“The Fall of Berlin”. Op. 82

This edition is based on the author’s manuscript of the score preserved in the Russian National Museum of Music (RNMM), rec. gr. 32, f. 266. In certain instances, the following printed sources have also been consulted: Fragments from the Music to the Film The Fall of Berlin in Volume 42 of Dmitri Shostakovich, Collected Works, Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1987, and the Suite from the Film The Fall of Berlin, Muzgiz Publishers, Moscow, 1952. In some cases, reference has been made to the film soundtrack.

In commentary documents the differences between the notation of manuscript and that of this edition. Obvious errors in manuscript have been corrected without comment. The notation of manuscript does not always correspond to the way the music is heard in the film. Film soundtrack contains cuts, repetitions of certain fragments, fades, tempo variations and other alterations in details, most of which probably arose during recording of soundtrack. The commentary indicates the cuts and repeats in soundtrack (within the published episodes) that are not reflected in the notation of this edition.

The sequence of the episodes in manuscript differs from that in the film. This edition follows the sequence and numbering in manuscript.
This publication is unique in that it presents, for the first time, the full notation of Shostakovich’s author’s manuscript of the score for The Fall of Berlin. It is the only precedent of its kind among the composer’s film works in which a complete author’s manuscript of the music, apart from the first film collaboration of Chiaureli and Shostakovich, has survived. The editors of Dmitri Shostakovich’s New Collected Works hope that this publication will rekindle performers’ interest in this neglected opus by the composer.