Reflections of a stormy petrel

I would start listing the things I love about it, but I don't think I could do it well enough.

One of the most legendary recordings ever made, and under the most fascinating circumstances, was Toscanini's recording of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony. In 1942, the British Empire, the United States and the Soviet Union were fighting for their lives against the Axis, then at the height of its power. Soviet Russia had been until then not only a closed but a mysterious society: everything that came out of it was little more than rumour - including the rumour of its artists and musicians. Shostakovich, the reputed greatest of them, was little more than a rumour among Western musicians. It was clear to all the Allies that the distrust of the West towards the Soviets had to be broken down.

Under conditions of extraordinary secrecy, the Soviet Embassy passed to the USA a complete score of Shostakovich's just completed Seventh Symphony, a colossal and terrifying work (the composer hinted afterwards that it was just as much about the destruction of the St.Peterburg of his youth as about the terrible siege the city was then suffering at Nazi hands). It was passed to Arturo Toscanini, not only the greatest director then alive, but a hero of the struggle against Fascism, which he had opposed across three continents for decades. The rumour of the coming performance quickly spread among American music lovers, and expectation became intense.

When the performance came, it did not disappoint. Popular and critical acclaim was immense and lasting. Toscanini's recording has never gone out of the repertory.

And now the punch-line. Toscanini admitted afterwards that he had hated the Seventh Symphony. And Shostakovich, knowing nothing of Toscanini's opinion, in turn told friends that he did not like his performance at all. One of the most famous and loved classical music recordings of all time was repudiated by both its authors.