Robert Craft on Shostakovich

Shostakovich's face is the most "sensitive" and "intellectual" we have seen in the U.S.S.R. Otherwise, he is thinner, taller, younger -- more boyish-looking -- than expected, but he is also the shyest, most nervous human being I have ever met. He chain-smokes, chews not merely his nails but his fingers, twitches his pouty mouth and chin, wiggles his nose in constant adjustment of his spectacles, looks querulous one moment and ready to cry the next. He stutters, too, and his hands tremble, and when he shakes hands, his whole frame wobbles (which reminds us of Auden), besides which his knees knock quite audibly when he speaks, at which time the others look anxiously toward him, as indeed they might. He has a habit of staring, then of guiltily turning away when caught, and all evening long he peeks illicitly at I.S. around the nicely rounded corners of Madame Furtseva. But the thoughts behind those frightened, very intelligent eyes are never betrayed -- or at least I cannot read them. A new wife [Irina] sits beside him, an adoring pupil, one would guess, but by age, looks, and an equally shy, serious, and distant manner, a daughter.

Shostakovich, this time at I.S.'s side, seems even more frightened and tortured than at the first conclave, perhaps fearing that a speech is expected of him. He converses neutrally, at first, then like a bashful schoolboy blurts out that the _Symphony of Psalms_ had overwhelmed him when he first heard it, and that he had made his own piano score of it, which he would like to present to I.S. Seeking to return the compliment, I.S. says that he shares some of Shostakovich's high regard for Mahler, at which point Shostakovich starts to melt, but quickly freezes up again as I.S. continues with: "But you should go beyond Mahler. The Viennese troika also adored him, you know, and both Schoenberg and Webern conducted his music." Toward the end of the evening, and after several zubrovkas, Shostakovich touchingly confesses that he would like to follow I.S.'s example and conduct his own music, "Except that I don't know how not to be afraid."