Native Leningrad was the suite Shostakovich drew from his incidental music to the variety review Native Country. Composed on commission by the Song and Dance Troop of the NKVD, the Soviet Secret Police, in late 1942, Native Country proved such a hit at its premiere in Moscow that Shostakovich compiled the suite of seven movements. Although there has been no recording of either Native Country or Native Leningrad in memory, the music apparently was so successful the NKVD commissioned Shostakovich to compose the music for two further variety shows for their Song and Dance Troop: Russian Rivers (1944) and Victorious Spring (1946).

Upon reflection, it is harder to decide what is more unusual: that the Soviet Secret Police would have a Song and Dance Troop or that they would commission Shostakovich, whom they had interrogated repeatedly in the late '30s, to compose the music?

© James Leonard, Rovi