ABSTRACT
Successfully constructed as a timely and telling artistic weapon, Hymn of the Nations continued to wield its symbolic power with regard to World War II, when in late 1943 the United States Office of War Information (OWI) saw fit to make a film featuring the work and Toscanini's rendition of it. 'By mid-century, his popularity cresting with television, Toscanini had taken on godlike proportions and was deemed capable, or so it seemed, of bringing the gospel of high culture to the masses of Americans'. The film that the agency initially suggested involved Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C Major, op. 60, known as the 'Leningrad' Symphony; completed in 1941, it had its premiere on March 5, 1942, in Kuibishev by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. Within the historical context of events in Italy and the above timetable, it is possible to piece together the history of the film based on information drawn from the extant documents.
