Jump to content

Dmitri Shostakovich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Shostakovich" redirects here. For other uses, seeShostakovich (disambiguation).
In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisDmitriyevichand thefamily nameisShostakovich.

Dmitri Shostakovich
Дмитрий Шостакович
Shostakovich in 1950
Born(1906-09-25)25 September 1906
Saint Petersburg,Russian Empire
Died9 August 1975(1975-08-09)(aged 68)
Moscow,Soviet Union
Occupations
  • Composer
  • Pianist
  • Teacher
WorksList of compositions
ChildrenGalinaandMaxim Shostakovich
Signature

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich[n 1](25 September [O.S.12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist[1]who became internationally known after the premiere of hisFirst Symphonyin 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.

Shostakovich achieved early fame in theSoviet Union,but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 operaLady Macbeth of Mtsenskwas initially a success but latercondemned by the Soviet government,putting his career at risk. In 1948 his work wasdenouncedunder theZhdanov Doctrine,with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure wasrescinded in 1956,performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with hisThirteenth Symphony(1962). Nevertheless, Shostakovich was a member of theSupreme Soviet of the RSFSR(1947) and theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union(from 1962 until his death), as well as chairman of theRSFSR Union of Composers(1960–1968). Over the course of his career, he earned several importantawards,including theOrder of Lenin,from the Soviet government.

Shostakovich combined a variety of different musical techniques in his works. His music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of thegrotesque,and ambivalenttonality;he was also heavily influenced byneoclassicismand by the late Romanticism ofGustav Mahler.His orchestral works include 15symphoniesand sixconcerti(two each for piano, violin, and cello). His chamber works include 15string quartets,apiano quintet,and twopiano trios.His solo piano works include twosonatas,an early set of24 preludes,and a later set of24 preludes and fugues.Stage works include three completed operas and three ballets. Shostakovich also wrote severalsong cycles,and a substantial quantity of music fortheatreandfilm.

Shostakovich's reputation has continued to grow after his death. Scholarly interest has increased significantly since the late 20th century, including considerable debate about the relationship between his music and his attitudes toward the Soviet government.

Biography[edit]

Youth[edit]

Birthplace of Shostakovich (now School No. 267). Commemorative plaque at left.

Born into a Russian family that lived on Podolskaya Street inSaint Petersburg,Russian Empire,Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. Shostakovich's immediate forebears came fromSiberia,[2]but his paternal grandfather, Bolesław Szostakowicz, was ofPolishRoman Catholicdescent, tracing his family roots to the region of the town ofVileykain today'sBelarus.A Polish revolutionary in theJanuary Uprisingof 1863–64, Szostakowicz was exiled toNarymin 1866 in the crackdown that followedDmitry Karakozov's assassination attempt onTsar Alexander II.[3]When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia. He eventually became a successful banker inIrkutskand raised a large family. His son Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the composer's father, was born in exile in Narym in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics atSaint Petersburg University,graduating in 1899. He then went to work as an engineer underDmitri Mendeleevat the Bureau of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg. In 1903, he married another Siberian immigrant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Siberian Russian.[3]

Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed musical talent after he began piano lessons with his mother at the age of nine. On several occasions, he displayed a remarkable ability to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson, and would get "caught in the act" of playing the previous lesson's music while pretending to read different music placed in front of him.[4]In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of theKadet partymurdered byBolsheviksailors.[5]

In 1919, at age 13,[6]Shostakovich was admitted to thePetrograd Conservatory,then headed byAlexander Glazunov,who monitored his progress closely and promoted him.[7]Shostakovich studied piano withLeonid Nikolayevand Elena Rozanova, composition withMaximilian Steinberg,andcounterpointandfuguewithNikolay Sokolov,who became his friend.[8]He also attendedAlexander Ossovsky's music history classes.[9]In 1925, he enrolled in the conducting classes ofNikolai Malko,[10]where he conducted the conservatory orchestra in a private performance ofBeethoven'sFirst Symphony.According to the recollections of the composer's classmate,Valerian Bogdanov-Berezhovsky[ru]:

Shostakovich stood at the podium, played with his hair and jacket cuffs, looked around at the hushed teenagers with instruments at the ready and raised the baton.... He neither stopped the orchestra, nor made any remarks; he focused his entire attention on aspects of tempi and dynamics, which were very clearly displayed in his gestures. The contrasts between the "Adagio molto" of the introduction and "Allegro con brio" first theme were quite striking, as were those between the percussive accents of the chords (woodwinds, French horns, pizzicato strings) and the momentarily extended piano in the introduction following them. In the character given to the pattern of the first theme, I recall, there was both vigorous striving and lightness; in the bass part there was an emphasized pliancy of tenderly threaded articulation.... Moments of these sorts... were discoveries of an improvised order, born from an intuitively refined understanding of the character of a piece and the elements of musical imagery embedded in it. And the players enjoyed it.[11]

On 20 March 1925, Shostakovich's music was played in Moscow for the first time, in a program which also included works by his friendVissarion Shebalin.To the composer's disappointment, the critics and public there received his music coolly. During his visit to Moscow, Mikhail Kvadri introduced him toMikhail Tukhachevsky,[12]who helped the composer find accommodation and work there, and sent a driver to take him to a concert in "a very stylish automobile".[13]

Shostakovich's musical breakthrough was theFirst Symphony,written as his graduation piece at the age of 19. Initially, Shostakovich aspired only to perform it privately with the conservatory orchestra and prepared to conduct thescherzohimself. By late 1925, Malko agreed to conduct its premiere with theLeningrad Philharmonic Orchestraafter Steinberg and Shostakovich's friendBoleslav Yavorskybrought the symphony to his attention.[14]On 12 May 1926, Malko led the premiere of the symphony; the audience received it enthusiastically, demanding an encore of the scherzo. Thereafter, Shostakovich regularly celebrated the date of his symphonic debut.[15]

Early career[edit]

Shostakovich in 1925

After graduation, Shostakovich embarked on a dual career as concert pianist and composer, but his dry keyboard style was often criticized.[16]Shostakovich maintained a heavy performance schedule until 1930; after 1933, he performed only his own compositions.[17]Along withYuri Bryushkov[ru],Grigory Ginzburg,Lev Oborin,and Josif Shvarts, he was among the Soviet contestants in the inauguralI International Chopin Piano Competitionin Warsaw in 1927. Bogdanov-Berezhovsky later remembered:

The self-discipline with which the young Shostakovich prepared for the 1927 [Chopin] Competition was astonishing. For three weeks, he locked himself away at home, practicing for hours at a time, having postponed his composing, and given up trips to the theatre and visits with friends. Even more startling was the result of this seclusion. Of course, prior to this time, he had played superbly and occasioned Glazunov's now famous glowing reports. But during those days, his pianism, sharply idiosyncratic and rhythmically impulsive, multi-timbered yet graphically defined, emerged in its concentrated form.[18]

Natan Perelman[ru],who heard Shostakovich play his Chopin programs before he went to Warsaw, said that his "anti-sentimental" playing, which eschewedrubatoand extreme dynamic contrasts, was unlike anything he had ever heard.Arnold Alschwang[ru]called Shostakovich's playing "profound and lacking any salon-like mannerisms."[19]

Shostakovich was stricken withappendicitison the opening day of the competition, but his condition improved by the time of his first performance on 27 January 1927. (He had his appendix removed on 25 April.) According to Shostakovich, his playing found favor with the audience. He persisted into the final round of the competition but ultimately earned only a diploma, no prize; Oborin was declared the winner. Shostakovich was upset about the result but for a time resolved to continue a career as performer. While recovering from his appendectomy in April 1927, Shostakovich said he was beginning to reassess those plans:

When I was well, I practiced the piano every day. I wanted to carry on like that until autumn and then decide. If I saw that I had not improved, I would quit the whole business. To be a pianist who is worse thanSzpinalski,Etkin,Ginzburg, and Bryushkov (it is commonly thought that I am worse than them) is not worth it.[20]

After the competition, Shostakovich and Oborin spent a week in Berlin. There he met the conductorBruno Walter,who was so impressed by Shostakovich's First Symphony that he conducted its first performance outside Russia later that year.Leopold Stokowskiled the American premiere the next year in Philadelphia and also made the work's first recording.[21][22]

In 1927, Shostakovich wrote hisSecond Symphony(subtitledTo October), a patriotic piece with a pro-Soviet choral finale. Owing to its modernism, it did not meet with the same enthusiasm as his First.[23]This year also marked the beginning of Shostakovich's close friendship with musicologist and theatre criticIvan Sollertinsky,whom he had first met in 1921 through their mutual friendsLev Arnshtamand Lydia Zhukova.[24][25]Shostakovich later said that Sollertinsky "taught [him] to understand and love such great masters asBrahms,Mahler,andBruckner"and that he instilled in him" an interest in music... fromBachtoOffenbach."[26]

While writing the Second Symphony, Shostakovich also began work on his satirical operaThe Nose,based onthe storybyNikolai Gogol.In June 1929, against the composer's wishes, the opera was given a concert performance; it was ferociously attacked by theRussian Association of Proletarian Musicians(RAPM).[27]Its stage premiere on 18 January 1930 opened to generally poor reviews and widespread incomprehension among musicians.[28]In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich worked atTRAM,aproletarianyouth theatre. Although he did little work in this post, it shielded him from ideological attack. Much of this period was spent writing his operaLady Macbeth of Mtsensk,which was first performed in 1934. It was initially immediately successful, on both popular and official levels. It was described as "the result of the general success of Socialist construction, of the correct policy of the Party", and as an opera that "could have been written only by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture".[29]

Shostakovich married his first wife, Nina Varzar, in 1932. Difficulties led to a divorce in 1935, but the couple soon remarried when Nina became pregnant with their first child,Galina.[30]

First denunciation[edit]

Production ofLady Macbeth of MtsenskbyHelikon Operain 2014

On 17 January 1936,Joseph Stalinpaid a rare visit to the opera for a performance of a new work,Quiet Flows the Don,based on the novel byMikhail Sholokhov,by the little-known composerIvan Dzerzhinsky,who was called to Stalin's box at the end of the performance and told that his work had "considerable ideological-political value".[31]On 26 January, Stalin revisited the opera, accompanied byVyacheslav Molotov,Andrei ZhdanovandAnastas Mikoyan,to hearLady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.He and his entourage left without speaking to anyone. Shostakovich had been forewarned by a friend that he should postpone a planned concert tour inArkhangelskin order to be present at that particular performance.[32]Eyewitness accounts testify that Shostakovich was "white as a sheet" when he went to take his bow after the third act.[33]

The next day, Shostakovich left for Arkhangelsk, where he heard on 28 January thatPravdahad published an editorial titled "Muddle Instead of Music",complaining that the opera was a" deliberately dissonant, muddled stream of sounds...[that] quacks, hoots, pants and gasps. "[34]Shostakovich continued his performance tour as scheduled, with no disruptions. From Arkhangelsk, he instructedIsaac Glikmanto subscribe to aclipping service.[35]The editorial was the signal for a nationwide campaign, during which even Soviet music critics who had praised the opera were forced to recant in print, saying they "failed to detect the shortcomings ofLady Macbethas pointed out byPravda".[36]There was resistance from those who admired Shostakovich, including Sollertinsky, who turned up at a composers' meeting in Leningrad called to denounce the opera and praised it instead. Two other speakers supported him. When Shostakovich returned to Leningrad, he had a telephone call from the commander of the Leningrad Military District, who had been asked by MarshalMikhail Tukhachevskyto make sure that he was all right. When the writerIsaac Babelwas under arrest four years later, he told his interrogators that "it was common ground for us to proclaim the genius of the slighted Shostakovich."[37]

On 6 February, Shostakovich was again attacked inPravda,this time for his light comic balletThe Limpid Stream,which was denounced because "it jangles and expresses nothing" and did not give an accurate picture of peasant life on a collective farm.[38]Fearful that he was about to be arrested, Shostakovich secured an appointment with the Chairman of the USSR State Committee on Culture,Platon Kerzhentsev,who reported to Stalin andMolotovthat he had instructed the composer to "reject formalist errors and in his art attain something that could be understood by the broad masses", and that Shostakovich had admitted being in the wrong and had asked for a meeting with Stalin, which was not granted.[39]

ThePravdacampaign against Shostakovich caused his commissions and concert appearances, and performances of his music, to decline markedly. His monthly earnings dropped from an average of as much as 12,000 rubles to as little as 2,000.[40]

1936 marked the beginning of theGreat Terror,in which many of Shostakovich's friends and relatives were imprisoned or killed. These included Tukhachevsky, executed 12 June 1937; his brother-in-lawVsevolod Frederiks,who was eventually released but died before he returned home; his close friendNikolai Zhilyayev,a musicologist who had taught Tukhachevsky, was executed; his mother-in-law, the astronomer Sofiya Mikhaylovna Varzar,[41]who was sent to a camp inKaragandaand later released; his friend the Marxist writerGalina Serebryakova,who spent 20 years in thegulag;his uncle Maxim Kostrykin (died); and his colleaguesBoris Kornilov(executed) andAdrian Piotrovsky(executed).[42]

Shostakovich's daughter Galina was born during this period in 1936;[43]his sonMaximwas born two years later.[44]

Withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony

Shostakovich before 1941

The publication of thePravdaeditorials coincided with the composition of Shostakovich'sFourth Symphony.The work continued a shift in his style, influenced by the music ofMahler,and gave him problems as he attempted to reform his style. Despite thePravdaarticles, he continued to compose the symphony and planned a premiere at the end of 1936. Rehearsals began that December, but according to Isaac Glikman, who had attended the rehearsals with the composer, the manager of theLeningrad Philharmonicpersuaded Shostakovich to withdraw the symphony.[45]Shostakovich did not repudiate the work and retained its designation as his Fourth Symphony. (A reduction for two pianos was performed and published in 1946,[46]and the work was finally premiered in 1961.)[47]

In the months between the withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony and the completion of theFifthon 20 July 1937, the only concert work Shostakovich composed was theFour Romances on Texts by Pushkin.[48]

Fifth Symphony and return to favor

The composer's response to his denunciation was theFifth Symphonyof 1937, which was musically more conservative than his recent works. Premiered on 21 November 1937 in Leningrad, it was a phenomenal success. The Fifth brought many to tears and welling emotions.[49]Later, Shostakovich's purported memoir,Testimony,stated: "I'll never believe that a man who understood nothing could feel the Fifth Symphony. Of course they understood, they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about."[50]

The success put Shostakovich in good standing once again. Music critics and the authorities alike, including those who had earlier accused him of formalism, claimed that he had learned from his mistakes and become a true Soviet artist. In a newspaper article published under Shostakovich's name, the Fifth was characterized as "A Soviet artist's creative response to just criticism."[51]The composerDmitry Kabalevsky,who had been among those who disassociated themselves from Shostakovich when thePravdaarticle was published, praised the Fifth and congratulated Shostakovich for "not having given in to the seductive temptations of his previous 'erroneous' ways."[52]

It was also at this time that Shostakovich composed thefirstof hisstring quartets.In September 1937, he began to teach composition at theLeningrad Conservatory,which provided some financial security.[53]

Second World War[edit]

In 1939, beforeSoviet forces attempted to invade Finland,the Party Secretary of LeningradAndrei Zhdanovcommissioned a celebratory piece from Shostakovich, theSuite on Finnish Themes,to be performed as the marching bands of theRed Armyparaded through Helsinki. TheWinter Warwas a bitter experience for the Red Army, the parade never happened, and Shostakovich never laid claim to the authorship of this work.[54]It was not performed until 2001.[55]After the outbreak ofwar between the Soviet Union and Germanyin 1941, Shostakovich initially remained in Leningrad. He tried to enlist in the military but was turned away because of his poor eyesight. To compensate, he became a volunteer for the Leningrad Conservatory's firefighter brigade and delivered a radio broadcast to the Soviet people.listenⓘThe photograph for which he posed was published in newspapers throughout the country.[56]

Shostakovich's most famous wartime contribution was theSeventh Symphony.The composer wrote the first three movements inLeningrad while it was under siege;he completed the work in Kuybyshev (nowSamara), where he and his family had been evacuated.[57]According to a radio address he made on 17 September 1941, he continued work on the symphony in order to show his fellow citizens that everyone had a "soldier's duty" to ensure life went on. In another article written on 8 October, he wrote that the Seventh was a "symphony about our age, our people, our sacred war, and our victory."[58]Shostakovich finished his Seventh Symphony on 27 December.[59]The symphony was premiered by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Kuibyshev on 29 March and soon performed in London and the United States,[60]where several conductors vied to conduct itsfirst American performance.[61]It wassubsequently performed in Leningrad while the city was still under siege.The city's remaining orchestra only had 14 musicians left, which led conductorKarl Eliasbergto reinforce it by recruiting anyone who could play an instrument.[62]

The Shostakovich family moved to Moscow in spring 1943, by which time theRed Armywas on the offensive. As a result, Soviet authorities and the international public were puzzled by the tragic tone of theEighth Symphony,which in the Western press had briefly acquired the nickname "StalingradSymphony ". The symphony was received tepidly in the Soviet Union and the West.Olin Downesexpressed his disappointment in the piece, butCarlos Chávez,who had conducted the symphony's Mexican premiere, praised it highly.[63]

Shostakovich had expressed as early as 1943 his intention to cap his wartime trilogy of symphonies with a grandiose Ninth. On 16 January 1945, he announced to his students that he had begun work on its first movement the day before. In April, his friendIsaac Glikmanheard an extensive portion of the first movement, noting that it was "majestic in scale, in pathos, in its breathtaking motion".[64]Shortly thereafter, Shostakovich ceased work on this version of the Ninth, which remained lost until musicologist Olga Digonskaya rediscovered it in December 2003.[65]Shostakovich began to compose his actual, unrelatedNinth Symphonyin late July 1945; he completed it on 30 August. It was shorter and lighter in texture than its predecessors.Gavriil Popovwrote that it was "splendid in its joie de vivre, gaiety, brilliance, and pungency!"[66]By 1946 it was the subject of official criticism. Israel Nestyev asked whether it was the right time for "a light and amusing interlude between Shostakovich's significant creations, a temporary rejection of great, serious problems for the sake of playful, filigree-trimmed trifles."[67]TheNew York World-Telegramof 27 July 1946 was similarly dismissive: "The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner". Shostakovich continued to compose chamber music, notably hisSecond Piano Trio,dedicated to the memory of Sollertinsky, with a Jewish-inspired finale.

In 1947, Shostakovich was made a deputy to theSupreme Soviet of the RSFSR.[68]

Second denunciation[edit]

In 1948, Shostakovich, along with many other composers, was again denounced forformalismin theZhdanov decree.Andrei Zhdanov, Chairman of theSupreme Soviet of the RSFSR,accused the composers (includingSergei ProkofievandAram Khachaturian) of writing inappropriate and formalist music. This was part of an ongoing anti-formalism campaign intended to root out all Western compositional influence as well as any perceived "non-Russian" output. The conference resulted in the publication of the Central Committee's Decree "On V. Muradeli's operaThe Great Friendship",which targeted all Soviet composers and demanded that they write only" proletarian "music, or music for the masses. The accused composers, including Shostakovich, were summoned to make public apologies in front of the committee.[69]Most of Shostakovich's works were banned, and his family had privileges withdrawn.Yuri Lyubimovsays that at this time "he waited for his arrest at night out on the landing by the lift, so that at least his family wouldn't be disturbed."[70]

The decree's consequences for composers were harsh. Shostakovich was among those dismissed from the Conservatory altogether. For him, the loss of money was perhaps the heaviest blow. Others still in the Conservatory experienced an atmosphere thick with suspicion. No one wanted his work to be understood as formalist, so many resorted to accusing their colleagues of writing or performing anti-proletarian music.[71]

During the next few years, Shostakovich composed three categories of work: film music to pay the rent, official works aimed at securing officialrehabilitation,and serious works "for the desk drawer". The last included theViolin Concerto No. 1and thesong cycleFrom Jewish Folk Poetry.The cycle was written at a time when the postwaranti-Semiticcampaign was already under way, with widespread arrests, including that of Dobrushin and Yiditsky, the compilers of the book from which Shostakovich took his texts.[72]

The restrictions on Shostakovich's music and living arrangements were eased in 1949, when Stalin decided that the Soviets needed to send artistic representatives to the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York City, and that Shostakovich should be among them. For Shostakovich, it was a humiliating experience, culminating in a New York press conference where he was expected to read a prepared speech.Nicolas Nabokov,who was present in the audience, witnessed Shostakovich starting to read "in a nervous and shaky voice" before he had to break off "and the speech was continued in English by a suave radio baritone".[73]Fully aware that Shostakovich was not free to speak his mind, Nabokov publicly asked him whether he supported the then recent denunciation ofStravinsky's music in the Soviet Union. A great admirer of Stravinsky who had been influenced by his music, Shostakovich had no alternative but to answer in the affirmative. Nabokov did not hesitate to write that this demonstrated that Shostakovich was "not a free man, but an obedient tool of his government."[74]Shostakovich never forgave Nabokov for this public humiliation.[75]That same year, he composed thecantataSong of the Forests,which praised Stalin as the "great gardener".[76]

Stalin's death in 1953 was the biggest step toward Shostakovich's rehabilitation as a creative artist, which was marked by hisTenth Symphony.It features a number ofmusical quotationsand codes (notably theDSCHand Elmira motifs, Elmira Nazirova being a pianist and composer who had studied under Shostakovich in the year before his dismissal from the Moscow Conservatory),[77]the meaning of which is still debated, while the savage second movement, according toTestimony,is intended as a musical portrait of Stalin. The Tenth ranks alongside the Fifth and Seventh as one of Shostakovich's most popular works. 1953 also saw a stream of premieres of the "desk drawer" works.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Shostakovich had close relationships with two of his pupils,Galina Ustvolskayaand Elmira Nazirova. In the background to all this remained Shostakovich's first, open marriage to Nina Varzar until her death in 1954. He taught Ustvolskaya from 1939 to 1941 and then from 1947 to 1948. The nature of their relationship is far from clear:Mstislav Rostropovichdescribed it as "tender". Ustvolskaya rejected a proposal of marriage from him after Nina's death.[78]Shostakovich's daughter, Galina, recalled her father consulting her and Maxim about the possibility of Ustvolskaya becoming their stepmother.[78][79]Ustvolskaya's friend Viktor Suslin said that she had been "deeply disappointed by [Shostakovich's] conspicuous silence" when her music faced criticism after her graduation from the Leningrad Conservatory.[80]The relationship with Nazirova seems to have been one-sided, expressed largely in his letters to her, and can be dated to around 1953 to 1956. He married his second wife,Komsomolactivist Margarita Kainova, in 1956; the couple proved ill-matched, and divorced five years later.[81]

In 1954, Shostakovich wrote theFestive Overture, opus 96;it was used as the theme music for the1980 Summer Olympics.[82](His ' "Theme from the filmPirogov,Opus 76a: Finale "was played as the cauldron was lit at the2004 Summer Olympicsin Athens, Greece.)[83][84]

In 1959, Shostakovich appeared on stage in Moscow at the end of a concert performance of his Fifth Symphony, congratulatingLeonard Bernsteinand theNew York Philharmonic Orchestrafor their performance (part of a concert tour of the Soviet Union). Later that year, Bernstein and the Philharmonic recorded the symphony in Boston forColumbia Records.[85][86]

Joining the Party[edit]

The year 1960 marked another turning point in Shostakovich's life: he joined theCommunist Party.The government wanted to appoint him Chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers, but to hold that position he was required to obtain Party membership. It was understood thatNikita Khrushchev,the First Secretary of the Communist Party from 1953 to 1964, was looking for support from the intelligentsia's leading ranks in an effort to create a better relationship with the Soviet Union's artists.[87]This event has variously been interpreted as a show of commitment, a mark of cowardice, the result of political pressure, and his free decision. On the one hand, theapparatwas less repressive than it had been before Stalin's death. On the other, his son recalled that the event reduced Shostakovich to tears,[88]and that he later told his wife Irina that he had been blackmailed.[89]Lev Lebedinskyhas said that the composer was suicidal.[90]In 1960, he was appointed Chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers;[91][92]from 1962 until his death, he also served as a delegate in theSupreme Soviet of the USSR.[93]By joining the party, Shostakovich also committed himself to finally writing the homage to Lenin that he had promised before. HisTwelfth Symphony,which portrays theBolshevik Revolutionand was completed in 1961, was dedicated to Lenin and called "The Year 1917".

Shostakovich in 1950

Shostakovich's musical response to these personal crises was theEighth String Quartet,composed in only three days. He subtitled the piece "To the victims of fascism and war",[94]ostensibly in memory of theDresden fire bombingthat took place in 1945. Yet like the Tenth Symphony, the quartet incorporatesquotationsfrom several of his past works andhis musical monogram.Shostakovich confessed to his friend Isaac Glikman, "I started thinking that if some day I die, nobody is likely to write a work in memory of me, so I had better write one myself."[95]Several of Shostakovich's colleagues, including Natalya Vovsi-Mikhoels[96]and the cellistValentin Berlinsky,[97]were also aware of the Eighth Quartet's biographical intent. Peter J. Rabinowitz has also pointed to covert references to Richard Strauss'sMetamorphosenin it.[98]

In 1962, Shostakovich married for the third time, to Irina Supinskaya. In a letter to Glikman, he wrote, "her only defect is that she is 27 years old. In all other respects she is splendid: clever, cheerful, straightforward and very likeable."[99]According toGalina Vishnevskaya,who knew the Shostakoviches well, this marriage was a very happy one: "It was with her that Dmitri Dmitriyevich finally came to know domestic peace... Surely, she prolonged his life by several years."[100]In November, he conducted publicly for the only time in his life, leading a couple of his own works inGorky;[101]otherwise he declined to conduct, citing nerves and ill health.[102]

That year saw Shostakovich again turn to the subject of anti-Semitism in hisThirteenth Symphony(subtitledBabi Yar). The symphony sets a number of poems byYevgeny Yevtushenko,the first of which commemorates a massacre of Ukrainian Jews during the Second World War. Opinions are divided as to how great a risk this was: the poem had been published in Soviet media and was not banned, but it remained controversial. After the symphony's premiere, Yevtushenko was forced to add a stanza to his poem that said that Russians and Ukrainians had died alongside the Jews at Babi Yar.[103]

In 1965, Shostakovich raised his voice in defence of poetJoseph Brodsky,who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor. Shostakovich co-signed protests with Yevtushenko, fellow Soviet artistsKornei Chukovsky,Anna Akhmatova,Samuil Marshak,and the French philosopherJean-Paul Sartre.After the protests, the sentence was commuted, and Brodsky returned to Leningrad.[104]

Later life[edit]

In 1964, Shostakovich composed the music for the Russian filmHamlet,which was favorably reviewed byThe New York Times:"But the lack of this aural stimulation—of Shakespeare's eloquent words—is recompensed in some measure by a splendid and stirring musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich. This has great dignity and depth, and at times an appropriate wildness or becoming levity".[105]

In later life, Shostakovich suffered from chronic ill health, but he resisted giving up cigarettes andvodka.[106]Beginning in 1958, he suffered from a debilitating condition that particularly affected his right hand, eventually forcing him to give up piano playing; in 1965, it was diagnosed aspoliomyelitis,but consensus on his diagnosis is unclear.[106]He also sufferedheart attacksin 1966,[107]1970,[106]and 1971,[106]as well as several falls in which he broke both his legs;[106]in 1967, he wrote in a letter: "Target achieved so far: 75% (right leg broken, left leg broken, right hand defective). All I need to do now is wreck the left hand and then 100% of my extremities will be out of order."[108]

A preoccupation with his own mortality permeates Shostakovich's later works, such as the later quartets and theFourteenth Symphonyof 1969 (a song cycle based on a number of poems on the theme of death). This piece also finds Shostakovich at his most extreme with musical language, with 12-tone themes and densepolyphonythroughout. He dedicated the Fourteenth to his close friendBenjamin Britten,who conducted its Western premiere at the 1970Aldeburgh Festival.TheFifteenth Symphonyof 1971 is, by contrast, melodic and retrospective in nature, quotingWagner,Rossiniand the composer's own Fourth Symphony.[109]

Death[edit]

Shostakovich voting in the election of the Council of Administration of Soviet Musicians in Moscow in 1974 (photograph byYuri Shcherbinin)

Despite suffering frommotor neurone disease(ALS) or some other neurological ailment from as early as the 1950s,[106]Shostakovich insisted upon writing all his own correspondence and music himself, even when his right hand became virtually unusable. His last work was hisViola Sonata,which was first performed officially on 1 October 1975.[110]

Shostakovich, a smoker since his youth, was forced to give up the habit after having his first heart attack in 1966.[111]He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1973.[112]His death is variously attributed to lung cancer or heart failure.[113][114][106]

Shostakovich died on 9 August 1975 at theCentral Clinical Hospitalin Moscow. A civic funeral was held; he was interred inNovodevichy Cemetery,Moscow.[115]

Legacy[edit]

Shostakovich left behind several recordings of his own piano works; other noted interpreters of his music includeMstislav Rostropovich,[116]Tatiana Nikolayeva,[117]Maria Yudina,[118]David Oistrakh,[119]and members of theBeethoven Quartet.[120][121]

Shostakovich's influence on later composers outside the former Soviet Union has been relatively slight. His influence can be seen in some Nordic composers, such asLars-Erik Larsson.[122]

TheShostakovich PeninsulaonAlexander Island,Antarctica,is named for him.[123]

Music[edit]

Further information:List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich

Overview[edit]

Shostakovich's works are broadlytonal[124]but with elements ofatonalityandchromaticism.In some of his later works (e.g., theTwelfth Quartet), he made use oftone rows.His output is dominated by his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, each totaling 15. The symphonies are distributed fairly evenly throughout his career, while the quartets are concentrated towards the latter part. Among the most popular are theFifthandSeventhSymphonies and theEighthandFifteenthQuartets. Other works include operas, concertos, chamber music, and a large quantity of theatre and film music.[125]

Shostakovich's music shows the influence of many of the composers he most admired:Bachin hisfuguesandpassacaglias;Beethovenin the latequartets;Mahlerin the symphonies; andBergin his use of musical codes andquotations.Among Russian composers, he particularly admiredModest Mussorgsky,whose operasBoris GodunovandKhovanshchinahe reorchestrated; Mussorgsky's influence is most prominent in the wintry scenes ofLady Macbethand theEleventh Symphony,as well as in satirical works such as "Rayok".[126]Prokofiev's influence is most apparent in the earlier piano works, such as the first sonata andfirst concerto.[127]The influence of Russian church and folk music is evident in his works for unaccompanied choir of the 1950s.[128]

Shostakovich's relationship with Stravinsky was profoundly ambivalent; as he wrote to Glikman, "Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise."[129]He was particularly enamoured of theSymphony of Psalms,presenting a copy of his own piano version of it to Stravinsky when the latter visited the USSR in 1962. (The meeting of the two composers was not very successful; observers commented on Shostakovich's extreme nervousness and Stravinsky's "cruelty" to him.)[130]

Many commentators have noted the disjunction between the experimental works before the 1936 denunciation and the more conservative ones that followed; the composer told Flora Litvinova, "without 'Party guidance'... I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm, I could have revealed my ideas openly instead of having to resort to camouflage."[131]Articles Shostakovich published in 1934 and 1935 citedBerg,Schoenberg,Krenek,Hindemith,"and especially Stravinsky" among his influences.[132]Key works of the earlier period are theFirst Symphony,which combined the academicism of the conservatory with his progressive inclinations;The Nose( "The most uncompromisingly modernist of all his stage-works"[133]);Lady Macbeth,which precipitated the denunciation; and theFourth Symphony,described in Grove's Dictionary as "a colossal synthesis of Shostakovich's musical development to date".[134]The Fourth was also the first piece in which Mahler's influence came to the fore, prefiguring the route Shostakovich took to secure his rehabilitation, while he himself admitted that the preceding two were his least successful.[135]

After 1936, Shostakovich's music became more conservative. During this time he also composed morechamber music.[136]While his chamber works were largely tonal, the late chamber works, which Grove's Dictionary calls a "world ofpurgatorialnumbness ",[137]includedtone rows,although he treated these thematically rather thanserially.Vocal works are also a prominent feature of his late output.[138]

Jewish themes[edit]

In the 1940s, Shostakovich began to show an interest in Jewish themes. He was intrigued byJewish music's "ability to build a jolly melody on sad intonations".[139]Examples of works that included Jewish themes are theFourth String Quartet(1949), theFirst Violin Concerto(1948), and theFour Monologues on Pushkin Poems(1952), as well as thePiano Trio in E minor(1944). He was further inspired to write with Jewish themes when he examinedMoisei Beregovski's 1944 thesis on Jewish folk music.[140]

In 1948, Shostakovich acquired a book of Jewish folk songs, from which he composed the song cycleFrom Jewish Folk Poetry.He initially wrote eight songs meant to represent the hardships of being Jewish in the Soviet Union. To disguise this, he added three more meant to demonstrate the great life Jews had under the Soviet regime. Despite his efforts to hide the real meaning in the work, theUnion of Composersrefused to approve his music in 1949 under the pressure of the anti-Semitism that gripped the country.From Jewish Folk Poetrycould not be performed until after Stalin's death in March 1953, along with all the other works that were forbidden.[141]

Self-quotations[edit]

Throughout his compositions, Shostakovich demonstrated a controlled use of musical quotation. This stylistic choice had been common among earlier composers, but Shostakovich developed it into a defining characteristic of his music. Rather than quoting other composers, Shostakovich preferred to quote himself. Musicologists such as Sofia Moshevich, Ian McDonald, and Stephen Harris have connected his works through their quotations.[clarification needed][142]

One example is the main theme of Katerina's aria,Seryozha, khoroshiy moy,from the fourth act ofLady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.The aria's beauty comes as a breath of fresh air in the intense, overbearing tone of the scene, in which Katerina visits her lover Sergei in prison. The theme is made tragic when Sergei betrays her and finds a new lover upon blaming Katerina for his incarceration.[143]

More than 25 years later, Shostakovich quoted this theme in hisEighth String Quartet.In the midst of this quartet's oppressive and somber themes, the cello introduces the Seryozha theme "in the 'bright' key of F-sharp major" about three minutes into the fourth movement.[144]This theme emerges once again in hisFourteenth String Quartet.As in the Eighth Quartet, the cello introduces the theme, which here serves as a dedication to the cellist of the Beethoven String Quartet, Sergei Shirinsky.[145]

Posthumous publications[edit]

In 2004, the musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a trove of Shostakovich manuscripts at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow. In a cardboard file were some "300 pages of musical sketches, pieces and scores" in Shostakovich's hand.

A composer friend bribed Shostakovich's housemaid to regularly deliver the contents of Shostakovich's office waste bin to him, instead of taking it to the garbage. Some of those cast-offs eventually found their way into the Glinka.... The Glinka archive "contained a huge number of pieces and compositions which were completely unknown or could be traced quite indirectly," Digonskaya said.[146]

Among these were Shostakovich's piano and vocal sketches for a prologue to an opera,Orango(1932). They were orchestrated by the British composerGerard McBurneyand premiered in December 2011 by theLos Angeles Philharmonicconducted byEsa-Pekka Salonen.[146]

Reputation[edit]

According to McBurney, opinion is divided on whether Shostakovich's music is "of visionary power and originality, as some maintain, or, as others think, derivative, trashy, empty and second-hand".[147]William Walton,his British contemporary, described him as "the greatest composer of the 20th century".[148]MusicologistDavid Fanningconcludes in Grove's Dictionary that "Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power."[149]

Some modern composers have been critical.Pierre Boulezdismissed Shostakovich's music as "the second, or even third pressing ofMahler".[150]The Romanian composer andWeberndisciplePhilip Gershkovichcalled Shostakovich "a hack in a trance".[151]A related complaint is that Shostakovich's style is vulgar and strident:Stravinskywrote ofLady Macbeth:"brutally hammering... and monotonous".[152]English composer and musicologistRobin Hollowaydescribed his music as "battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion".[153]

In the 1980s, the Finnish conductor and composerEsa-Pekka Salonenwas critical of Shostakovich and refused to conduct his music. For instance, he said in 1987:

Shostakovich is in many ways a polar counter-force for Stravinsky.... When I have said that the 7th symphony of Shostakovich is a dull and unpleasant composition, people have responded: "Yes, yes, but think of the background of that symphony." Such an attitude does no good to anyone.[154]

Salonen has since performed and recorded several of Shostakovich's works,[155]including leading the world premiere ofOrango,[156]but has dismissed theFifth Symphonyas "overrated", adding that he was "very suspicious of heroic things in general".[157]

Shostakovich borrows extensively from the material and styles both of earlier composers and ofpopular music;the vulgarity of "low" music is a notable influence on this "greatest of eclectics".[158]McBurney traces this to theavant-gardeartistic circles of the early Soviet period in which Shostakovich moved early in his career, and argues that these borrowings were a deliberate technique to allow him to create "patterns of contrast, repetition, exaggeration" that gave his music large-scale structure.[159]

Personality[edit]

Shostakovich was in many ways an obsessive man: according to his daughter he was "obsessed with cleanliness".[160]He synchronised the clocks in his apartment and regularly sent himself cards to test how well the postal service was working.Elizabeth Wilson'sShostakovich: A Life Rememberedindexes 26 references to his nervousness. Mikhail Druskin remembers that even as a young man the composer was "fragile and nervously agile".[161]Yuri Lyubimov comments, "The fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius."[70]In later life,Krzysztof Meyerrecalled, "his face was a bag of tics and grimaces."[162]

In Shostakovich's lighter moods, sport was one of his main recreations, although he preferred spectating or umpiring to participating (he was a qualifiedfootball referee). His favorite football club was Zenit Leningrad (nowZenit Saint Petersburg), which he would watch regularly.[163]He also enjoyedcard games,particularlypatience.[164][page needed]

Shostakovich was fond of satirical writers such asGogol,ChekhovandMikhail Zoshchenko.Zoshchenko's influence in particular is evident in his letters, which include wry parodies of Sovietofficialese.Zoshchenko noted the contradictions in the composer's character: "he is... frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely direct, pure child... [but also] hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured)."[165]

Shostakovich was diffident by nature: Flora Litvinova has said he was "completely incapable of saying 'No' to anybody."[166]This meant he was easily persuaded to sign official statements, including a denunciation ofAndrei Sakharovin 1973.[167]His widow later toldHelsingin Sanomatthat his name was included without his permission.[168]But he was willing to try to help constituents in his capacities as chairman of the Composers' Union and Deputy to the Supreme Soviet.Oleg Prokofievsaid, "he tried to help so many people that... less and less attention was paid to his pleas."[169][167]When asked if he believed in God, Shostakovich said "No, and I am very sorry about it."[167]

Orthodoxy and revisionism[edit]

Further information:Testimony(Volkov book)
{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' { \clef treble \time 4/4 d es c b } }
Shostakovich represented himself in some works with the DSCH motif, consisting of D-E♭-C-B.

Shostakovich's response to official criticism and whether he used music as a kind of covert dissidence is a matter of dispute. He outwardly conformed to government policies and positions, reading speeches and putting his name to articles expressing the government line.[170]But it is evident he disliked many aspects of the regime, as confirmed by his family, his letters to Isaac Glikman, and the satiricalcantata"Rayok",which ridiculed the" anti-formalist "campaign and was kept hidden until after his death.[171]He was a close friend ofMarshal of the Soviet UnionMikhail Tukhachevsky,who was executed in 1937 during theGreat Purge.[172]

It is also uncertain to what extent Shostakovich expressed his opposition to the state in his music. Therevisionistview was put forth bySolomon Volkovin the 1979 bookTestimony,which claimed to be Shostakovich's memoirs dictated to Volkov. The book alleged that many of the composer's works contained coded anti-government messages, placing Shostakovich in a tradition of Russian artists outwitting censorship that goes back at least toAlexander Pushkin.He incorporated manyquotationsandmotifsin his work, most notably his musicalsignatureDSCH.[173]His longtime musical collaboratorYevgeny Mravinskysaid, "Shostakovich very often explained his intentions with very specific images and connotations."[174]

The revisionist perspective has subsequently been supported by his children, Maxim and Galina, although Maxim said in 1981 that Volkov's book was not his father's work.[175]Volkov has further argued, both inTestimonyand inShostakovich and Stalin,that Shostakovich adopted the role of theyurodivyorholy foolin his relations with the government.

Maxim Shostakovichhas also commented onTestimonyand Volkov more favorably since 1991, when the Soviet regime fell. To Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov, he confirmed that his father had told him about "meeting a young man from Leningrad who knows his music extremely well" and that "Volkov did meet with Shostakovich to work on his reminiscences". Maxim has repeatedly said he is "a supporter both ofTestimonyand of Volkov. "[176]Other prominent revisionists areIan MacDonald,whose bookThe New Shostakovichput forward further revisionist interpretations of his music, and Elizabeth Wilson, whoseShostakovich: A Life Rememberedprovides testimony from many of the composer's acquaintances.[177]

Musicians and scholars including Laurel Fay[178]andRichard Taruskincontested the authenticity and debate the significance ofTestimony,alleging that Volkov compiled it from a combination of recycled articles, gossip, and possibly some information directly from the composer. Fay documents these allegations in her 2002 article "Volkov'sTestimonyreconsidered ",[179]showing that the only pages of the originalTestimonymanuscript that Shostakovich had signed and verified are word-for-word reproductions of earlier interviews he gave, none of which are controversial. Ho and Feofanov have countered that at least two of the signed pages contain controversial material: for instance, "on the first page of chapter 3, where [Shostakovich] notes that the plaque that reads 'In this house lived[Vsevolod] Meyerhold' should also say 'And in this house his wife was brutally murdered'. "[180]

Recorded legacy[edit]

A Russian stamp in Shostakovich's memory, published in 2000

In May 1958, during a visit to Paris, Shostakovich recorded his two piano concertos withAndré Cluytens,as well as some short piano works. These were issued on LP byEMIand later reissued on CD. Shostakovich recorded the two concertos in stereo in Moscow forMelodiya.Shostakovich also played the piano solos in recordings of the Cello Sonata, Op. 40 with cellistDaniil Shafranand also withMstislav Rostropovich;the Violin Sonata, Op. 134, in a private recording made with violinistDavid Oistrakh;and the Piano Trio, Op. 67 with violinist David Oistrakh and cellistMiloš Sádlo.There is also a short newsreel of Shostakovich as soloist in a 1930s concert performance of the closing moments of his first piano concerto. A color film of Shostakovich supervising the Soviet revival ofThe Nosein 1974 was also made.[181]

Awards[edit]

Soviet Union

Academic titles

Other awards

In 1962, he was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical PictureforKhovanshchina(1959).[193]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Russian:Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович,romanized:Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich,Russian:[ˈdmʲitrʲɪjˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕʂəstɐˈkovʲɪtɕ]ⓘ

Citations[edit]

  1. ^Peter Rollberg (2016).Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema.US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 676–677.ISBN978-1442268425.
  2. ^Fay (2000),p. 7.
  3. ^abWilson (2006),p. 4.
  4. ^Fay (2000),p. 9.
  5. ^Fay (2000),p. 12.
  6. ^Fay (2000),p. 14.
  7. ^Fay (2000),p. 17.
  8. ^Fay (2000),p. 18.
  9. ^Fairclough & Fanning (2008),p. 73.
  10. ^Fay (2000),pp. 29–30.
  11. ^Khentova, Sofia (1975).Молодые годы Шостаковича, Книга 1[The Young Years of Shostakovich, Book 1] (in Russian). Leningrad/Moscow: Советский композитор [Soviet Composer]. pp. 111–112.
  12. ^Fay (2000),p. 27.
  13. ^McSmith (2015),p. 171.
  14. ^Fay (2000),p. 30.
  15. ^Fay (2000),p. 32.
  16. ^Moshevich (2004),p. 14.
  17. ^Moshevich (2004),p. 3.
  18. ^Moshevich (2004),pp. 49–50.
  19. ^Moshevich (2004),pp. 50–51.
  20. ^Moshevich (2004),p. 52.
  21. ^Hulme (2010),p. 19.
  22. ^Hulme (2010),p. 20.
  23. ^Meyer (1995),p. 143.
  24. ^Kovnatskaya, Liudmila Grigorievna(2013).Шостакович в Ленинградской консерватории: 1919–1930[Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Композитор [Composer]. pp. 72–79.ISBN9785737907228.
  25. ^Shostakovich, Dmitri (2006). Вульфсон, А. В. (ed.).Письма И. И. Соллертинскому[Letters to I. I. Sollertinsky] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Композитор [Composer]. p. 3.ISBN5737903044.
  26. ^Khentova, Sofia (1985).Шостакович. Жизнь и творчество, Т. 1[Shostakovich. Life and Work, vol. 1] (in Russian). Moscow: Советский композитор [Soviet Composer]. p. 215.
  27. ^Wilson (2006),p. 84.
  28. ^Wilson (2006),p. 85.
  29. ^Shostakovich/Grigoryev & Platek (1981),p. 33.
  30. ^Fay (2000),p. 80.
  31. ^McSmith (2015),p. 172.
  32. ^Volkov, Solomon(8 March 2004)."When opera was a matter of life or death".The Daily Telegraph.Archivedfrom the original on 11 January 2022.Retrieved7 November2011.
  33. ^Wilson (2006b),pp. 128–129.
  34. ^Fay (2000),pp. 84–85.
  35. ^Fay (2000),p. 87.
  36. ^Downes, Olin."Shostakovich Affair shows shift in point of view in the U.S.S.R.",The New York Times.12 April 1936. p. X5.
  37. ^McSmith (2015),pp. 175–176.
  38. ^Wilson (2006),p. 130.
  39. ^McSmith (2015),pp. 174–175.
  40. ^Fay (2000),p. 94.
  41. ^Fay (2000),pp. 95–99.
  42. ^Wilson (2006),pp. 145–146.
  43. ^Riley, John (2005).Dmitri Shostakovich: A Life in Film.I. B. Tauris. p. 32.ISBN978-1-85043-484-9.
  44. ^Charles, Eleanor (3 February 1985)."Shostakovich Orchestra Role".The New York Times.Retrieved25 November2019.
  45. ^Wilson (2006),pp. 143–144.
  46. ^Hulme (2010),p. 167.
  47. ^Fay, Laurel E. (6 April 2003)."Music; Found: Shostakovich's Long-Lost Twin Brother".The New York Times.New York City.Retrieved25 November2019.
  48. ^Fay (2000),p. 98.
  49. ^Volkov (2004),p. 150.
  50. ^Shostakovich/Volkov (2000),p. 135.
  51. ^Taruskin (2009),p. 304.
  52. ^Wilson (2006),p. 152.
  53. ^Fay (2000),p. 97.
  54. ^Edwards (2006),p. 98.
  55. ^MTV3: Shostakovitshin kiistelty teos kantaesitettiin(in Finnish)
  56. ^Wilson (2006),p. 171.
  57. ^Brown (2020),p. 286.
  58. ^Shostakovich, Dmitri (1981).Dmitry Shostakovich: About Himself and His Times.Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 89–90.
  59. ^Brown (2020),p. 221.
  60. ^Brown (2020),p. 215.
  61. ^Fay (2000),p. 132.
  62. ^Blokker (1979),p. 30.
  63. ^Khentova, Sofia (1986).Шостакович. Жизнь и творчество, Т. 2[Shostakovich. Life and Work, vol. 2] (in Russian). Moscow: Советский композитор [Soviet Composer]. p. 193.
  64. ^Fay 2000,p. 146.
  65. ^Digonskaya, Ol'ga (2009)."About this Recording: 8.572138 – Shostakovich, D.: Girl Friends / Rule, Britannia / Salute to Spain (Polish Radio Symphony, Fitz-Gerald)".Naxos Records.Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2022.Retrieved26 April2022.
  66. ^Fay (2000),pp. 146–147.
  67. ^Fay (2000),p. 152.
  68. ^abHulme (2010),p. xxiv.
  69. ^Blokker (1979),pp. 33–34;Wilson (2006),p. 241.
  70. ^abWilson (1994),p. 183.
  71. ^Wilson (1994),p. 252.
  72. ^Wilson (2006),p. 269.
  73. ^Nabokov (1951),p. 204.
  74. ^Nabokov (1951),p. 205.
  75. ^Wilson (2006),p. 274.
  76. ^Knight, David B. (2006).Landscapes in Music: Space, Place, and Time in the World's Great Music.Rowman & Littlefield. p. 84.ISBN978-1-4616-3859-9.
  77. ^Wilson (2006),p. 304.
  78. ^abFay (2000),p. 194.
  79. ^Wilson (2006),p. 297.
  80. ^Derks, Thea[in Limburgish];Ustvolskaya, Galina(July 1995). "Galina Ustvolskaya: 'Sind Sie mir nicht böse!' (very nearly an interview)".Tempo.New Series (193): 31–33 (32).doi:10.1017/S0040298200004290.JSTOR945561.S2CID143681367.
  81. ^Meyer (1995),p. 392.
  82. ^"1980 Summer Olympics Official Report from the Organizing Committee, vol. 2".p. 283. Archived fromthe originalon 22 June 2006.
  83. ^"Lighting of the Cauldron | Athens 2004".YouTube.Retrieved17 April2020.
  84. ^"2004 Athens Opening Ceremony Music List".30 August 2008.Retrieved17 April2020.
  85. ^OCLC1114176116
  86. ^North, James H. (2006).New York Philharmonic: The Authorized Recordings, 1917–2005.Scarecrow Press. p. 117.ISBN978-0-8108-6239-5.
  87. ^Wilson (1994),pp. 373–380.
  88. ^Ho & Feofanov (1998),p. 390.
  89. ^Manashir Yakubov, Programme notes for the 1998 Shostakovich seasons at theBarbican,London.
  90. ^Wilson (1994),p. 340.
  91. ^"Russ Replace Shostakovich as Union Head".Minneapolis Star.Associated Press.17 May 1968. Archived fromthe originalon 21 May 2022.Retrieved21 May2022– viaNewspapers.com.
  92. ^"Shostakovich Out; Sviridov Gets His Job".Chicago Tribune.Reuters.18 May 1968. Archived fromthe originalon 21 May 2022.Retrieved21 May2022– viaNewspapers.com.
  93. ^Hulme (2010),p. xxvii.
  94. ^Blokker (1979),p. 37.
  95. ^Letter dated 19 July 1960, reprinted inShostakovich & Glikman (2001),pp. 90–91.
  96. ^Wilson (2006),p. 263.
  97. ^Wilson (2006),p. 281.
  98. ^Rabinowitz, Peter J. (May 2007)."The Rhetoric of Reference; or, Shostakovich's Ghost Quartet".Narrative.15(2): 239–256.doi:10.1353/nar.2007.0013.JSTOR30219253.S2CID170436624.Retrieved5 December2017.
  99. ^Shostakovich & Glikman (2001),p. 102.
  100. ^Vishnevskaya (1985),p. 274.
  101. ^Wilson (2006),pp. 426–427.
  102. ^Shostakovich, Dmitri (January 2024). Rowell, Bryan (ed.). "Shostakovich in America: Three Interviews".DSCH Journal(60): 25.
  103. ^Sheldon, Richard (25 August 1985)."Neither Yevtushenko Nor Shostakovich Should Be Blamed".The New York Times.New York City.Retrieved27 November2019.
  104. ^Crump, Thomas (2014).Brezhnev and the Decline of the Soviet Union.New York: Routledge. p. 107.ISBN978-1-315-88378-6.
  105. ^Crowther, Bosley,inThe New York Times,15 September 1964.[full citation needed]
  106. ^abcdefg"Shostakovich and his mysterious neurologic disease – Hektoen International".Hektoen Internsational: A Journal of Medical Humanities.Hektoen Institute of Medicine. 23 August 2019.Retrieved5 May2023.
  107. ^"Shostakovich Has Heart Attack After Performing in Leningrad".The New York Times.31 May 1966.Retrieved3 July2023.
  108. ^Shostakovich & Glikman (2001),p. 147.
  109. ^Service, Tom(23 September 2013)."Symphony guide: Shostakovich's 15th".The Guardian.Retrieved8 May2020.
  110. ^Hulme 2010,p. 558.
  111. ^Fay 2000,pp. 251–252.
  112. ^Rowell, Bryan (January 2024). "Fifty Years Ago: October 1973–March 1974 (Illness, Fourteenth Quartet, Six Songs on Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva, Six Romances on Verses by British Poets)".DSCH Journal(60): 41.The diagnosis of another one of Shostakovich's diseases was confirmed. In addition to poliomyelitis, he had cancer of the left lung.
  113. ^"The Right Notes Shostakovich and Stalin".www.therightnotes.org.Retrieved5 May2023.
  114. ^"Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)".Mahler Foundation.6 January 2015.Retrieved5 May2023.
  115. ^"Dmitri Shostakovich Dead at 68 After Hospitalization in Moscow".The New York Times.11 August 1975.ISSN0362-4331.
  116. ^Kozinn, Allan(28 April 2007)."Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, Dissident Maestro, Dies".The New York Times.Retrieved21 May2022.
  117. ^Oestreich, James R.(24 November 1993)."Tatyana Nikolayeva, 69, Dead; Pianist and Shostakovich Expert".The New York Times.Retrieved21 May2022.
  118. ^"Yudina, Maria (1899–1970) | Encyclopedia.com".www.encyclopedia.com.Retrieved3 February2023.
  119. ^Clements, Andrew (25 September 2014)."Shostakovich: Violin Concertos Nos 1 and 2 CD review – technically perfect".The Guardian.Retrieved21 May2022....Oistrakh's recordings remain the benchmark against which all others have to be measured.
  120. ^"Квартет им. Бетховена исполняет квартеты Бетховена (8 CD)".Firma Melodiya(in Russian).Retrieved2 February2021.
  121. ^Margolis, Sasha (23 October 2020)."The Beethoven Quartet's Unique Relationship with Shostakovich".Strings.Retrieved21 May2022.
  122. ^Lars-Erik Larsson.Musicweb International. Retrieved 18 November 2005.
  123. ^Shostakovich PeninsulaArchived13 August 2018 at theWayback MachineUSGS.1 January 1975
  124. ^"Tonality | music | Britannica".www.britannica.com.Retrieved3 February2023.
  125. ^McBurney 2023,p. 9.
  126. ^Fay (2000),pp. 119, 165, 224.
  127. ^The New Grove (2001),pp. 288, 290.
  128. ^Green, Jonathan D.(1999).A Conductor's Guide to Choral-Orchestral Works, Twentieth Century, Part II.Scarecrow Press. p. 5.ISBN978-0-8108-3376-0.
  129. ^Shostakovich & Glikman (2001),p. 181.
  130. ^Wilson (1994),pp. 375–377.
  131. ^Wilson (1994),p. 426.
  132. ^Fay (2000),p. 88.
  133. ^The New Grove (2001),p. 289.
  134. ^The New Grove (2001),p. 290.
  135. ^Shostakovich & Glikman (2001),p. 315.
  136. ^See alsoThe New Grove (2001),p. 294.
  137. ^The New Grove (2001),p. 300.
  138. ^Woodstra, Chris, ed. (2005).All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music.Backbeat Books. p. 1262.ISBN978-0-87930-865-0.
  139. ^Wilson (1994),p. 268.
  140. ^Tentser (2014),p. 5.
  141. ^Wilson (1994),pp. 267–269.
  142. ^Moshevich (2004),p. 176.
  143. ^MacDonald (2006),p. 88.
  144. ^ Harris, Stephen (9 April 2016)."Quartet No. 8".Shostakovich: The String Quartets.Retrieved18 February2018.
  145. ^ Harris, Stephen (24 August 2015)."Quartet No. 14".Shostakovich: The String Quartets.Retrieved18 February2018.
  146. ^abLoiko, Sergei L.;Johnson, Reed (27 November 2011)."Shostakovich'sOrangofound, finished, set for Disney Hall ".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved17 February2012.
  147. ^McBurney (2002),p. 283.
  148. ^British Composers in InterviewbyR. Murray Schafer(Faber 1960).
  149. ^The New Grove (2001),p. 280.
  150. ^McBurney (2002),p. 288.
  151. ^McBurney (2002),p. 290.
  152. ^McBurney (2002),p. 286.
  153. ^Holloway, Robin(26 August 2000)."Shostakovich horrors".The Spectator.p. 41.Retrieved29 June2015.
  154. ^Salonen, Esa-PekkaandOtonkoski, Lauri[fi]:Kirja – puhetta musiikitta,p. 73. Helsinki: Tammi.ISBN978-951-30-6599-7
  155. ^Brown, Ismene (17 August 2011)."BBC Proms: Batiashvili, Philharmonia Orchestra, Salonen".theartsdesk.com.Esher.Retrieved25 November2019.
  156. ^Orango Prologue; Symphony No. 4,Salonen,Los Angeles Philharmonic,Los Angeles Master Chorale,Deutsche Grammophon2012OCLC809867885
  157. ^"Facing the music: Esa-Pekka Salonen: The conductor and composer on lighting, left arms, Berg and Björk".The Guardian.23 November 2015.Retrieved8 September2020.
  158. ^Haas (2000),p. 125.
  159. ^McBurney (2002),p. 295.
  160. ^Ardov (2004),p. 139.
  161. ^Wilson (1994),pp. 41–45.
  162. ^Wilson (1994),p. 462.
  163. ^Mentioned in his personal correspondenceShostakovich & Glikman (2001),as well as other sources.
  164. ^Wilson (2011)
  165. ^Quoted inFay (2000),p. 121
  166. ^Wilson (1994),p. 162.
  167. ^abcFay (2000),p. 263.
  168. ^Vesa Sirén: "Mitä setämies sai sanoa Neuvostoliitossa?" inHelsingin Sanomat,p. A6, 2 November 2018
  169. ^Wilson (1994),p. 40.
  170. ^Wilson (2006),pp. 369–370.
  171. ^Wilson (2006),p. 336.
  172. ^Mc Granahan, William J. (1978)."The Fall and Rise of Marshal Tukhachevsky"(PDF).Parameters, Journal of the US Army War College.VIII(4): 63.Archived(PDF)from the original on 18 March 2020.
  173. ^This appears in several of his works, including thePushkin Monologues,Symphony No. 10, and String Quartets Nos 5, 8 & 11.
  174. ^Wilson (1994),p. 139.
  175. ^"Shostakovich's son says moves against artists led to defection".The New York Times.14 May 1981.Retrieved31 March2017.Asked about the authenticity of a book published in the West after his father's death, and described as his memoirs, Mr. Shostakovich replied: 'These are not my father's memoirs. This is a book by Solomon Volkov. Mr. Volkov should reveal how the book was written.' Mr. Shostakovich said language in the book attributed to his father, as well as several contradictions and inaccuracies, led him to doubt the book's authenticity.
  176. ^Ho–Feofanov 1998: 114. The quotes come from a recorded conversation between Maxim Shostakovich and Ho & Feofanov (19 April 1997).
  177. ^Gerstel, Jennifer (1999). "Irony, Deception, and Political Culture in the Works of Dmitri Shostakovich".Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal.32(4). University of Manitoba: 38.JSTOR44029848.
  178. ^Fay (2000),p. 4 "WhetherTestimonyfaithfully reproduces Shostakovich's confidences... in a form and context he would have recognized and approved for publication remains doubtful. Yet even were [its] claim to authenticity not in doubt, it would still furnish a poor source for the serious biographer. "
  179. ^Fay (2002).
  180. ^Ho & Feofanov (1998),p. 211.
  181. ^"Dmitri Shostakovich filmed in 1975 during rehearsals".YouTube. 9 January 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 26 June 2014.Retrieved7 November2011.
  182. ^Fay (2000),p. 249.
  183. ^Fay (2000),pp. 153, 198, 249.
  184. ^abHulme (2010),p. xxix.
  185. ^Hulme (2010),p. xxii.
  186. ^abHulme (2010),p. xxv.
  187. ^abHulme (2010),p. xxvi.
  188. ^Hulme (2010),pp. xxiii–xxv.
  189. ^Hulme (2010),p. xxviii.
  190. ^Index biographique des membres et associés de l'Académie royale de Belgique (1769–2005). (in French)[full citation needed]
  191. ^"Léonie Sonning Prize 1973 Dmitri Sjostakovitj".Léonie Sonning Music Foundation. 2019.Retrieved25 November2019.
  192. ^Dmitry Shostakovichat theEncyclopædia Britannica
  193. ^"The 34th Academy Awards: 1962".Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.5 October 2014.Retrieved19 December2021.

References[edit]

Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich(7th ed.). Proscenium. 2000.ISBN978-0-87910-021-6.
Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich(25th ed.).Hal Leonard.2004.ISBN978-1-61774-771-7.
  • Volkov, Solomon(2004).Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator.Knopf.ISBN978-0-375-41082-6.
  • Wilson, Elizabeth.Shostakovich: A Life Remembered:
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered(1st ed.). Princeton University Press. 1994.ISBN978-0-691-02971-9.
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered(2nd ed.). Faber and Faber. 2006.ISBN978-0-571-22050-2.
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered(2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. 2006b.ISBN978-0-691-12886-3.(2nd ed. – Kindle) Faber and Faber. 2010.ISBN978-0-571-26115-4.
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered(new ed.). Faber and Faber. 2011.ISBN978-0-571-26115-4.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related toDmitri Shostakovich.
Wikimedia Commons has media related toDmitri Shostakovich.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dmitri_Shostakovich&oldid=1229270031"