Shostakovich’s First Film Score, Restored

The premiere of the 1929 silent New Babylon, with a score by Dmitri Shostakovich performed live, didn’t exactly go according to plan: Soviet censors cut entire scenes from the movie, and nobody told the composer. The resulting fiasco led to the music being shelved for decades. Now a Russian film festival in Australia has resurrected the original version of New Babylon – with Shostakovich’s score.