My entire musical career has been linked to the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Beginning with my First Symphony, which was first performed in 1926, all my new works have been premièred by this excellent orchestra. Especially memorable were the premières of my Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, wonderfully interpreted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. I am happy that this first-rate orchestra is now rehearsing my Seventh Symphony. Judging from their first rehearsals with the conductor, they will give a superb performance. I am eagerly looking forward to the day of the première. / I am very glad that I have managed to come to Novosibirsk-one of the industrial and cultural centres of the Soviet Union- to hear the familiar, inimitable sounds of the Leningrad Philharmonia. Many orchestras, both here and abroad, have played my works, but no other has captured my ideas so perfectly.