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Title: SHOSTAKOVITCH AND HUGH MacDIARMID

Reference number: 0537

Date: 1962c

Sound: mute

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 1 min

Description: Shots of Dmitri Shostakovich and Hugh MacDiarmid talking, and press and photographers looking on as composer Ronald Stevenson presents a musical score to Shostakovich.

[Following information provided by website user via e-mail] "Shostakovich visited the 1962 Edinburgh Festival when many of his works were performed. Possibly this when the film was shot. I would also hazard a guess that the score being handed to him is Ronald Stevenson's "Passacaglia on DSCH". This 80-minute tribute to Shostakovich is currently the longest continuous piece of piano music ever written and is based on Shostakovich's musical 'signature'; the motif D - E flat - C - B natural. Stevenson did present the dedicatee with a copy of it at the festival. Though Stevenson was born in Blackburn (in 1928), he is of Scottish descent and much of the work was written in Scotland. It's been recorded a few times, notably by the composer and by Raymond Clarke (Marco Polo 8.223545)"

For other films about Hugh MacDiarmid see also refs. 1823, 2688 and 6220

Shotlist: No credits. Shots inside a room. MacDiarmid, Shostakovich and composer Ronald Stevenson stand talking. Shots of press photographers and reporters. A musical score [probably Stevenson's "Passacaglia on DSCH"] is handed to Shostakovich (.32); - Blank - (.39); Repeat of the above (1.02)