At the end of May 1936, the world-famous conductor Otto Klemperer came to Leningrad to give two concerts. Klemperer was an ardent admirer of Shostakovich’s First Symphony and had been one of the first foreign conductors to programme it. Among other things, one purpose of his visit was to get to know Shostakovich’s new Fourth Symphony, about which he had already heard reports. On 29 May, I went to the Great Hall of the Philharmonia to listen to Klemperer rehearsing Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Symphonies. On the platform stepped an extremely tall, powerfully built and handsome figure, with strong, severe features. The orchestra greeted him with an ovation; they well remembered from his visits in the 1920s the outstanding musician they were welcoming. / Here I should mention in parenthesis that orchestral musicians of this time were apt to behave in a very independent fashion: they could be highly critical of conductors and had an extensive repertoire of ways to express their dissatisfaction. But that was not all. Veterans of the orchestra, like principal cellist Ilya Brik, who had in his time served as the Artistic Director of the Philharmonia, or the outstanding principal bassoon Aleksandr Vasilyyev and several others, would not scruple to hide their sceptical feelings about a new work by a contemporary composer from Moscow or Leningrad. This should be borne in mind when considering the atmosphere surrounding the rehearsals for Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony. / Klemperer’s rehearsals went splendidly, without a hitch.