Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet composer and pianist who became famous worldwide after the first performance of his First Symphony in 1926. After this, he was seen as an important composer.

Shostakovich became famous early in the Soviet Union, but he had a complicated relationship with the government. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was first successful, but later the Soviet government criticized it, which endangered his career. In 1948, his work was criticized under the Zhdanov Doctrine, which led to professional challenges that lasted for several years. Even after the criticism was removed in 1956, the government sometimes influenced performances of his music, such as his Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Despite this, Shostakovich held political positions, including membership in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death). He also served as chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers (1960–1968). Throughout his career, he received many awards, including the Order of Lenin, from the Soviet government.

Shostakovich used different musical styles in his works. His music includes sharp contrasts, strange or exaggerated elements, and uncertain or mixed musical tones. He was also influenced by neoclassicism and the music of Gustav Mahler. His orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concertos (two each for piano, violin, and cello). His chamber works include 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, and two piano trios. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an early set of 24 preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. His stage works include three completed operas and three ballets. Shostakovich also wrote several song cycles and a large amount of music for theatre and film.

After Shostakovich died, his reputation continued to grow. Since the late 20th century, more scholars have studied his work, and there has been much debate about how his music relates to his views about the Soviet government.

Biography

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was born on 25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 on Podolskaya Street in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. He was the second of three children born to Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. Shostakovich’s immediate ancestors came from Siberia, but his paternal grandfather, Bolesław Szostakowicz, was of Polish and Lithuanian descent. His family roots traced back to the town of Vileyka in what is now Belarus. Szostakowicz was a Polish revolutionary involved in the January Uprising of 1863–1864. Because of his actions, he was exiled to Narym in 1866 after the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II. When his exile ended, Szostakowicz chose to stay in Siberia. He later became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the composer’s father, was born in Narym in 1875. He studied physics and mathematics at Saint Petersburg State University, graduating in 1899. He then worked as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg. In 1903, he married Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, another Siberian immigrant to the capital. She was one of six children born to a Siberian Russian.

Shostakovich showed musical talent after starting piano lessons with his mother at age 9. He often surprised his mother by remembering the pieces she had played in previous lessons. He would pretend to read different music while secretly playing the previous lesson’s piece. In 1918, he wrote a funeral march to honor two leaders of the Kadet Party who were murdered by Bolshevik sailors.

In 1919, at age 13, Shostakovich was admitted to the Petrograd Conservatory, which was led by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov closely followed Shostakovich’s progress and supported his development. Shostakovich studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev and Elena Rozanova, composition with Maximilian Steinberg, and counterpoint and fugue with Nikolay Sokolov, who became his friend. He also attended music history classes taught by Alexander Ossovsky. In 1925, he joined the conducting classes of Nikolai Malko, where he conducted the conservatory orchestra in a private performance of Beethoven’s First Symphony.

On 20 March 1925, Shostakovich’s music was first performed in Moscow. The program also included works by his friend Vissarion Shebalin. Critics and the public received his music coolly. During his visit to Moscow, Mikhail Kvadri introduced him to Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who helped Shostakovich find housing and work in the city and arranged for a driver to take him to a concert in a stylish automobile.

Shostakovich’s musical breakthrough came with his First Symphony, which he wrote as his graduation piece at age 19. Initially, he planned to perform it privately with the conservatory orchestra and conduct the scherzo himself. By late 1925, Malko agreed to conduct the symphony’s premiere with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra after Steinberg and Shostakovich’s friend Boleslav Yavorsky brought the symphony to his attention. On 12 May 1926, Malko led the premiere, and the audience received it enthusiastically, demanding an encore of the scherzo. Afterward, Shostakovich regularly celebrated the date of his symphonic debut.

After graduating, Shostakovich began a career as both a concert pianist and a composer. However, his piano style was often criticized. He performed frequently until 1930, but after 1933, he only performed his own compositions. Along with Yuri Bryushkov, Grigory Ginzburg, Lev Oborin, and Josif Shvarts, he participated in the first International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. A classmate later recalled that Natan Perelman, who heard Shostakovich perform Chopin’s works before the competition, noted his “anti-sentimental” style, which avoided rubato and extreme dynamic contrasts. Arnold Alschwang described Shostakovich’s playing as “profound and lacking any salon-like mannerisms.”

Shostakovich got appendicitis on the opening day of the competition but recovered enough to perform on 27 January 1927. He had his appendix removed on 25 April. According to Shostakovich, the audience liked his playing. He advanced to the final round of the competition but received only a diploma, not a prize. Oborin was declared the winner. Shostakovich was disappointed but decided to continue his career as a performer. While recovering from his surgery in April 1927, he began to reconsider his plans.

After the competition, Shostakovich and Oborin spent a week in Berlin. There, he met conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by Shostakovich’s First Symphony that he conducted its first performance outside Russia later that year. Leopold Stokowski led the American premiere the next year in Philadelphia and also made the work’s first recording.

In 1927, Shostakovich wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled To October), a patriotic piece with a pro-Soviet choral finale. Unlike his First Symphony, the Second Symphony did not receive the same level of enthusiasm due to its modern style. That year also marked the beginning of Shostakovich’s close friendship with musicologist and theater critic Ivan Sollertinsky, whom he first met in 1921 through mutual friends Lev Arnshtam and Lydia Zhukova. Shostakovich later said that Sollertinsky taught him to appreciate the works of composers like Brahms, Mahler, and Bruckner and helped him develop an interest in music

Music

Dmitri Shostakovich's music is mostly based on traditional musical scales, but it also includes parts that do not follow a clear scale (atonality) and use notes that are not in the usual scale (chromaticism). In some of his later works, like the Twelfth String Quartet, he used tone rows, which are sequences of notes arranged in a specific order. His most famous works are his 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets. The symphonies were written throughout his life, but the quartets were mostly composed in his later years. Some of his most popular works include the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies and the Eighth and Fifteenth String Quartets. He also wrote operas, concertos, chamber music, and a lot of music for theatre and films.

Shostakovich's music was influenced by many composers he admired. He used techniques from Johann Bach in his fugues and passacaglias, from Ludwig van Beethoven in his later quartets, from Gustav Mahler in his symphonies, and from Alban Berg in his use of musical codes and quotes. He especially admired Modest Mussorgsky, whose operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina he reorchestrated. Mussorgsky's influence can be heard in the cold scenes of Lady Macbeth and the Eleventh Symphony, as well as in satirical works like Rayok. Sergei Prokofiev's influence is seen in Shostakovich's early piano works, such as his first sonata and concerto. Russian church and folk music also appear in his unaccompanied choir works from the 1950s.

Shostakovich had mixed feelings about Igor Stravinsky, writing that he admired Stravinsky as a composer but disliked him as a thinker. He gave Stravinsky a copy of his own piano version of Symphony of Psalms when Stravinsky visited the USSR in 1962, but their meeting was not successful, with some observers noting Shostakovich's nervousness and Stravinsky's harshness.

Many people have noticed a change in Shostakovich's music after 1936, when he was criticized by the Soviet government. He said he would have been more creative and open if he had not had to follow Party rules. In the 1930s, he cited composers like Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Stravinsky as influences. Key early works include the First Symphony, the opera The Nose, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and the Fourth Symphony, which was described as a major combination of his musical development up to that point. The Fourth Symphony was the first where Gustav Mahler's influence became clear.

After 1936, Shostakovich's music became more traditional. He also wrote more chamber music, which was mostly tonal but included tone rows in his later works. His vocal music became an important part of his later compositions.

In the 1940s, Shostakovich became interested in Jewish music, inspired by its ability to create cheerful melodies from sad tones. Works with Jewish themes include the Fourth String Quartet (1949), the First Violin Concerto (1948), and the Piano Trio in E minor (1944). He was further inspired by a 1944 thesis on Jewish folk music by Moisei Beregovski. In 1948, he used a book of Jewish folk songs to compose From Jewish Folk Poetry, a song cycle. He wrote eight songs about the hardships of being Jewish in the Soviet Union but added three more to hide the true message. The work was not approved until after Stalin's death in 1953.

Shostakovich often used musical quotations in his works, a technique he developed into a key part of his style. He preferred to quote himself rather than other composers. Musicologists have found connections between his works through these quotations.

One example is the theme from Katerina's aria, Seryozha, khoroshiy moy, in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. This theme, introduced by the cello in the Eighth String Quartet, later appeared in the Fourteenth String Quartet as a tribute to cellist Sergei Shirinsky.

In 2004, a collection of Shostakovich's manuscripts was discovered in Moscow. These included sketches for a prologue to an opera, Orango (1932), which was later orchestrated and performed in 2011.

Opinions about Shostakovich's music vary. Some praise its power and originality, while others criticize it as unoriginal or overly loud. British composer William Walton called him "the greatest composer of the 20th century." Musicologist David Fanning noted that Shostakovich created a powerful musical language despite political pressures. Others, like Pierre Boulez and Philip Gershkovich, criticized his work as derivative or unrefined. Shostakovich's music draws from both classical composers and popular styles, a trait some call "eclectic."

Personality

Dmitri Shostakovich had many habits that showed he was very particular about details. His daughter said he was "obsessed with cleanliness," meaning he was very focused on keeping things clean. He made sure all the clocks in his apartment showed the same time and often sent himself letters to check how well the mail service worked. Elizabeth Wilson's book about Shostakovich mentions 26 times that he was nervous. Mikhail Druskin remembered that even when he was young, the composer was "delicate and quick to move." Yuri Lyubimov said that being more easily hurt and open to others was likely an important part of his great talent. Later in life, Krzysztof Meyer described Shostakovich's face as full of small, repeated movements and expressions.

When Shostakovich was in a more cheerful mood, he enjoyed sports. However, he preferred watching or being in charge of games rather than playing himself. He was a trained referee for football. His favorite team was Zenit Leningrad (now called Zenit Saint Petersburg), which he often watched. He also liked card games, especially patience.

Shostakovich admired writers who used humor to criticize serious issues, such as Gogol, Chekhov, and Mikhail Zoshchenko. Zoshchenko's influence can be seen in Shostakovich's letters, which included humorous copies of official language used by the government. Zoshchenko described Shostakovich's personality as having differences: he was "delicate, easily upset, and quiet," but also "very honest, innocent, tough, sharp, very smart, strong, controlling, and not always kind (but kind in a thoughtful way)."

Shostakovich was naturally shy. Flora Litvinova said he "couldn't say 'No' to anyone." This made it easy for others to convince him to sign official statements, including an accusation in 1973 against the Soviet physicist and activist Andrei Sakharov. Shostakovich's wife later told a newspaper that his name was added to the accusation without his agreement. However, he tried to help people he represented in his roles as chairman of the Composers' Union and as a member of the Supreme Soviet. Oleg Prokofiev said that Shostakovich helped so many people that "less and less attention was paid to his pleas." When asked if he believed in God, Shostakovich said, "No, and I am very sorry about it."

Orthodoxy and revisionism

Dmitri Shostakovich's reaction to government criticism and whether he used music to secretly oppose the regime is a topic of debate. He publicly supported government policies, such as reading speeches and signing articles that promoted the government's views. However, his family, letters to Isaac Glikman, and his satirical cantata "Rayok" show he disliked many parts of the government. "Rayok" mocked the "anti-formalist" campaign and was hidden until after his death. He was friends with Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who was executed in 1937 during the Great Purge.

It is unclear how much Shostakovich expressed his opposition to the government in his music. In 1979, Solomon Volkov wrote a book called Testimony, claiming it was Shostakovich's memoirs. The book suggested that many of his works contained hidden messages against the government, linking him to a tradition of Russian artists who avoided censorship, like Alexander Pushkin. Shostakovich used musical quotes and motifs, especially his signature DSCH. His collaborator Yevgeny Mravinsky said Shostakovich often explained his ideas with clear images and meanings.

Shostakovich's children, Maxim and Galina, later supported the revisionist view, though Maxim said in 1981 that Testimony was not his father's work. Volkov also argued that Shostakovich acted like a "yurodivy," a traditional Russian role of someone who acted strangely to make a point. After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Maxim spoke more positively about Testimony and Volkov. He confirmed that his father had met someone from Leningrad who knew his music well and that Volkov worked with him on his memories. Other scholars, like Ian MacDonald and Elizabeth Wilson, also supported the revisionist view.

Some musicians and scholars, including Laurel Fay and Richard Taruskin, questioned the truth of Testimony, saying Volkov used old interviews, gossip, and possibly some information from Shostakovich. Fay wrote that only parts of the original manuscript Shostakovich signed were copies of earlier interviews, none of which were controversial. Others, like Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov, argued that some signed pages included controversial details, such as a mention of a plaque that noted the murder of Vsevolod Meyerhold's wife.

Recorded legacy

In May 1958, during a visit to Paris, Shostakovich recorded his two piano concertos with André Cluytens, as well as some short piano pieces. EMI released these recordings on LP records, and they were later released on CD. Shostakovich also recorded the two concertos in stereo format in Moscow for Melodiya. He played the piano parts in recordings of the Cello Sonata, Op. 40, with cellist Daniil Shafran and with Mstislav Rostropovich; the Violin Sonata, Op. 134, in a private recording with violinist David Oistrakh; and the Piano Trio, Op. 67, with violinist David Oistrakh and cellist Miloš Sádlo. A short newsreel exists showing Shostakovich as the soloist in a 1930s concert performance of the closing moments of his first piano concerto. A color film was also made in 1974 showing Shostakovich overseeing the Soviet revival of The Nose.

Awards

• Hero of Socialist Labour (1966)
• Order of Lenin (1946, 1956, 1966)
• Order of the October Revolution (1971)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1940)
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1948)
• People's Artist of the USSR (1954)
• International Peace Prize (1954)
• Lenin Prize (1958 – for the Symphony No. 11 "The Year 1905")
• Stalin Prize (1941 – for Piano Quintet; 1942 – for the Symphony No. 7; 1946 – for Piano Trio No. 2; 1950 – for Song of the Forests and the score for the film The Fall of Berlin; 1952 – for Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets)
• USSR State Prize (1968 – for the cantata The Execution of Stepan Razin for bass, chorus and orchestra)
• Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1974 – for the String Quartet No. 14 and choral cycle Loyalty)
• Shevchenko National Prize (1976, posthumous – for the opera Katerina Izmailova)

• Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium (1960)
• Honorary Doctor of Arts, Northwestern University (1973)

• Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1973)
• Wihuri Sibelius Prize (1958)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1966)

In 1962, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Khovanshchina (1959).