1907–1978
○ Natural causes
The conductor who rebuilt an orchestra under siege
On 9 August 1942, the orchestra Eliasberg had rebuilt amid starvation sounded Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony across Leningrad.
Karl Eliasberg was a Soviet musician who moved from violin to conducting and became the principal conductor of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra. When the siege scattered and decimated its musicians through starvation and military service, he helped rebuild the ensemble by locating survivors and incorporating military players. On 9 August 1942 he conducted the Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, a broadcast that asserted cultural continuity and the city's will to resist amid mass hunger. After the war, his opportunities in central Leningrad narrowed and he worked largely as a travelling provincial conductor, while the blockade performance remained the defining episode of his life.
Also known as: Karl Ilyich Eliasberg
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1922–1929Studied violin and conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory
- 1929–1931Conductor at the Leningrad Theatre of Musical Comedy
- 1931–1937Conductor of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra
- 1937–1950Principal conductor of the Leningrad Radio Symphony Orchestra
- 1942.04–08Rebuilt the ensemble and prepared the première of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony
- 1942.08.09Conducted the Seventh Symphony première at Leningrad's Grand Philharmonia Hall
- 1950s–1970sGuest and touring conductor with symphony orchestras across the Soviet Union
Related historical events
Rebuilding the siege orchestra and preparing the 1942 performance
As the siege of Leningrad set in, the orchestra Eliasberg led, the Leningrad Radio Committee Symphony Orchestra, was the only symphony orchestra left in the city. Music broadcasting was suspended by a party decision from December 1941 until February 1942, though according to Olga Berggolts's testimony its performances were still sometimes transmitted towards Sweden and England. When music broadcasting resumed in March 1942, the city authorities decided to rebuild the ensemble. Eliasberg, then in the hospital for dystrophy patients set up in the Hotel Astoria, was given the task; the city released relatively healthy musicians from digging trenches and factory work and recalled some of them from the front. Rehearsals were held in the unheated House of Radio, and Eliasberg, unable to walk, was brought there by sled. About 40 people gathered for the first rehearsal on 30 March 1942, which lasted only 40 minutes. The rebuilt orchestra gave its first concert on 5 April, and around that time the idea arose of performing Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in the city. The score arrived by special aircraft in early July, but the remaining players, especially the brass, were far too few. With the help of the city authorities and the front command, military musicians were withdrawn from the front line and attached to the orchestra, and the first full rehearsal took place on 28 July. Testimony records that Eliasberg demanded of his starving players not only musicianship but a degree of discipline and spiritual strength.