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Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (September 12 (25) ( 19060925 ) , St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - August 9, Moscow, USSR) - Russian Soviet composer, pianist, teacher and public figure. One of the largest composers of the 20th century, who had a huge influence on the development of world musical culture. Hero of Socialist Labor (1966), People's Artist of the USSR (1954), Doctor of Art History (1965).

Biography

Origin and early years

1950s

The fifties began with very important work for Shostakovich. Participating as a jury member at the Bach Competition in Leipzig in the fall of 1950, the composer was so inspired by the atmosphere of the city and the music of its great resident - Johann Sebastian Bach - that upon his arrival in Moscow he began composing 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, a work that tribute to the great composer and his "To the Well-Tempered Clavier" .

1960s

Shostakovich had a hard time being forced to join the party (as the newly elected First Secretary of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR, he was actually obliged to do this). In letters to his friend Isaac Glickman, he complains about the disgusting nature of this compromise and reveals the real reasons that prompted him to write his later famous String Quartet No. 8 (1960). In 1961, Shostakovich completed the second part of his “revolutionary” symphonic duology: in “pair” with the Eleventh Symphony “1905” he wrote Symphony No. 12 “1917” - a work of a pronounced “visual” nature (and actually brings the symphonic genre closer to film music) , where, as if with paints on canvas, the composer paints musical pictures of Petrograd, Lenin’s refuge on Lake Razliv and the October events themselves. He sets himself a completely different task a year later, when he turns to the poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko - first writing the poem “Babi Yar” (for bass soloist, bass choir and orchestra), and then adding four more parts to it from the life of modern Russia and its recent history, thereby creating another “cantata” symphony, the Thirteenth - which, after Khrushchev’s dissatisfaction, was nevertheless performed in November 1962. (The USSR authorities were reluctant to recognize the genocide of Jews during the war and did not want to specifically highlight these events against the background of other events of the war).

After Khrushchev's removal from power and the beginning of an era of political stagnation in Russia, the tone of Shostakovich's works again acquired a gloomy character. His quartets No. 11 (1966) and No. 12 (1968), Second Cello (1966) and Second Violin (1967) concertos, Violin Sonata (1968), vocal works based on words by Alexander Blok, are imbued with anxiety, pain and inescapable melancholy. In the Fourteenth Symphony (1969) - again “vocal”, but this time chamber, for two solo singers and an orchestra consisting only of strings and percussion - Shostakovich uses poems by Apollinaire, Rilke, Kuchelbecker and Lorca, which are connected by one theme - death (they talk about unjust, early or violent death).

1970s

During these years, the composer created vocal cycles based on poems by Tsvetaeva and Michelangelo, the 13th (1969-1970), 14th (1973) and 15th (1974) string quartets and Symphony No. 15, a work characterized by a mood of thoughtfulness, nostalgia, memories. Shostakovich uses quotes from Rossini's overture to the opera in the music of the symphony "William Tell" and the theme of fate from Wagner's opera tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelung", as well as musical allusions to the music of Glinka, Mahler and his own. The symphony was created in the summer of 1971, the premiere took place on January 8, 1972. Shostakovich's last composition was the Sonata for viola and piano.

In the last few years, the composer was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. Dmitri Shostakovich died in Moscow on August 9, 1975 and was buried in the capital's Novodevichy Cemetery.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

• 09/12/1906 - 1910 - Podolskaya street, 2, apt. 2;
• 1910-1914 - Nikolaevskaya street, 16, apt. 20;
• 1914-1934 - Nikolaevskaya street, 9, apt. 7;
• 1934 - autumn 1935 - Dmitrovsky lane, 3, apt. 5;
• autumn 1935-1937 - house of the Workers' Housing and Construction Cooperative Association of Artists - Kirovsky Prospekt, 14, apt. 4;
• 1938 - 09.30.1941 - apartment building of the First Russian Insurance Company - Kronverkskaya street, 29, apt. 5;
• 09.30.1941 - 1973 - hotel "European" - Rakova street, 7;
• 1973-1975 - Zhelyabova street, 17, apt. 1.

The Meaning of Creativity

The monogram DSCH ("Dmitri Shostakovich"), encrypted using the notes D-E♭(Es)-C-H, is used in a number of Shostakovich's works.

Today Shostakovich is one of the most performed composers in the world. His creations are true expressions of inner human drama and a chronicle of the terrible suffering that befell the 20th century, where the deeply personal is intertwined with the tragedy of humanity.

The genre and aesthetic diversity of Shostakovich's music is enormous. If we use generally accepted concepts, then it combines elements of tonal, atonal and modal music; modernism, traditionalism, expressionism and the “grand style” are intertwined in the composer’s work. However, the magnitude of his talent is so immense that it would be more correct to regard his work as a unique phenomenon of world art, which will be more and more fully comprehended by our and subsequent generations.

Music

In his early years, Shostakovich was influenced by the music of Mahler, Berg, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Hindemith, and Mussorgsky. Constantly studying classical and avant-garde traditions, Shostakovich developed his own musical language, emotionally charged and touching the hearts of musicians and music lovers around the world.

The most notable genres in Shostakovich's work are symphonies and string quartets - he wrote 15 works in each of them. While symphonies were written throughout the composer's career, Shostakovich wrote most of the quartets towards the end of his life. Among the most popular symphonies are the Fifth and Eighth, among the quartets are the Eighth and Fifteenth.

The composer's music shows the influence of a large number of Shostakovich's favorite composers: Bach (in his fugues and passacaglia), Beethoven (in his later quartets), Mahler (in his symphonies), Berg (partly along with Mussorgsky in his operas, as well as in his use of the technique musical citation). Of the Russian composers, Shostakovich had the greatest love for Modest Mussorgsky; Shostakovich made new orchestrations for his operas “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina”. Mussorgsky's influence is especially noticeable in certain scenes of the opera " Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", in the Eleventh Symphony, as well as in satirical works.

Major works

• 15 symphonies
• Operas: “The Nose”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (“Katerina Izmailova”), “The Players” (finished by Krzysztof Meyer)
• Ballets: “The Golden Age” (1930), “Bolt” (1931) and “Bright Stream” (1935)
• 15 string quartets
• Quintet for piano and strings
• Oratorio “Song of the Forests”
• Cantata “The sun shines over our Motherland”
• Cantata “The Execution of Stepan Razin”
• Anti-formalist paradise
• Concertos and sonatas for various instruments
• Romances and songs for voice with piano and symphony orchestra
• Operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki”
• Film scores: "Ordinary People" (1945).

Awards and prizes

Stamp of Russia 2000.
Dmitry Shostakovich

• Winner of the Stalin Prize ( , , , , ).
• Laureate of the International Peace Prize ().
• Lenin Prize laureate ().
• Laureate of the USSR State Prize ().
• Laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR ().

He was a member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since 1949), the Slavic Committee of the USSR (since 1942), and the World Peace Committee (since 1968). Honorary member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music (1954), Italian Academy of Arts "Santa Cecilia" (1956), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1965). Honorary Doctor of Science from Oxford University (1958), Northwestern University of Evanston (USA, 1973), French Academy of Fine Arts (1975), corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR (1956), Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (1968), member of the English Royal Musical Academy Academy (1958), US National Academy of Sciences (1959). Professor Emeritus of the Mexican Conservatory. President of the USSR - Austria society (1958).

Multimedia

“Song of Peace” from the film “Meeting on the Elbe”(info)

Radio address by D. Shostakovich: broadcast from besieged Leningrad on September 16, 1941(info)

Bibliography

Shostakovich's texts:

• Shostakovich D. D. Know and love music: Conversation with youth. - M.: Young Guard, 1958.
• Shostakovich D. D. Selected articles, speeches, memories / Ed. A. Tishchenko. - M.: Soviet composer, 1981.

Research Literature:

• Danilevich L. Dmitry Shostakovich: Life and creativity. - M.: Soviet composer, 1980.
• Lukyanova N.V. Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. - M.: Music, 1980.
• Maksimenkov L.V. Confusion instead of music: Stalin's cultural revolution of 1936-1938. - M.: Legal book, 1997. - 320 p.
• Meyer K. Shostakovich: Life. Creation. Time / Per. from Polish E. Gulyaeva. - M.: Young Guard, 2006. - 439 p.: ill. - (Life of remarkable people: Ser. biogr.; Issue 1014).
• Sabinina M. Shostakovich the symphonist: Dramaturgy, aesthetics, style. - M.: Music, 1976.
• Khentova S. M. Shostakovich. Life and creativity (in two volumes). - L.: Soviet composer, 1985-1986.
• Khentova S. M. In the world of Shostakovich: Conversations with Shostakovich. Conversations about the composer. - M.: Composer, 1996.
• D. D. Shostakovich: Notographic and bibliographic reference book / Comp. E. L. Sadovnikov. 2nd ed., add. and extension - M.: Music, 1965.
• D. Shostakovich: Articles and materials / Comp. and ed. G. Schneerson. - M.: Soviet composer, 1976.
• D. D. Shostakovich: Collection of articles for the 90th anniversary of his birth / Comp. L. Kovacskaya. - St. Petersburg: Composer, 1996.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. An exceptionally talented young man received a musical education at the Petrograd Conservatory, which he was admitted to at the age of 13. He studied piano and composition, and also studied conducting at the same time.

Already in 1919, Shostakovich wrote his first major orchestral work - the Scherzo fis-moll. The time after the revolution was difficult, but Dmitry studied very hard and attended concerts of the Petrograd Philharmonic almost every evening. In 1922, the father of the future composer died, and the family was left without a livelihood. So the young man had to work part-time as a performer in a cinema.

In 1923, Shostakovich graduated from the conservatory in piano, and in 1925 - in composition. His graduation work was the First Symphony. Its triumphant premiere took place in 1926, and already at the age of 19 Shostakovich became world famous.

Creation

In his youth, Shostakovich wrote a lot for the theater; he is the author of the music of three ballets and two operas: “The Nose” (1928) and “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (1932). After fierce and public criticism in 1936, the composer changed direction and began writing primarily for the concert hall. Among the huge mass of orchestral, chamber and vocal music, the most notable are two cycles of 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets. They are among the most frequently performed works of the 20th century.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich began working on the Seventh Symphony ("Leningrad"), which became a symbol of wartime struggle. During the war years, the Eighth Symphony was also written, in which the composer paid tribute to neoclassicism. In 1943, Shostakovich moved from Kuibyshev, where he lived during the evacuation, to Moscow. In the capital, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory.

In 1948, Shostakovich was severely criticized and humiliated at the Congress of Soviet Composers. He was accused of “formalism” and “creeping before the West.” As in 1938, he became persona non grata. He was stripped of his professorship and accused of incompetence.

Shostakovich worked closely with some of the greatest performers of his time. Evgeny Mravinsky played at the premieres of many of his orchestral works, and the composer wrote a couple of concertos for violinist David Oistrakh and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

In recent years, Shostakovich suffered from poor health and was treated in hospitals and sanatoriums for a long time. The composer suffered from lung cancer and a disease associated with muscle damage. The music of his last period, including two symphonies, his late quartets, his final vocal cycles and the viola sonata op.147 (1975), is dark, reflecting much torment. He died in Moscow on August 9, 1975. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Personal life

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was married three times. Nina Vasilievna, the first wife, was an astrophysicist by profession. but having abandoned her scientific career, she devoted herself entirely to her family. This marriage produced a son, Maxim, and a daughter, Galina.

The second marriage with Margarita Kainova fell apart very quickly. Shostakovich's third wife, Irina Supinskaya, worked as an editor at the Soviet Composer publishing house.

Dmitry Shostakovich was born in September 1906. The boy had two sisters. Dmitry Boleslavovich and Sofya Vasilyevna Shostakovich named their eldest daughter Maria; she was born in October 1903. Dmitry's younger sister received the name Zoya at birth. Shostakovich inherited his love of music from his parents. He and his sisters were very musical. Children, together with their parents, took part in improvised home concerts from a young age.

Dmitry Shostakovich studied at a commercial gymnasium since 1915, at the same time he began attending classes at the famous private music school of Ignatius Albertovich Glasser. Studying with the famous musician, Shostakovich acquired good skills as a pianist, but the mentor did not teach composition, and the young man had to do it on his own.

Dmitry recalled that Glyasser was a boring, narcissistic and uninteresting person. Three years later, the young man decided to leave the course of study, although his mother did her best to prevent this. Even at a young age, Shostakovich did not change his decisions and left music school.

In his memoirs, the composer mentioned one event in 1917, which was strongly etched in his memory. At the age of 11, Shostakovich saw how a Cossack, dispersing a crowd of people, cut a boy with a saber. At a young age, Dmitry, remembering this child, wrote a play called “Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the Revolution.”

Education

In 1919, Shostakovich became a student at the Petrograd Conservatory. The knowledge he acquired in his first year at the educational institution helped the young composer complete his first major orchestral work, the F-moll Scherzo.

In 1920, Dmitry Dmitrievich wrote “Two Fables of Krylov” and “Three Fantastic Dances” for piano. This period of the young composer’s life is associated with the appearance of Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev and Vladimir Vladimirovich Shcherbachev in his circle. The musicians were part of the Anna Vogt Circle.

Shostakovich studied diligently, although he experienced difficulties. The time was hungry and difficult. Food rations for conservatory students were very small, the young composer was starving, but did not give up his music studies. He attended the Philharmonic and classes, despite hunger and cold. There was no heating in the conservatory in winter, many students fell ill, and there were cases of death.

Best of the day

In his memoirs, Shostakovich wrote that at that time physical weakness forced him to walk to classes. To get to the conservatory by tram, it was necessary to squeeze through a crowd of people, since transport was rare. Dmitry was too weak for this, he left the house in advance and walked for a long time.

The Shostakovichs really needed money. The situation was aggravated by the death of the family breadwinner Dmitry Boleslavovich. To earn some money, his son got a job as a pianist at the Svetlaya Lenta cinema. Shostakovich recalled this time with disgust. The work was low-paid and exhausting, but Dmitry endured it because the family was in great need.

After a month of this musical hard labor, Shostakovich went to the owner of the cinema, Akim Lvovich Volynsky, to receive a salary. The situation turned out to be very unpleasant. The owner of "Light Ribbon" shamed Dmitry for his desire to receive the pennies he earned, convincing him that people of art should not care about the material side of life.

Seventeen-year-old Shostakovich bargained for part of the amount, the rest could only be obtained in court. After some time, when Dmitry already had some fame in musical circles, he was invited to an evening in memory of Akim Lvovich. The composer came and shared his memories of his experience working with Volynsky. The organizers of the evening were indignant.

In 1923, Dmitry Dmitrievich graduated from the Petrograd Conservatory in piano, and two years later – in composition. The musician's diploma work was Symphony No. 1. The work was first performed in 1926 in Leningrad. The symphony's foreign premiere took place a year later in Berlin.

Creation

In the thirties of the last century, Shostakovich presented fans of his work with the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. During this period he also completed five of his symphonies. In 1938, the musician composed the Jazz Suite. The most famous fragment of this work was “Waltz No. 2”.

The appearance of criticism of Shostakovich's music in the Soviet press forced him to reconsider his view of some of his works. For this reason, the Fourth Symphony was not presented to the public. Shostakovich stopped rehearsals shortly before the premiere. The public heard the Fourth Symphony only in the sixties of the twentieth century.

After the siege of Leningrad, Dmitry Dmitrievich considered the score of the work lost and began to rework the sketches he had preserved for the piano ensemble. In 1946, copies of the parts of the Fourth Symphony for all instruments were found in the document archives. After 15 years, the work was presented to the public.

The Great Patriotic War found Shostakovich in Leningrad. At this time, the composer began work on the Seventh Symphony. Leaving besieged Leningrad, Dmitry Dmitrievich took with him sketches of the future masterpiece. The Seventh Symphony made Shostakovich famous. It is most widely known as “Leningradskaya”. The symphony was first performed in Kuibyshev in March 1942.

Shostakovich marked the end of the war by composing the Ninth Symphony. Its premiere took place in Leningrad on November 3, 1945. Three years later, the composer was among the musicians who fell into disgrace. His music was considered “foreign to the Soviet people.” Shostakovich was stripped of his professorship, which he had received in 1939.

Taking into account the trends of the time, Dmitry Dmitrievich presented the cantata “Song of the Forests” to the public in 1949. The main purpose of the work was to praise the Soviet Union and its triumphant restoration in the post-war years. The cantata brought the composer the Stalin Prize and goodwill from critics and authorities.

In 1950, the musician, inspired by the work of Bach and the landscapes of Leipzig, began composing 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano. The tenth symphony was written by Dmitry Dmitrievich in 1953, after an eight-year break in working on symphonic works.

A year later, the composer created the Eleventh Symphony, called “1905.” In the second half of the fifties, the composer delved into the instrumental concert genre. His music became more varied in form and mood.

In the last years of his life, Shostakovich wrote four more symphonies. He also became the author of several vocal works and string quartets. Shostakovich's last work was the Sonata for viola and piano.

Personal life

People close to the composer recalled that his personal life started unsuccessfully. In 1923, Dmitry met a girl named Tatyana Glivenko. The young people had mutual feelings, but Shostakovich, burdened with poverty, did not dare to propose to his beloved. The girl, who was 18 years old, looked for another match. Three years later, when Shostakovich’s affairs improved a little, he invited Tatyana to leave her husband for him, but her beloved refused.

After some time, Shostakovich got married. His chosen one was Nina Vazar. His wife gave Dmitry Dmitrievich twenty years of her life and gave birth to two children. In 1938, Shostakovich became a father for the first time. His son Maxim was born. The youngest child in the family was daughter Galina. Shostakovich's first wife died in 1954.

The composer was married three times. His second marriage turned out to be fleeting; Margarita Kaynova and Dmitry Shostakovich did not get along and quickly filed for divorce.

The composer married for the third time in 1962. The musician’s wife was Irina Supinskaya. The third wife devotedly looked after Shostakovich during his years of illness.

Disease

In the second half of the sixties, Dmitry Dmitrievich fell ill. His illness could not be diagnosed, and Soviet doctors just shrugged their shoulders. The composer’s wife recalled that her husband was prescribed courses of vitamins to slow down the development of the disease, but the disease progressed.

Shostakovich suffered from Charcot's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Attempts to cure the composer were made by American specialists and Soviet doctors. On the advice of Rostropovich, Shostakovich went to Kurgan to see Dr. Ilizarov. The treatment suggested by the doctor helped for a while. The disease continued to progress. Shostakovich struggled with his illness, did special exercises, and took medications by the hour. Regular attendance at concerts was his consolation. In photographs from those years, the composer is most often depicted with his wife.

In 1975, Dmitry Dmitrievich and his wife went to Leningrad. There was supposed to be a concert at which Shostakovich's romance was performed. The performer forgot the beginning, which greatly worried the author. Upon returning home, the wife called an ambulance for her husband. Shostakovich was diagnosed with a heart attack and the composer was taken to the hospital.

Dmitry Dmitrievich's life was cut short on August 9, 1975. That day he was going to watch football with his wife in the hospital room. Dmitry sent Irina for mail, and when she returned, her husband was already dead.

The composer was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Russian composer of the Soviet period, pianist, musical and public figure, doctor of art history, teacher, professor

Dmitry Shostakovich

short biography

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich(September 25, 1906, St. Petersburg - August 9, 1975, Moscow) - Russian Soviet composer, pianist, musical and public figure, doctor of art history, teacher, professor. In 1957-1974. - Secretary of the Board of the Union of Composers of the USSR, in 1960-1968 - Chairman of the Board of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR.

Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). People's Artist of the USSR (1954). Winner of the Lenin Prize (1958), five Stalin Prizes (1941, 1942, 1946, 1950, 1952), the USSR State Prize (1968) and the State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. I. Glinka (1974). Member of the CPSU since 1960.

Dmitry Shostakovich is one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, the author of 15 symphonies, 6 concerts, 3 operas, 3 ballets, numerous works of chamber music, music for films and theater productions.

Origin

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich's paternal great-grandfather - veterinarian Pyotr Mikhailovich Shostakovich (1808-1871) - in documents considered himself a peasant; He graduated from the Vilna Medical-Surgical Academy as a volunteer. In 1830-1831, he took part in the Polish uprising and, after its suppression, together with his wife, Maria Jozefa Jasinska, was exiled to the Urals, to the Perm province. In the 40s, the couple lived in Yekaterinburg, where on January 27, 1845 their son, Boleslav-Arthur, was born.

In Yekaterinburg, Pyotr Shostakovich rose to the rank of collegiate assessor; in 1858 the family moved to Kazan. Here, even in his gymnasium years, Boleslav Petrovich became close to the leaders of “Land and Freedom”. After graduating from the gymnasium, at the end of 1862, he went to Moscow, following the Kazan “landers” Yu. M. Mosolov and N. M. Shatilov; worked in the management of the Nizhny Novgorod Railway, took an active part in organizing the escape from prison of the revolutionary Yaroslav Dombrovsky. In 1865, Boleslav Shostakovich returned to Kazan, but already in 1866 he was arrested, transported to Moscow and brought to trial in the case of N. A. Ishutin - D. V. Karakozov. After four months in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was sentenced to exile to Siberia; lived in Tomsk, in 1872-1877 - in Narym, where on October 11, 1875 his son was born, named Dmitry, then in Irkutsk, he was the manager of the local branch of the Siberian Trade Bank. In 1892, at that time already an honorary citizen of Irkutsk, Boleslav Shostakovich received the right to live everywhere, but chose to stay in Siberia.

Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich (1875-1922) went to St. Petersburg in the mid-90s and entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, after which, in 1900, he was hired by the Chamber of Weights and Measures, shortly before created by D.I. Mendeleev. In 1902, he was appointed senior verifier of the Chamber, and in 1906 - head of the City Verification Tent. Participation in the revolutionary movement in the Shostakovich family had already become a tradition by the beginning of the 20th century, and Dmitry was no exception: according to family testimonies, on January 9, 1905, he took part in the procession to the Winter Palace, and later proclamations were printed in his apartment.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich's maternal grandfather, Vasily Kokoulin (1850-1911), was born, like Dmitry Boleslavovich, in Siberia; After graduating from the city school in Kirensk, at the end of the 1860s he moved to Bodaibo, where many were attracted by the “gold rush” in those years, and in 1889 he became the manager of a mine office. The official press noted that he “found time to delve into the needs of employees and workers and satisfy their needs”: he introduced insurance and medical care for workers, established trade in cheaper goods for them, and built warm barracks. His wife, Alexandra Petrovna Kokoulina, opened a school for the children of workers; There is no information about her education, but it is known that in Bodaibo she organized an amateur orchestra, widely known in Siberia.

The love of music was inherited from her mother by the Kokoulins’ youngest daughter, Sofya Vasilievna (1878-1955): she studied piano under the guidance of her mother and at the Irkutsk Institute of Noble Maidens, and after graduation, following her older brother Yakov, she went to the capital and was accepted into the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where she studied first with S. A. Malozemova, and then with A. A. Rozanova. Yakov Kokoulin studied at the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where he met his fellow countryman Dmitry Shostakovich; Their love for music brought them together. Yakov introduced Dmitry Boleslavovich to his sister Sophia as an excellent singer, and their wedding took place in February 1903. In October of the same year, the young couple had a daughter, Maria, in September 1906, a son named Dmitry, and three years later, a youngest daughter, Zoya.

Childhood and youth

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born in house No. 2 on Podolskaya Street, where D. I. Mendeleev rented the first floor for the City Calibration Tent in 1906.

In 1915, Shostakovich entered the Maria Shidlovskaya Commercial Gymnasium, and his first serious musical impressions date back to this time: after attending a performance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” young Shostakovich declared his desire to take up music seriously. His first piano lessons were given to him by his mother, and after several months of lessons, Shostakovich was able to begin studying at the private music school of the then famous piano teacher I. A. Glyasser.

While studying with Glasser, Shostakovich achieved some success in piano performance, but he did not share his student’s interest in composition, and in 1918 Shostakovich left his school. In the summer of the following year, A.K. Glazunov listened to the young musician, who spoke approvingly of his talent as a composer. In the fall of 1919, Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Conservatory, where he studied harmony and orchestration under the direction of M. O. Steinberg, counterpoint and fugue with N. A. Sokolov, while also studying conducting. At the end of 1919, Shostakovich wrote his first major orchestral work - Scherzo fis-moll.

The next year, Shostakovich entered the piano class of L.V. Nikolaev, where among his classmates were Maria Yudina and Vladimir Sofronitsky. During this period, the “Anna Vogt Circle” was formed, which was guided by the latest trends in Western music of that time. Shostakovich also became an active participant in this circle; he met composers B.V. Asafiev and V.V. Shcherbachev, conductor N.A. Malko. Shostakovich wrote "Two fables of Krylov" for mezzo-soprano and piano and "Three Fantastic Dances" for piano.

At the conservatory he studied diligently and with special zeal, despite the difficulties of that time: the First World War, revolution, civil war, devastation, famine. There was no heating at the conservatory in winter, transport was poor, and many gave up music and skipped classes. Shostakovich “gnawed the granite of science.” Almost every night he could be seen at concerts of the Petrograd Philharmonic, which reopened in 1921.

A hard life with a half-starved existence (conservative rations were very small) led to severe exhaustion. In 1922, Shostakovich's father died, leaving the family without a livelihood. A few months later, Shostakovich underwent a serious operation that almost cost him his life. Despite his failing health, he looks for work and gets a job as a pianist-pianist in a cinema. Great help and support was provided during these years by Glazunov, who managed to obtain additional rations and a personal stipend for Shostakovich.

1920s

In 1923, Shostakovich graduated from the conservatory in piano (with L. V. Nikolaev), and in 1925 - in composition (with M. O. Steinberg). His graduation work was the First Symphony. While studying at the conservatory as a graduate student, he taught reading scores at the music college named after M. P. Mussorgsky. In a tradition dating back to Rubinstein, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, Shostakovich intended to pursue a career both as a concert pianist and as a composer. In 1927, at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, where Shostakovich also performed a sonata of his own composition, he received an honorary diploma. Fortunately, the famous German conductor Bruno Walter noticed the musician’s unusual talent even earlier, during his tour in the USSR; Having heard the First Symphony, Walter immediately asked Shostakovich to send the score to him in Berlin; The foreign premiere of the symphony took place on November 22, 1927 in Berlin. Following Bruno Walter, the Symphony was performed in Germany by Otto Klemperer, in the USA by Leopold Stokowski (American premiere on November 2, 1928 in Philadelphia) and Arturo Toscanini, thereby making the Russian composer famous.

In 1927, two more significant events occurred in the life of Shostakovich. In January, the Austrian composer of the New Vienna School, Alban Berg, visited Leningrad. Berg's arrival was due to the Russian premiere of his opera "Wozzeck", which became a huge event in the cultural life of the country, and also inspired Shostakovich to start writing an opera "Nose", based on the story by N.V. Gogol. Another important event was Shostakovich’s acquaintance with I. I. Sollertinsky, who, during his many years of friendship with the composer, enriched Shostakovich with acquaintance with the work of great composers of the past and present.

At the same time, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich's next two symphonies were written - both with the participation of a choir: The Second ( "Symphonic dedication to October", to the words of A. I. Bezymensky) and Third ( "Pervomayskaya", to the words of S. I. Kirsanov).

In 1928, Shostakovich met V. E. Meyerhold in Leningrad and, at his invitation, worked for some time as a pianist and head of the musical department of the V. E. Meyerhold Theater in Moscow. In 1930-1933 he worked as the head of the musical department of the Leningrad TRAM (now the Baltic House Theater).

1930s

His opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” based on the story by N. S. Leskov (written in 1930-1932, staged in Leningrad in 1934), initially received with enthusiasm, having already existed on stage for a season and a half, was destroyed in the Soviet press ( article “Confusion instead of music” in the newspaper “Pravda” dated January 28, 1936).

In the same 1936, the premiere of the Fourth Symphony was supposed to take place - a work of a much more monumental scope than all previous symphonies of Shostakovich, combining tragic pathos with the grotesque, lyrical and intimate episodes, and, perhaps, should have begun a new, mature period in the composer’s work . Shostakovich suspended rehearsals for the Symphony ahead of the December premiere. The fourth symphony was first performed only in 1961.

In May 1937, Shostakovich completed the Fifth Symphony - a work whose dramatic character, unlike the previous three “avant-garde” symphonies, is outwardly “hidden” in the generally accepted symphonic form (4 movements: with a sonata form of the first movement, a scherzo, an adagio and a finale with an outwardly triumphant ending) and other “classic” elements. On the pages of Pravda, Stalin commented on the premiere of the Fifth Symphony with the phrase: “The Soviet artist’s business-like creative response to fair criticism.”

Since 1937, Shostakovich taught a composition class at the Leningrad Conservatory. In 1939 he became a professor.

1940s

A member of the voluntary fire brigade of the teaching staff of the Conservatory D. D. Shostakovich during duty. Archived May 26, 2013.

While in Leningrad during the first months of the Great Patriotic War (until the evacuation to Kuibyshev in October), Shostakovich began working on the 7th symphony - “Leningrad”. The symphony was first performed on the stage of the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater on March 5, 1942, and on March 29, 1942 - in the Column Hall of the Moscow House of Unions. On July 19, 1942, the Seventh Symphony was performed (for the first time) in the USA under the baton of Arturo Toscanini (radio premiere). And finally, on August 9, 1942, the symphony was performed in besieged Leningrad. The organizer and conductor was the conductor of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee, Karl Eliasberg. The performance of the symphony became an important event in the life of the fighting city and its inhabitants.

A year later, Shostakovich wrote the Eighth Symphony (dedicated to Mravinsky), in which he paid tribute to neoclassicism - its III part was written in the genre of baroque toccata, IV - in the genre of passacaglia. These two movements, as examples of the specifically “Shostakovich” refraction of the genre, still remain the most popular in the Eighth Symphony.

In 1943, the composer moved to Moscow and until 1948 he taught composition and instrumentation at the Moscow Conservatory (from 1943 a professor). V. D. Bibergan, R. S. Bunin, A. D. Gadzhiev, G. G. Galynin, O. A. Evlakhov, K. A. Karaev, G. V. Sviridov studied with him (at the Leningrad Conservatory), B. I. Tishchenko, A. Mnatsakanyan (in graduate school at the Leningrad Conservatory), K. S. Khachaturyan, B. A. Tchaikovsky, A. G. Chugaev.

To express his innermost ideas, thoughts and feelings, Shostakovich used the genres of chamber music. In this area, he created such masterpieces as the Piano Quintet (1940), the Second Piano Trio (in memory of I. Sollertinsky, 1944; Stalin Prize, 1946), String Quartets No. 2 (1944), No. 3 (1946) and No. 4 (1949 ). In 1945, after the end of the war, Shostakovich wrote the Ninth Symphony.

In 1948, a Politburo resolution was published in which Shostakovich, along with other Soviet composers, was accused of “formalism,” “bourgeois decadence,” and “creeping before the West.” Shostakovich was accused of professional incompetence, stripped of his title of professor at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories and fired. The main accuser was the secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A. A. Zhdanov. In 1948, the composer wrote the vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry,” but left it on the table (at that time a campaign to “fight cosmopolitanism” was launched in the country). The First Violin Concerto, written in 1948, was also not published at that time. In the same 1948, Shostakovich began writing a satirical parody musical play “Anti-Formalistic Paradise”, not intended for publication, based on his own text, where he ridiculed the official criticism of “formalism” and the statements of Stalin and Zhdanov about art.

Despite the accusations, Shostakovich already in the next year after the Decree (1949) visited the USA as part of the delegation of the world conference in defense of peace, which was held in New York, and gave a lengthy report at this conference, and the following year (1950) received the Stalin Prize for the cantata “Song of the Forests” (written in 1949) - an example of the pathetic “grand style” of the official art of those times.

1950s

The fifties began with very important work for Shostakovich. Participating as a jury member at the Bach Competition in Leipzig in the fall of 1950, the composer was so inspired by the atmosphere of the city and the music of its great resident - J. S. Bach - that upon arrival in Moscow he began composing 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano.

In 1952 he wrote a cycle of pieces “Dancing Dolls” for piano without orchestra.

In 1953, after an eight-year break, he again turned to the symphonic genre and created the Tenth Symphony.

In 1954 he wrote "Festive Overture" for the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition and received the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

Many works of the second half of the decade are imbued with optimism. These are the Sixth String Quartet (1956), the Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1957), and the operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki”. In the same year, the composer created the Eleventh Symphony, calling it “1905”, and continued working in the instrumental concert genre (First Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, 1959). In those same years, Shostakovich's rapprochement with official authorities began. In 1957, he became secretary of the USSR Investigative Committee, in 1960 - the RSFSR Investigative Committee (in 1960-1968 - first secretary). In the same 1960, Shostakovich joined the CPSU.

1960s

In 1961, Shostakovich completed the second part of his “revolutionary” symphonic duology: in conjunction with the Eleventh Symphony “1905” he wrote Symphony No. 12 "1917"- a work of a “fine” nature (and actually brings the symphonic genre closer to film music), where, as if with paints on a canvas, the composer paints musical pictures of Petrograd, V.I. Lenin’s refuge on Lake Razliv and the October events themselves. Despite its clearly expressed “ideological” program, the Twelfth Symphony did not receive loud official recognition in the USSR and was not (unlike the Eleventh Symphony) awarded government prizes.

Shostakovich set himself a completely different task a year later in the Thirteenth Symphony, turning to the poetry of E. A. Yevtushenko. Its first part consists of “Babi Yar” (for bass soloist, bass choir and orchestra), followed by four more parts in poetry describing the life of modern Russia and its recent history. The vocal nature of the composition brings it closer to the cantata genre. Symphony No. 13 was first performed in November 1962.

Also in 1962, Shostakovich visited (together with G. N. Rozhdestvensky, M. L. Rostropovich, D. F. Oistrakh, G. P. Vishnevskaya and other Soviet musicians) the Edinburgh Festival, the program of which was composed mainly of his compositions. Performances of Shostakovich's music in Great Britain caused great public outcry.

After the removal of N. S. Khrushchev from power, with the beginning of the era of political stagnation in the USSR, Shostakovich’s music again acquired a gloomy tone. His quartets No. 11 (1966) and No. 12 (1968), Second Cello (1966) and Second Violin (1967) concertos, Violin Sonata (1968), a vocal cycle to the words of A. A. Blok, are imbued with anxiety, pain and inescapable melancholy . In the Fourteenth Symphony (1969) - again “vocal”, but this time chamber, for two solo singers and an orchestra consisting only of strings and percussion - Shostakovich used poems by G. Apollinaire, R. M. Rilke, V. K. Kuchelbecker and F. Garcia Lorca, which are connected by one theme - death (they talk about unjust, early or violent death).

1970s

During these years, the composer created vocal cycles based on poems by M. I. Tsvetaeva and Michelangelo, the 13th (1969-1970), 14th (1973) and 15th (1974) string quartets and Symphony No. 15, a composition characterized by mood thoughtfulness, nostalgia, memories. In it, Shostakovich resorted to quotations from famous works of the past (collage technique). The composer used, among other things, the music of G. Rossini's overture to the opera "William Tell" and the theme of fate from R. Wagner's opera tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung", as well as musical allusions to the music of M. I. Glinka, G. Mahler and, finally, , his own previously written music. The symphony was created in the summer of 1971 and premiered on January 8, 1972. Shostakovich's last composition was the Sonata for viola and piano.

In the last few years of his life, the composer was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. He had a very complex disease associated with damage to the leg muscles. In 1970-1971 he came to the city of Kurgan three times and spent a total of 169 days here for treatment in the laboratory (at the Sverdlovsk Research Institute of Orthopedics) of Dr. G. A. Ilizarov.

Dmitry Shostakovich died in Moscow on August 9, 1975 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 2).

Family

1st wife - Shostakovich Nina Vasilievna (nee Varzar) (1909-1954). She was an astrophysicist by profession and studied with the famous physicist Abram Ioffe. She abandoned her scientific career and devoted herself entirely to her family.

Son - Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich (b. 1938) - conductor, pianist. Student of A.V. Gauk and G.N. Rozhdestvensky.

Daughter - Galina Dmitrievna Shostakovich.

2nd wife - Margarita Kaynova, employee of the Komsomol Central Committee. The marriage quickly fell apart.

3rd wife - Supinskaya (Shostakovich) Irina Antonovna (born November 30, 1934 in Leningrad). The daughter of a repressed scientist. Editor of the publishing house "Soviet Composer". She was Shostakovich's wife from 1962 to 1975.

The Meaning of Creativity

A high level of compositional technique, the ability to create bright and expressive melodies and themes, masterful mastery of polyphony and the finest mastery of the art of orchestration, combined with personal emotionality and colossal efficiency, made his musical works bright, original and of enormous artistic value. Shostakovich's contribution to the development of music of the 20th century is generally recognized as outstanding; he had a significant influence on many of his contemporaries and followers.

The genre and aesthetic diversity of Shostakovich’s music is enormous; it combines elements of tonal, atonal and modal music; modernism, traditionalism, expressionism and the “grand style” are intertwined in the composer’s work.

Style

Influences

In his early years, Shostakovich was influenced by the music of G. Mahler, A. Berg, I. F. Stravinsky, S. S. Prokofiev, P. Hindemith, M. P. Mussorgsky. Constantly studying classical and avant-garde traditions, Shostakovich developed his own musical language, emotionally charged and touching the hearts of musicians and music lovers around the world.

In the work of D. D. Shostakovich, the influence of his favorite and revered composers is noticeable: J. S. Bach (in his fugues and passacaglia), L. Beethoven (in his late quartets), P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. Mahler and partly S V. Rachmaninov (in his symphonies), A. Berg (partly - along with M. P. Mussorgsky in his operas, as well as in the use of the technique of musical quotation). Of the Russian composers, Shostakovich had the greatest love for Mussorgsky; Shostakovich made new orchestrations for his operas “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina”. Mussorgsky's influence is especially noticeable in certain scenes of the opera " Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", in the Eleventh Symphony, as well as in satirical works.

Genres

The most notable genres in Shostakovich's work are symphonies and string quartets - he wrote 15 works in each of them. While symphonies were written throughout the composer's career, Shostakovich wrote most of the quartets towards the end of his life. Among the most popular symphonies are the Fifth and Tenth, among the quartets are the Eighth and Fifteenth.

Specifics of musical language

The most recognizable feature of Shostakovich's musical language is harmony. Although it was always based on a major-minor tonality, the composer consistently, throughout his life, used special scales (modalisms), which gave the expanded tonality in the author’s implementation a specific characteristic. Russian researchers (A.N. Dolzhansky, Yu.N. Kholopov and others) described this pitch characteristic generally as “Shostakovich’s modes.”

The dark, gloomily condensed coloring of the minor mode in Shostakovich, from the point of view of composition technique, is realized primarily in 4-step scales in the volume of a reduced quart (“hemiquart”), which is symbolically contained in Shostakovich’s monogram DSCH ( es-h in d-es-c-h). Based on the 4-step hemiquart, the composer builds 8- and 9-step modes in the range of a reduced octave (“hemioctave”). There is no single particularly preferred type of hemioctave scale in Shostakovich’s music, since the author ingeniously combines the hemiquart with different diatonic and mixodiatonic scales from composition to composition.

What is common to all varieties of “Shostakovich modes” is the unmistakable identification by ear of diminished fourths and octaves in the context of a minor mode. Examples of hemioctave modes (of different structures): Prelude for piano cis-moll, II movement of the Ninth Symphony, passacaglia theme from “Katerina Izmailova” (intermission to the 5th scene) and many others. etc.

Very rarely, Shostakovich also resorted to serial technique (as, for example, in the first movement of the Fifteenth Symphony), and used clusters as a means of coloristics (“illustration” of a blow to the jaw in the romance “Frank Confession”, op. 121 No. 1, vols. 59-64 ).

Essays (selection)

• Symphonies No. 5, 7, 8, 11 (15 in total)
• Operas “The Nose” and “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (“Katerina Izmailova”)
• Ballets “The Golden Age”, “Bolt” and “Bright Stream”
• Oratorio “Song of the Forests”
• Cantata “The Execution of Stepan Razin”
• Concertos (two each) for piano, violin and cello with orchestra
• Chamber instrumental music, including 15 string quartets, Piano Quintet, Piano Trio No. 2 (in memory of Sollertinsky)
• Chamber vocal music, including “Anti-formalistic paradise”, the cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry”, Suite on poems by Michelangelo (for bass and piano)
• “24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano”, “Seven Dances of Dolls”, “Three Fantastic Dances” and other piano works
• Music for films (35 in total), including Song about the Counter (from the music for the film “Counter”), Romance (from the music for the film “Gadfly”), for the film “Hamlet”, music for dramatic performances
• Operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki”
• “Tahiti Trot”, for orchestra (based on the song “Tea for two” by V. Youmens)

His destiny had everything - international recognition and domestic orders, hunger and persecution of the authorities. His creative legacy is unprecedented in genre scope: symphonies and operas, string quartets and concerts, ballets and film scores. An innovator and a classic, creatively emotional and humanly modest - Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. The composer is a classic of the 20th century, a great maestro and a brilliant artist, who experienced the harsh times in which he had to live and create. He took the troubles of his people to heart; in his works one can clearly hear the voice of a fighter against evil and a defender against social injustice.

Read a short biography of Dmitry Shostakovich and many interesting facts about the composer on our page.

Brief biography of Shostakovich

In the house where Dmitry Shostakovich came into this world on September 12, 1906, there is now a school. And then - the City Test Tent, which was headed by his father. From the biography of Shostakovich we learn that at the age of 10, as a high school student, Mitya makes a categorical decision to write music and just 3 years later becomes a student at the conservatory.

The beginning of the 20s was difficult - the time of hunger was aggravated by his serious illness and the sudden death of his father. The director of the conservatory showed great interest in the fate of the talented student. A.K. Glazunov, who awarded him an increased scholarship and organized postoperative rehabilitation in Crimea. Shostakovich recalled that he walked to school only because he was unable to get on the tram. Despite health difficulties, in 1923 he graduated as a pianist, and in 1925 as a composer. Just two years later, his First Symphony is being played by the world's best orchestras under the direction of B. Walter and A. Toscanini.

Possessing incredible efficiency and self-organization, Shostakovich quickly wrote his next works. In his personal life, the composer was not inclined to make hasty decisions. To such an extent that he allowed the woman with whom he had a close relationship for 10 years, Tatyana Glivenko, to marry someone else because of his unwillingness to decide on marriage. He proposed to astrophysicist Nina Varzar, and the repeatedly postponed wedding finally took place in 1932. After 4 years, daughter Galina appeared, and after another 2 years, son Maxim. According to Shostakovich's biography, in 1937 he became a teacher and then a professor at the conservatory.

The war brought not only sadness and sorrow, but also new tragic inspiration. Along with his students, Dmitry Dmitrievich wanted to go to the front. When they didn’t let me in, I wanted to stay in my beloved Leningrad, surrounded by fascists. But he and his family were almost forcibly taken to Kuibyshev (Samara). The composer never returned to his hometown; after the evacuation, he settled in Moscow, where he continued his teaching career. The decree “On the opera “The Great Friendship” by V. Muradeli”, published in 1948, declared Shostakovich a “formalist” and his work anti-people. In 1936, they already tried to call him an “enemy of the people” after critical articles in Pravda about “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and “The Shining Path”. That situation actually put an end to the composer’s further research in the genres of opera and ballet. But now not only the public, but the state machine itself attacked him: he was fired from the conservatory, deprived of his professorial status, and stopped publishing and performing his works. However, it was impossible not to notice a creator of this level for a long time. In 1949, Stalin personally asked him to go to the USA with other cultural figures, returning all selected privileges for his consent; in 1950 he received the Stalin Prize for the cantata “Song of the Forests”, and in 1954 he became People’s Artist of the USSR.

At the end of the same year, Nina Vladimirovna suddenly died. Shostakovich took this loss seriously. He was strong in his music, but weak and helpless in everyday matters, the burden of which was always borne by his wife. Probably, it was the desire to once again streamline his life that explains his new marriage just a year and a half later. Margarita Kaynova did not share her husband’s interests and did not support his social circle. The marriage was short-lived. At the same time, the composer met Irina Supinskaya, who 6 years later became his third and last wife. She was almost 30 years younger, but there was almost no slander about this union behind their backs - the couple’s inner circle understood that the 57-year-old genius was gradually losing his health. Right at the concert, his right arm began to lose consciousness, and then in the USA a final diagnosis was made - the disease was incurable. Even when Shostakovich struggled with every step, this did not stop his music. The last day of his life was August 9, 1975.

Interesting facts about Shostakovich

• Shostakovich was a passionate fan of the Zenit football club and even kept a notebook of all games and goals. His other hobbies were cards - he played solitaire all the time and enjoyed playing “king”, and only for money, and a passion for smoking.
• The composer's favorite dish was homemade dumplings made from three types of meat.
• Dmitry Dmitrievich worked without a piano, he sat down at the table and wrote down notes on paper immediately in full orchestration. He had such a unique ability to work that he could completely rewrite his essay in a short time.
• Shostakovich long sought the return of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to the stage. In the mid-50s, he made a new edition of the opera, calling it “Katerina Izmailova”. Despite the direct appeal to V. Molotov, the production was again banned. Only in 1962 did the opera see the stage. In 1966, a film of the same name was released with Galina Vishnevskaya in the title role.

• In order to express all the wordless passions in the music of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Shostakovich used new techniques when the instruments squeaked, stumbled, and made noise. He created symbolic sound forms that endow the characters with a unique aura: alto flute for Zinovy ​​Borisovich, double bass for Boris Timofeevich, cello for Sergei, oboe And clarinet - for Katerina.
• Katerina Izmailova is one of the most popular roles in the operatic repertoire.

• Shostakovich is one of the 40 most performed opera composers in the world. More than 300 performances of his operas are given annually.
• Shostakovich is the only one of the “formalists” who repented and actually renounced his previous work. This caused different attitudes towards him from his colleagues, and the composer explained his position by saying that otherwise he would not have been allowed to work anymore.
• The composer's first love, Tatyana Glivenko, was warmly received by Dmitry Dmitrievich's mother and sisters. When she got married, Shostakovich summoned her by letter from Moscow. She came to Leningrad and stayed at the Shostakovich house, but he could not decide to persuade her to leave her husband. He gave up trying to renew the relationship only after the news of Tatyana’s pregnancy.
• One of the most famous songs written by Dmitry Dmitrievich was heard in the 1932 film “Oncoming”. It’s called “Song about the Counter”.
• For many years, the composer was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, received “voters” and, as best he could, tried to solve their problems.

• Nina Vasilievna Shostakovich loved to play the piano, but after marriage she stopped, explaining that her husband did not like amateurism.
• Maxim Shostakovich recalls that he saw his father crying twice - when his mother died and when he was forced to join the party.
• In the published memoirs of the children, Galina and Maxim, the composer appears as a sensitive, caring and loving father. Despite his constant busyness, he spent time with them, took them to the doctor and even played popular dance tunes on the piano during children's parties at home. Seeing that his daughter did not like practicing the instrument, he allowed her to no longer study the piano.
• Irina Antonovna Shostakovich recalled that during the evacuation to Kuibyshev she and Shostakovich lived on the same street. He wrote the Seventh Symphony there, and she was only 8 years old.
• Shostakovich's biography says that in 1942 the composer took part in a competition to compose the anthem of the Soviet Union. Also participating in the competition was A. Khachaturyan. After listening to all the works, Stalin asked the two composers to compose a hymn together. They did this, and their work was included in the final, along with the anthems of each of them, versions of A. Alexandrov and the Georgian composer I. Tuski. At the end of 1943, the final choice was made; it was the music of A. Alexandrov, previously known as the “Anthem of the Bolshevik Party”.
• Shostakovich had a unique ear. While attending orchestral rehearsals of his works, he heard inaccuracies in the performance of even one note.

• In the 1930s, the composer expected to be arrested every night, so he kept a suitcase with essentials by his bed. In those years, many people from his circle were shot, including those closest to him - director Meyerhold, Marshal Tukhachevsky. The elder sister's father-in-law and husband were exiled to a camp, and Maria Dmitrievna herself was sent to Tashkent.
• The composer dedicated the eighth quartet, written in 1960, to his memory. It opens with Shostakovich's musical anagram (D-Es-C-H) and contains themes from many of his works. The “indecent” dedication had to be changed to “In memory of the victims of fascism.” He composed this music in tears after joining the party.

Works of Dmitry Shostakovich

The composer's earliest surviving work, the fis-moll Scherzo, dates from the year he entered the conservatory. During his studies, being also a pianist, Shostakovich wrote a lot for this instrument. The final work was First Symphony. This work was an incredible success, and the whole world learned about the young Soviet composer. The inspiration from his own triumph resulted in the following symphonies - the Second and Third. They are united by the unusual form - both have choral parts based on poems by current poets of that time. However, the author himself later recognized these works as unsuccessful. Since the late 20s, Shostakovich has been writing music for cinema and drama theater - for the sake of earning money, and not obeying a creative impulse. In total, he designed more than 50 films and performances by outstanding directors - G. Kozintsev, S. Gerasimov, A. Dovzhenko, Vs. Meyerhold.

In 1930, the premieres of his first opera and ballet took place. AND " Nose"based on Gogol's story, and " Golden age” about the adventures of a Soviet football team in the hostile West received poor reviews from critics and after just over a dozen performances left the stage for many years. The next ballet, “ Bolt" In 1933, the composer performed the piano part at the premiere of his debut Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, in which the second solo part was given to the trumpet.

The opera was created over the course of two years. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", which was performed in 1934 almost simultaneously in Leningrad and Moscow. The director of the capital's performance was V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. A year later, "Lady Macbeth..." crossed the borders of the USSR, conquering the stage of Europe and America. The public was delighted with the first Soviet classical opera. As well as from the composer’s new ballet “Bright Stream”, which has a poster libretto, but is filled with magnificent dance music. The end of the successful stage life of these performances was put in 1936 after Stalin’s visit to the opera and subsequent articles in the Pravda newspaper “Confusion instead of music” and “Ballet falsehood”.

The premiere of the new one was planned for the end of the same year. Fourth Symphony, orchestral rehearsals were underway at the Leningrad Philharmonic. However, the concert was cancelled. The year 1937 did not bring with it any rosy expectations - repressions were gaining momentum in the country, and one of the people close to Shostakovich, Marshal Tukhachevsky, was shot. These events left their mark on tragic music Fifth Symphony. At the premiere in Leningrad, the audience, without holding back their tears, gave a forty-minute ovation to the composer and orchestra conducted by E. Mravinsky. The same cast of performers played the Sixth Symphony two years later, Shostakovich's last major pre-war composition.

On August 9, 1942, an unprecedented event took place - a performance in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory Seventh (“Leningrad”) Symphony. The performance was broadcast on radio to the whole world, stunning the courage of the inhabitants of the unbroken city. The composer wrote this music before the war and in the first months of the siege, ending in evacuation. There, in Kuibyshev, on March 5, 1942, the symphony was played by the Bolshoi Theater orchestra for the first time. On the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, it was performed in London. On July 20, 1942, the day after the New York premiere of the symphony (conducted by A. Toscanini), Time magazine came out with a portrait of Shostakovich on the cover.

The Eighth Symphony, written in 1943, was criticized for its tragic mood. And the Ninth, which premiered in 1945, on the contrary, for its “lightness”. After the war, the composer worked on music for films, works for piano and strings. The year 1948 put an end to the performance of Shostakovich's works. Listeners became acquainted with the next symphony only in 1953. And the Eleventh Symphony in 1958 had an incredible audience success and was awarded the Lenin Prize, after which the composer was completely rehabilitated by the Central Committee resolution on the abolition of the “formalistic” resolution. The twelfth symphony was dedicated to V.I. Lenin, and the next two had an unusual form: they were created for soloists, choir and orchestra - the Thirteenth to poems by E. Yevtushenko, the Fourteenth to poems by different poets, united by the theme of death. The fifteenth symphony, which became the last, was born in the summer of 1971; its premiere was conducted by the author’s son, Maxim Shostakovich.

In 1958, the composer took up the orchestration of " Khovanshchiny" His version of the opera is destined to become the most popular in the coming decades. Shostakovich, relying on the restored author's clavier, managed to clear Mussorgsky's music of layers and interpretations. He had carried out similar work twenty years earlier with “ Boris Godunov" In 1959, the premiere of Dmitry Dmitrievich’s only operetta took place - “ Moscow, Cheryomushki”, which caused surprise and was received enthusiastically. Three years later, a popular musical film based on the work was released. In his 60s and 70s, the composer wrote 9 string quartets and worked a lot on vocal works. The last work of the Soviet genius was the Sonata for viola and piano, first performed after his death.

Dmitry Dmitrievich wrote music for 33 films. “Katerina Izmailova” and “Moscow, Cheryomushki” were filmed. Nevertheless, he always told his students that writing for cinema was possible only under the threat of starvation. Despite the fact that he composed film music solely for the sake of a fee, it contains many melodies of amazing beauty.

Among his films:

• “The Counter”, directors F. Ermler and S. Yutkevich, 1932
• Trilogy about Maxim directed by G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg, 1934-1938
• “Man with a Gun”, director S. Yutkevich, 1938
• “Young Guard”, director S. Gerasimov, 1948
• “Meeting on the Elbe”, director G. Alexandrov, 1948
• “The Gadfly”, director A. Fainzimmer, 1955
• “Hamlet”, director G. Kozintsev, 1964
• “King Lear”, director G. Kozintsev, 1970

The modern film industry often uses Shostakovich's music to create musical settings for films:

Even today the figure of Shostakovich is treated ambiguously, calling him either a genius or an opportunist. He never openly spoke out against what was happening, realizing that by doing so he would lose the opportunity to write music, which was the main thing in his life. This music, even decades later, speaks eloquently both about the personality of the composer and about his attitude towards his terrible era.

Video: watch a film about Shostakovich