After the first performance on 5 March 1942 in Kuybïshev (now called Samara), it was soon performed in Moscow, and then in Leningrad, which was still surrounded by the German army at the time. A copy of the music was out to the West on microfilm. It was performed by Sir Henry Wood in London at the BBC studios on 22 June and the next week at a Promenade Concert. On 19 July it was played in New York by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini in a studio concert played on the radio throughout the United States.