13 questions · Music
Dmitri Shostakovich, born in St Petersburg in 1906, was 19 when his First Symphony made him internationally known: a prodigy of the young Soviet Union. But his life became a dangerous dance with power. In 1936 Stalin attended his successful opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' and left early. The next day, Pravda ran the notorious takedown 'Muddle Instead of Music', an undisguised threat in the years of the Great Terror. Shostakovich kept a packed suitcase by the door for months and saved himself with the Fifth Symphony, which the regime read as a work of contrition: though the strained jubilation of its finale can be heard quite differently. That double-edged quality became his hallmark: music that sounds officially compliant while speaking between the lines. In the Second World War he became a symbol: his Seventh Symphony, the 'Leningrad', was written partly inside the city besieged by the Wehrmacht and performed there in 1942 by starving musicians: broadcast by loudspeaker towards the German lines. In 1948 the second condemnation struck: the Zhdanov campaign accused him of 'formalism', his works vanished from concert halls, he lost his teaching posts and wrote for the desk drawer, including the First Violin Concerto for David Oistrakh. After Stalin's death in 1953 he answered with the dark Tenth Symphony, in which his musical monogram D-E flat-C-B (DSCH) triumphs over a brutal scherzo that many hear as a portrait of Stalin. He left 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets: the quartets are considered his secret diary. Did you know that Shostakovich was a passionate football fan? He even held a referee's certificate. He died in Moscow in 1975: the chronicler of a century of violence, whose true convictions are debated to this day.
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modernism
He is considered the greatest symphonist of the Soviet era.
💡 Did you know? Shostakovich wrote his music under the constant death threat of Stalin's regime: many works are double-edged, between conformity and hidden protest.
St Petersburg
In his youth the city was renamed Petrograd, later Leningrad: he dedicated his Seventh Symphony to it.
💡 Did you know? Shostakovich was born in St Petersburg in 1906 and, as a child, still witnessed the Russian Revolution.
Muddle Instead of Music
Stalin had walked out of the opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' the night before; Shostakovich kept a packed suitcase ready for months.
💡 Did you know? After the 1936 Pravda attack „Muddle instead of Music“, Shostakovich kept a packed suitcase by the door at night, to spare his family if he were taken away.
the Fifth Symphony
The regime read it as contrition: the strained jubilation of the finale can be heard quite differently.
💡 Did you know? He humbly subtitled his 5th Symphony „A Soviet artist's reply to just criticism“: yet many read its triumphant finale as forced, hollow rejoicing.
Leningrad Symphony
Performed in the besieged city in 1942 by starving musicians: broadcast by loudspeaker towards the German lines.
💡 Did you know? The „Leningrad Symphony“ was performed in 1942 in the German-besieged, starving city; the score was flown out through the front lines to the West.
15 of each
The quartets are considered his secret diary: more private and unsparing than the official symphonies.
💡 Did you know? Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets; the quartets are seen as his most personal, „private“ diary.
D-Es-C-H
From the German spelling D. SCHostakowitsch: central to the Tenth Symphony and the Eighth Quartet.
💡 Did you know? His musical monogram D-E flat-C-B (after his initials D. Sch.) he hid like a secret signature in many works.
formalism
His works vanished from concert halls; pieces like the First Violin Concerto were written 'for the desk drawer'.
💡 Did you know? In the Zhdanov campaign of 1948, Shostakovich was again condemned as an „alien formalist“; his works were banned and he was publicly humiliated.
a portrait of Stalin
The symphony was written right after Stalin's death in 1953: at the end Shostakovich's own DSCH motif triumphs.
💡 Did you know? The brutal, driving scherzo of his 10th Symphony, written soon after Stalin's death in 1953, is seen by many as a musical portrait of the dictator.
David Oistrakh
The First Violin Concerto was written in 1947 to 1948 but could only be premiered in 1955.
💡 Did you know? Shostakovich wrote both his violin concertos for the star violinist David Oistrakh; the first he had to withhold for years for fear of the censors.
football
He was an ardent fan of Zenit Leningrad and even held a referee's certificate.
💡 Did you know? He called football 'the ballet of the masses' (and wrote a football ballet himself): 'The Golden Age'.
Moscow
His true political convictions (conformist or secret dissident) are debated to this day.
💡 Did you know? Shostakovich died in Moscow in 1975, to this day people argue how much loyalty and how much hidden resistance lie in his music.
Foto: Fotothek_df_roe-neg_0002792_002_Portrait_Dmitri_Dmitrijewitsch_Schostakowitchs_im_Publikum_der_Bachfeier.jpg: Roger & Renate Rössing, credit Deutsche Fotothek. derivative work: Improvist (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Wikimedia Commons
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich was a Soviet composer whose 15 symphonies were written under the shadow of Stalin's terror: often double-edged between conformity and protest.
💡 Did you know? After a Pravda attack in 1936 he kept a packed suitcase ready at night, to spare his family if the secret police came for him.
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