Samuil Samosud

Who was Samuil Samosud?

Samuil Abramovich Samosud was a Russian conductor.

He started his musical career on the cello, before conducting in the Mariinsky Theater, Petrograd in 1917. From 1918 to 1936 he conducted at the Maly Operny, Leningrad. In 1936 he became musical director at the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow. He founded what became the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1951. He premiered several important works, including Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, The Nose, "Leningrad Symphony" and Prokofiev's War and Peace. Shostakovich "had a high opinion" of Samosud's theatrical performances, and regarded him as "the supreme interpreter" of operatic works including Lady Macbeth. Nonetheless, after Samosud premiered the Leningrad Symphony, the composer wrote that he wanted to hear Mravinsky perform the symphony, as he didn't "have great faith in Samosud as a symphonic conductor".