Samuil Samosud

Samuil Abramovich Samosud (Russian: Самуил Абрамович Самосуд; Tbilisi, Georgia, 14 May [O.S. 2 May] 1884 — Moscow, 6 November, 1964) was a Russian conductor. He started his musical career on the cello, before conducting in the Mariinsky Theater, Petrograd in 1917. From 1918 to 1936 he conducted at the Maly Operny, Leningrad. In 1936 he became musical director at the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow. He founded what became the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1951. He premiered several important works, including Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, The Nose, "Leningrad Symphony" and Prokofiev's War and Peace. Shostakovich "had a high opinion" of Samosud, regarding him as "the supreme interpreter" of operatic works including Lady Macbeth.^[1] However, after Samosud premiered the Leningrad Symphony, the composer wrote that he wanted to hear Mravinsky perform the symphony, as he didn't "have great faith in Samosud as a symphonic conductor".^[2]

[edit] References

^ Shostakovich, Dmitri; Isaak Glikman (2001). Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman, 1941-1975, trans. Anthony Phillips, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, xxxvi. ISBN 0801439795.
^ Shostakovich, Dmitri; Isaak Glikman (2001). Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman, 1941-1975, trans. Anthony Phillips, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 7. ISBN 0801439795.

Preceded by unknown	Music Directors, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow 1936–1942	Succeeded by Ari Pazovsky
Preceded by none	Music Directors, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra 1951–1957	Succeeded by Kiril Kondrashin
Preceded by none	Principal Conductors, State Symphony Capella of Russia 1957–1964	Succeeded by Yuri Ahronovich