOUTUBE id="jHd2C2aZ68U">[media]https://youtu.be/jHd2C2aZ68U</YOUTUBE>
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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

Two photos with Shostakovich not holding or smoking a cigarette. Rare indeed.