Walking on the stage, I saw that many of the professors (there was an army of about thirty of them sitting there) were turning over the pages of the copies of my Concerto that I had been distributing during the week.

The Concerto went splendidly. I was not at all nervous, since I had already performed it in public several times. Dranishnikov's accompaniment was beyond praise: now thundering like a real orchestra, now dropping down to a ravishing sotto voce, at all times following the soloist as only someone who sincerely understands and loves this work could do. My basic performance schema - tender restraint for the Andante and unrestrained ferment everywhere else - was strictly adhered to. Overall the performance achieved a rare success, and when it finished there was a terrific uproar with applause and booing, just as there had been after my performance of the Second Concerto in Pavlovsk last summer. My exam was over.