In the Leningrad of the 1930s, composers often came to concerts at the Philharmonia and Shostakovich was, needless to say, no exception. There was another custom as well, now lapsed, in accordance with which musicians of all sorts and conditions used to congregate of an afternoon in the huge drawing-room next to the office of the Director of the Philharmonia. It was a bit like a club at which one would frequently catch sight of such musical figures as Vladimir Shcherbachov, Yury Shaporin, Vladimir Deshevov, Boris Arapov, Aleksey Zhivotov, Andrey Pashchenko, Valery Zhelobinky, Leonild Nikolayev, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Aleksandr Gauk, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Nikolai Rabinovich, Mikhail Druskin and, of course, Sollertinsky. Shostakovich, too, liked to drop in on this informal club. There would be relaxed conversation about music, theatre or simply shop talk, sometimes interspersed with a private play-through of a new orchestral piece. Gauk and Rabinovich would sit down at two pianos and read it through, brilliantly, at sight.