Composer · 20th Century
Dmitri Shostakovich
1906–1975 · Russian
Dmitri Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg (then still the Russian capital) into a cultured family. His father was an engineer, and it was his mother who gave him his first piano lessons. The young Dmitri showed exceptional talent, entering the Petrograd Conservatory at thirteen and graduating at nineteen with his First Symphony, whose triumphant premiere in 1926 soon brought him international fame.
Shostakovich’s life thereafter became inseparable from the tortured history of the Soviet Union. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was initially a sensation, but in 1936 a devastating Pravda editorial, widely taken to reflect Stalin’s own displeasure, condemned it as “muddle instead of music.” Shostakovich lived for years in fear of arrest, at one point waiting at night on the landing outside his flat so that his family would not be disturbed if the knock came.
Yet under this shadow, Shostakovich composed a stream of masterpieces. His fifteen symphonies and fifteen string quartets constitute one of the twentieth century’s greatest artistic achievements: music that bears witness to its era’s terrors while transcending them through its humanity and craft. He died in Moscow on August 9, 1975.
Works
- Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 1
- Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35 1
- Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102 1
- Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 1
- Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112 (‘The Year 1917’) 1
- Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 113 (‘Babi Yar’) 1
- Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47 2
- Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 1
- Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp minor, Op. 129 2
Performed at
Upcoming
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Noseda’s Prokofiev and Shostakovich, with Kavakos Prokofiev · Shostakovich
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New Year’s Eve Concert with Kirill Petrenko and Alexander Malofeev Nicolai · Shostakovich · Prokofiev · Strauss · Strauss II
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A Classical Joke, a Birthday Present, and Fate Prokofiev · Shostakovich · Tchaikovsky
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Time’s Echo Live: Schoenberg, Weinberg and Shostakovich’s ‘Babi Yar’ Schoenberg · Weinberg · Shostakovich
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Shostakovich’s Eighth, and Maxim Vengerov in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Beethoven · Shostakovich
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Paavo Järvi and Christian Tetzlaff: Pärt, Shostakovich and Prokofiev’s Fifth Pärt · Shostakovich · Prokofiev
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Tugan Sokhiev and Yefim Bronfman: Britten, Mozart’s C minor Concerto and Shostakovich’s ‘The Year 1917’ Britten · Mozart · Shostakovich
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Karina Canellakis conducts Shostakovich’s Fifth, with Alina Ibragimova in Mozart Borisova-Ollas · Mozart · Shostakovich
Past guides
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Heroes and Tyrants: From Beethoven to Shostakovich Beethoven · Shostakovich
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Zimmermann’s Frank Martin and Shostakovich’s Tenth Gubaidulina · Martin · Shostakovich
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Questions and Answers: From America to the New World Ives · Shostakovich · Dvorak
Sources 3
- Dmitri Shostakovich, Wikipedia
- Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47 (programme note by Anna Vogt), Berliner Philharmoniker
- Power and Struggle in a Soviet Symphony, NPR