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Shostakovich

Name: Dmitry Dmitriyevich Shostakovich

Nickname/Alias: Mitya (family nickname)

Achievements: Shostakovich produced a large body of musical compositions, ranging from symphonies to concerti to incidental music, and earned a reputation as one of the Soviet Union’s premier and most influential composers.  He was awarded professorships at the Leningrad and Moscow Conservatories, and various prizes for his piano performance and composition, including 4th place in the Chopin Competition (1927), the Stalin Prize (1942 and 1946), People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R. (1954); the Order of Lenin (1956, 1966), the Sibelius Prize (1956); and the Commandeur de l”Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1956); Hero of Socialist Labor (1966); Order of the October Revolution (1971).

Born: September 25, 1906; St. Petersburg, Russia

Died: August 9, 1975; Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.

Field & Discipline: Performing Arts & Sports; Music; Composer

Language: Russian

Father: Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich

Mother: Sofiya Kokaoulina

Siblings: Mariya (b. 1903); Zoya (b. 1908)

Spouse: 1) Nina Varzar (m. 1932); 2) Margarita Kainova (m. 1956); 3) Irina Supinskaya (m. 1962)

Children: Galina (b. 1936); Maxim (b. 1938)

Education: Studied piano and composition at Petrograd Conservatory (formerly known as St. Petersburg Conservatory and later known as Leningrad Conservatory 1919-1925)

Major Work:

Symphonies

“Symphony no. 1” (1926)

“Symphony no. 5” (1937)

“Symphony no. 7” (1942 often referred to as Leningrad Symphony)

“Symphony no. 11” (1969)

“Symphony no. 13” (1969)

“Symphony no. 14” (1969)

Operas

“Nos” ( 1930)

“Ledi Makbet Mtsenskovo uyezda”(1934, revised, 1963)

Ballets

“Zolotoy vek”

“Pesn' o lesakh”

Life & Times:

Shostakovich’s musical career began at the age of 9, when he started receiving piano lessons from his mother.  Showing immediate talent, he entered Leningrad Conservatory only a few years later at age 13.  Despite serious personal troubles—his father died in 1922, and he contracted tuberculosis—Shostakovich graduated with degrees in piano (1923) and composition (1925).

Shostakovich established his reputation as a composer with a successful debut of his First Symphony in 1926.  Departing from symphonic composition after completing his Second Symphony in 1927, Shostakovich composed a satiric opera, called “The Nose,” based on Nikolai Gogol’s work about a government official whose nose disappeared.  Audiences enjoyed its premiere in 1930 but critics labeled it “bourgeois art” and accused Shostakovich of being an enemy of the Soviet State.

Shostakovich attempted to convince the government of his loyalty with his Third Symphony, The First of May, a celebration of international workers’ solidarity, but officials remained skeptical.

Shostakovich composed another opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, based on Nikolai Leskov’s short story of adultery and murder.  Its premiere in 1934 brought on praise from music connoisseurs but Pravda, the official publication of the Communist Party denounced it for being decadent and inaccessible to the masses.

The scandal affected Shostakovich deeply; previously, he had been candid about discussing the influence of other contemporary composers including [influenced by] Schoenberg*, [influenced by] Hindemith* and [influenced by] Stravinsky*.  He had also openly discussed what he felt were the limitations of his own Conservatory education.

The All-Union Committee for Artistic Affairs, founded by [influenced by] Stalin* to oversee all artistic organizations and activities, and to expose enemies of Socialist reform, obliged Shostakovich to keep his views to himself.

The threat of Stalin’s cultural purge also extended beyond the composer’s musical activities; he became fearful for his own life, as some of his colleagues and family members were arrested and sent to labor camps.  He unexpectedly pulled his Fourth Symphony from performance, allegedly experiencing resistance for the orchestra musicians and fearing another public scandal.

When Symphony No. 5 debuted in 1937 Shostakovich was restored to favor and removed temporarily from the list of ideological suspect artists.

Outside composition, Shostakovich was active in public service and teaching.  First offered a faculty position in 1937 at the Leningrad Conservatory, Shostakovich was promoted to professor in 1939.

When World War II began in 1941, Shostakovich was anxious to support the war effort.  He joined a firefighting brigade, helped dig ditches and set up anti-tank barriers, and composed patriotic, morale-boosting songs.  His Seventh Symphony, begun during the Nazi siege of Leningrad in 1941, debuted in 1942.  Depicting Soviet victory over a terrifying Nazi force, the symphony had an enormous emotional and inspirational impact, and was awarded the Stalin Prize.

1946 set the stage for yet another wave of cultural purges, as Stalin appointed Andrey Zhdanov to eliminate Western decadence from art and music.  Shostakovich became a prime target, as he exerted great influence over Soviet music and musicians.  Analyzed extensively were his attraction to disharmony; his tendency for abstraction; and his avoidance of folk roots and the virtues of the Russian classical tradition.

In 1948, forced to recant his “sins” to the Central Committee, he conceded that his music had once again lapsed into a “formalist” language incomprehensible to the masses.  He vowed that he would “work ever more diligently on the musical embodiment of the image of the heroic Russian people” by writing more mass songs and urge other composers to do the same.

Shostakovich’s public humiliation continued as he was dismissed from his professorships at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories, and his own students were pressured by Party members to denounce him.  The media also fanned the hatred of the general public—the regular citizens and non-music lovers—for formalist composers.  Devastated, Shostakovich contemplated suicide.

He began to compose a set of songs with an emphasis on melody, drawing inspiration from a collection of translated texts called Jewish FolkSongs.  Although he could not—and did not—conceal the work’s existence, he did not submit it for peer review.  When Stalin’s anti-Semitic campaign escalated in 1948, Shostakovich’s timing proved nearly disastrous.  Ironically, he had tried to fulfill his promises of mass music by favoring the folklore of the “wrong” ethnic group.  Another decade would pass before the work would be performed.

Shostakovich was handpicked by Stalin to join the delegation representing the Soviet Union to the 1949 Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York.  At the Congress, reading speeches prepared for him by Party officials, he praised the criticism and constructive guidance from the Soviet government that had brought his music “forward.”

By then, Shostakovich had become accustomed to public writing and speaking in a manner that suited the government’s tastes.  His lack of resistance to manipulation by the Party, coupled with the recognition he received at home and in the West, made him a useful symbol and spokesman for Soviet propaganda.  Even after Stalin’s death in 1953, he still refused to share his thoughts candidly.

The death of his wife Nina in 1954 left Shostakovich distraught and concerned about raising two teenagers on his own.  He later remarried twice, first to Margarita Kainova in 1956 and Irina Supinskaya in 1962.

Shostakovich’s 50th birthday was a large state affair.  He was awarded the Order of Lenin and his Eleventh Symphony, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1905 Russian Revolution, was praised for being accessible to the masses and received the Lenin Prize in 1958.  His works, which had made their way back into concert halls, were celebrated at home and abroad.

Shostakovich’s public and musical career continued to thrive.  In 1960, he was elected first Secretary of the Composers’ Union and admitted into the Communist Party.  He gained full membership after one year—an honor—and was praised for being a “loyal son.”   He produced numerous major works in succession, among Babiy Yar (a controversial poem set to music), and his Twelfth and Thirteenth Symphonies.

In 1965, Shostakovich suffered severe heart trouble.  In 1969, he was diagnosed with a rare for of poliomyelitis, which caused him to lose control and mobility in his limbs.  Despite his failing health, Shostakovich remained an active composer and public figure.  His Fourteenth Symphony, dedicated to Benjamin [dedicated work to] Britten*, debuted in 1970.  His Fifteenth Symphony premiered in 1972.  He died August 9, 1975, after suffering from cancer and deterioration of the lungs and heart.

Extra Connections:  Music from Shostakovich’s First Symphony was incorporated into the ballet, Rouge et Noir, choreographed by [work choreographed by] Massine*.

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 has been described as “Mahlerian” in size and scope.  In 1953, Shostakovich confided in a colleague that the composer who had exerted the most influence on him during his early years was [most influenced by] Gustav Mahler*

Assessment: In spite of the pressure to follow Soviet guidelines, he  composed 15 symphonies, numerous ballets, operas, and chamber works, and concerti and earned a reputation as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.

Oneliner: Dmitry Shostakovich, great Soviet composer

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