My Genealogical Tree - Childhood - Return to Moscow - The Choral Institute - Conservatoire - The World Around - In Search of Folk-Music - Three Successes - Cinematc Myths and the Death of my Father - Maya Plistskaya - Some Sinners and Saints - First Opera - Were There Musical Dissidents in the Former Soviet Union - Establishment Composers - Carmen Suite - Poetoria, the Prague Spring and the Lenin Oratorio - Dead Souls - Who is a Composer - How I Found Myself Occupying Shostakovich's Chair - Perestroika Years - The Tale of The Twelve Months - Lolita - People Throw Stones Only at Apple Trees with Apples on Them - Working with Lorin Maazel - 11 September 2001 and Mariss Jansons - Instrumental Concertos - The Sealed Angel in Berlin - Working Days, High Days and Holidays - Why Munich - Boyarinya Morozova - Post Scriptum - List of Compositions - Index