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

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

Brief biography of Shostakovich

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

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

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

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

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

Interesting facts about Shostakovich

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

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

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

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

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

Works of Dmitry Shostakovich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Among his films:

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

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

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

Video: watch a film about Shostakovich

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

Dmitry Shostakovich

short biography

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

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

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

Origin

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

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

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

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

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

Childhood and youth

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

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

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

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

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

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

1920s

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

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

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

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

1930s

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

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

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

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

1940s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1950s

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

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

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

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

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

1960s

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

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

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

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

1970s

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

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

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

Family

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

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

Daughter - Galina Dmitrievna Shostakovich.

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

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

The Meaning of Creativity

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

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

Style

Influences

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

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

Genres

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

Specifics of musical language

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

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

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

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

Essays (selection)

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

😉 Greetings my dear readers! The article “Dmitry Shostakovich: short biography, facts” is about the main stages of the life of the outstanding Soviet composer, pianist, teacher, doctor of art history. The famous composer of Soviet times received well-deserved fame far beyond the borders of the country.

Biography of Dmitry Shostakovich

This child prodigy was born on September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg. Zodiac sign - To some extent, Shostakovich’s fate was predetermined from childhood. His father was a chemist, but passionately loved music; his mother was a pianist and taught piano lessons.

Parents: Sofya Vasilievna and Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich

Since childhood, Dmitry has absorbed the sounds of the piano and received the gift of musical talent at the genetic level. In addition to Dima, his sisters were raised in the family: the eldest, Maria, and the youngest, Zoya.

In 1915, nine-year-old Shostakovich entered the Maria Shidlovskaya Commercial Gymnasium to study. Around the same time, impressed by watching the opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” written by Rimsky-Korsakov, he decided to study music seriously.

He received his first lessons, of course, from his mother. Later, he began studying piano, choosing a private school with the famous teacher I.A. Glasser. Some success was achieved in the studies. In 1918, the young man decided to interrupt his studies and start composing music.

Creative path

In the summer of 1919, Shostakovich was auditioned by A.K. Glazunov, in the fall of the same year, the young talent entered the Petrograd Conservatory. There he continued his studies with Steinberg and Sokolov, and took conducting lessons. He wrote his first composition by the end of 1919 - Scherzo fis-moll.

In 1920, many new acquaintances took place among musicians and he wrote such works as “Two Fables of Krylov” and “Three Fantastic Dances.”

Despite the difficult times, the revolution, the civil war, all the hardships of the First World War, the hungry and cold times, Shostakovich continued his studies at the conservatory.

When the city Philharmonic was reopened in 1921, the young man practically attended it every evening. Many people gave up music lessons, but not him.

The musician led a half-starved existence, which resulted in severe exhaustion of the body. And in 1922 his father died, and the family had a very bad time. In the same year, Dmitry underwent a complex operation, miraculously surviving. But all these difficulties could not discourage him from loving music. With great difficulty, he found a position as a pianist in a cinema.

Dmitri Shostakovich, 1925

In 1923, Dmitry graduated from the conservatory, studying composition and piano. He wrote the first symphony specifically for his thesis. After this, he decides to continue his education in graduate school, completely devoting himself to music.

Confession

In 1927, an international piano competition was held in Warsaw and Shostakovich was invited to take part. There he presented his own composition - a sonata, for which he was rewarded with a diploma.

The talented musician was noticed by a German conductor during his tour in the Soviet Union. It was Bruno Walter. He became interested in the First Symphony and asked to send him the score.

The premiere of the symphony took place in Berlin on November 22, 1927, and a year later - the premiere in Philadelphia (USA). Dmitry Shostakovich became famous far beyond the borders of the USSR.

• the late 1920s and early 1930s saw the writing of three more symphonies;
• 1930-1932 - the brilliant composer writes the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, which the audience greeted with delight;
• 1936 - The Fourth Symphony was completed. It was performed for the first time, many years later, only in 1961;
• 1937 - work on the Fifth Symphony was completed. And in the same year, Shostakovich was awarded the title of professor;
• 1939 - Sixth Symphony;

• The writing of the Seventh Symphony took place in the first years of the Great Patriotic War. But the world heard it in 1942 in America;
• Dmitry Dmitrievich devoted the next year to writing the Eighth Symphony;
• in 1945 - the Ninth Symphony was written and performed after the end of the war. (Total 15 symphonies);
• in 1943 - Shostakovich moved to Moscow;
• 1943-1948 — work as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

1948 was a difficult year for the composer. The Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee brought several charges against him: “creeping before the West”, “formalism”, “bourgeois decadence” and professional incompetence. He was stripped of his professorship and dismissed from his positions.

Despite this, Shostakovich continued to write his immortal works and visit other countries as part of delegations. Stalin's "press" could not crush this man! Dmitry Dmitrievich had the opportunity to stay in the West, but he did not.

In 1950, the composer was awarded the fourth Stalin Prize. In total there were five Stalin Prizes and many of the highest awards, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. (The list of well-deserved awards is very extensive).

Personal life

What was the great Shostakovich like? The main traits of his character:

• isolation;
• modesty;
• honesty;
• shyness;
• tact;
• strength of will;
• courage;
• independence;
• good manners;
• honor.

Dmitry Dmitrievich entered into his first marriage with Nina Vasilievna Varzar (her years of life were 1909-1954). She was an astrophysicist by profession, but her family turned out to be more important to her than her scientific career. This marriage produced a son, Maxim, and a daughter, Galina. The son also became a musician and conductor.

The second wife is Margarita Kaynova, an employee of the Komsomol Central Committee. The marriage did not last long.

For the third time, Shostakovich married Irina Anatolyevna Supinskaya. She worked as editor of the magazine “Soviet Composer” and remained the musician’s wife until his death.

In the last years of his life, Shostakovich struggled with a complex disease - lung cancer. He smoked a lot! The great composer ended his days in Moscow on August 9, 1975, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Dmitry Shostakovich: short biography (video)

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (September 12 (25), 1906, St. Petersburg - August 9, 1975, Moscow) - Russian Soviet composer, pianist, teacher and public figure, one of the most significant composers of the 20th century, who had and continues to have a creative influence on composers. In his early years, Shostakovich was influenced by the music of Stravinsky, Berg, Prokofiev, Hindemith, and later (in the mid-1930s) by Mahler. Constantly studying classical and avant-garde traditions, Shostakovich developed his own musical language, emotionally charged and touching the hearts of musicians and music lovers around the world.

In the spring of 1926, the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nikolai Malko, played Dmitri Shostakovich's First Symphony for the first time. In a letter to Kyiv pianist L. Izarova, N. Malko wrote: “I just returned from a concert. Conducted for the first time the symphony of the young Leningrader Mitya Shostakovich. I feel like I’ve opened a new page in the history of Russian music.”

The reception of the symphony by the public, the orchestra, and the press cannot be called simply a success, it was a triumph. The same was her procession through the most famous symphonic stages in the world. Otto Klemperer, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Hermann Abendroth, Leopold Stokowski bent over the score of the symphony. To them, conductor-thinkers, the correlation between the level of skill and the age of the author seemed implausible. I was struck by the complete freedom with which the nineteen-year-old composer disposed of all the resources of the orchestra to realize his ideas, and the ideas themselves struck with spring freshness.

Shostakovich's symphony was truly the first symphony from the new world, over which the October thunderstorm swept. The contrast was striking between the music, full of cheerfulness, the exuberant flowering of young forces, subtle, shy lyrics and the gloomy expressionist art of many of Shostakovich’s foreign contemporaries.

Bypassing the usual youthful stage, Shostakovich confidently stepped into maturity. This excellent school gave him this confidence. A native of Leningrad, he was educated within the walls of the Leningrad Conservatory in the classes of pianist L. Nikolaev and composer M. Steinberg. Leonid Vladimirovich Nikolaev, who raised one of the most fruitful branches of the Soviet pianistic school, as a composer was a student of Taneyev, who in turn was a student of Tchaikovsky. Maximilian Oseevich Steinberg is a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and a follower of his pedagogical principles and methods. From their teachers Nikolaev and Steinberg inherited a complete hatred of amateurism. In their classes there was a spirit of deep respect for work, for what Ravel liked to designate with the word metier - craft. That is why the culture of mastery was so high already in the first major work of the young composer.

Many years have passed since then. Fourteen more were added to the First Symphony. Fifteen quartets, two trios, two operas, three ballets, two piano, two violin and two cello concertos, romance cycles, collections of piano preludes and fugues, cantatas, oratorios, music for many films and dramatic performances appeared.

The early period of Shostakovich's creativity coincides with the end of the twenties, a time of heated discussions on cardinal issues of Soviet artistic culture, when the foundations of the method and style of Soviet art - socialist realism - crystallized. Like many representatives of the young, and not only the younger generation of the Soviet artistic intelligentsia, Shostakovich pays tribute to his passion for the experimental works of director V. E. Meyerhold, the operas of Alban Berg (Wozzeck), Ernst Kshenek (Jumping Over the Shadow, Johnny) , ballet productions by Fyodor Lopukhov.

The combination of acute grotesqueness with deep tragedy, typical of many phenomena of expressionist art that came from abroad, also attracted the attention of the young composer. At the same time, admiration for Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Glinka, and Berlioz always lives in him. At one time he was worried about Mahler's grandiose symphonic epic: the depth of the ethical problems contained in it: the artist and society, the artist and modernity. But none of the composers of bygone eras shocks him as much as Mussorgsky.

At the very beginning of Shostakovich’s creative career, at a time of searches, hobbies, and disputes, his opera “The Nose” (1928) was born - one of the most controversial works of his creative youth. In this opera based on Gogol’s plot, through the tangible influences of Meyerhold’s “The Inspector General”, a musical eccentric, bright features were visible that make “The Nose” similar to Mussorgsky’s opera “Marriage”. “The Nose” played a significant role in Shostakovich’s creative evolution.

The beginning of the 30s is marked in the composer's biography by a stream of works of different genres. Here are the ballets “The Golden Age” and “Bolt”, music for Meyerhold’s production of Mayakovsky’s play “The Bedbug”, music for several performances of the Leningrad Theater of Working Youth (TRAM), and finally, Shostakovich’s first entry into cinematography, the creation of music for the films “Alone”, “Golden Mountains”, “Counter”; music for the variety and circus performance of the Leningrad Music Hall “Conditionally Killed”; creative communication with related arts: ballet, drama theater, cinema; the emergence of the first romance cycle (based on poems by Japanese poets) is evidence of the composer’s need to concretize the figurative structure of the music.

The central place among Shostakovich’s works of the first half of the 30s is occupied by the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (“Katerina Izmailova”). The basis of its dramaturgy is the work of N. Leskov, the genre of which the author designated with the word “essay,” as if thereby emphasizing the authenticity, reliability of events, and the portrait character of the characters. The music of “Lady Macbeth” is a tragic story about a terrible era of tyranny and lawlessness, when everything human in a person, his dignity, thoughts, aspirations, feelings, was killed; when primitive instincts were taxed and governed actions and life itself, shackled, walked along the endless highways of Russia. On one of them, Shostakovich saw his heroine - a former merchant's wife, a convict, who paid the full price for her criminal happiness. I saw it and excitedly told her fate in my opera.

Hatred for the old world, the world of violence, lies and inhumanity is manifested in many of Shostakovich’s works, in different genres. She is the strongest antithesis of positive images, ideas that define Shostakovich’s artistic and social credo. Faith in the irresistible power of Man, admiration for the richness of the spiritual world, sympathy for his suffering, a passionate thirst to participate in the struggle for his bright ideals - these are the most important features of this credo. It manifests itself especially fully in his key, milestone works. Among them is one of the most important, the Fifth Symphony, which appeared in 1936, which began a new stage in the composer’s creative biography, a new chapter in the history of Soviet culture. In this symphony, which can be called an “optimistic tragedy,” the author comes to the deep philosophical problem of the formation of the personality of his contemporary.

Judging by Shostakovich's music, the symphony genre has always been for him a platform from which only the most important, most fiery speeches, aimed at achieving the highest ethical goals, should be delivered. The symphony platform was not erected for eloquence. This is a springboard for militant philosophical thought, fighting for the ideals of humanism, denouncing evil and baseness, as if once again affirming the famous Goethean position:

Only he is worthy of happiness and freedom,
Who goes to battle for them every day!
It is significant that not a single one of the fifteen symphonies written by Shostakovich departs from modernity. The First was mentioned above, the Second is a symphonic dedication to October, the Third is “May Day”. In them, the composer turns to the poetry of A. Bezymensky and S. Kirsanov in order to more clearly reveal the joy and solemnity of the revolutionary festivities blazing in them.

But already from the Fourth Symphony, written in 1936, some alien, evil force enters the world of joyful comprehension of life, goodness and friendliness. She takes on different guises. Somewhere she treads roughly on the ground covered with spring greenery, with a cynical grin she defiles purity and sincerity, she is angry, she threatens, she foreshadows death. It is internally close to the dark themes that threaten human happiness from the pages of the scores of Tchaikovsky’s last three symphonies.

In both the Fifth and II movements of Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony, this formidable force makes itself felt. But only in the Seventh, Leningrad Symphony, does it rise to its full height. Suddenly, a cruel and terrible force invades the world of philosophical thoughts, pure dreams, athletic vigor, and Levitan-like poetic landscapes. She came to sweep away this pure world and establish darkness, blood, death. Insinuatingly, from afar, the barely audible rustle of a small drum is heard, and on its clear rhythm a hard, angular theme emerges. Repeating itself eleven times with dull mechanicalness and gaining strength, it acquires hoarse, growling, somehow shaggy sounds. And now, in all its terrifying nakedness, the man-beast steps on the earth.

In contrast to the “theme of invasion,” the “theme of courage” emerges and grows stronger in music. The monologue of the bassoon is extremely saturated with the bitterness of loss, making one remember Nekrasov’s lines: “These are the tears of poor mothers, they will not forget their children who died in the bloody field.” But no matter how sad the losses may be, life asserts itself every minute. This idea permeates the Scherzo - Part II. And from here, through reflection (Part III), it leads to a triumphant-sounding ending.

The composer wrote his legendary Leningrad Symphony in a house constantly shaken by explosions. In one of his speeches, Shostakovich said: “I looked at my beloved city with pain and pride. And he stood, scorched by fires, battle-hardened, having experienced the deep suffering of a fighter, and was even more beautiful in his stern grandeur. How could I not love this city, built by Peter, and not tell the whole world about its glory, about the courage of its defenders... My weapon was music.”

Passionately hating evil and violence, the citizen composer denounces the enemy, the one who sows wars that plunge nations into the abyss of disaster. That is why the theme of war rivets the composer’s thoughts for a long time. It sounds in the Eighth, grandiose in scale, in the depth of tragic conflicts, composed in 1943, in the Tenth and Thirteenth symphonies, in the piano trio, written in memory of I. I. Sollertinsky. This theme also penetrates into the Eighth Quartet, into the music for the films “The Fall of Berlin”, “Meeting on the Elbe”, “Young Guard”. In an article dedicated to the first anniversary of Victory Day, Shostakovich wrote: “Victory obliges no less than war which was fought in the name of victory. The defeat of fascism is only a stage in the unstoppable offensive movement of man, in the implementation of the progressive mission of the Soviet people.”

The Ninth Symphony, Shostakovich's first post-war work. It was performed for the first time in the fall of 1945; to some extent, this symphony did not live up to expectations. There is no monumental solemnity in it that could embody in music the images of the victorious end of the war. But there is something else in it: immediate joy, jokes, laughter, as if a huge weight had fallen from one’s shoulders, and for the first time in so many years it was possible to turn on the light without curtains, without darkening, and all the windows of the houses lit up with joy. And only in the penultimate part does a harsh reminder of what has been experienced appear. But darkness reigns for a short time - the music returns again to the world of light and fun.

Eight years separate the Tenth Symphony from the Ninth. There has never been such a break in Shostakovich’s symphonic chronicle. And again we have before us a work full of tragic collisions, deep ideological problems, captivating with its pathos narratives about an era of great upheavals, an era of great hopes for mankind.

The Eleventh and Twelfth occupy a special place in the list of Shostakovich’s symphonies.

Before turning to the Eleventh Symphony, written in 1957, it is necessary to recall Ten Poems for mixed choir (1951) based on the words of revolutionary poets of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The poems of revolutionary poets: L. Radin, A. Gmyrev, A. Kots, V. Tan-Bogoraz inspired Shostakovich to create music, every bar of which was composed by him, and at the same time akin to the songs of the revolutionary underground, student gatherings, which were heard in the dungeons Butyrok, and in Shushenskoye, and in Lynjumo, on Capri, to songs that were also a family tradition in the house of the composer’s parents. His grandfather, Boleslav Boleslavovich Shostakovich, was exiled for participating in the Polish uprising of 1863. His son, Dmitry Boleslavovich, the composer’s father, during his student years and after graduating from St. Petersburg University was closely associated with the Lukashevich family, one of whose members, together with Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov, was preparing an assassination attempt on Alexander III. Lukashevich spent 18 years in the Shlisselburg fortress.

One of the most powerful impressions of Shostakovich’s entire life is dated April 3, 1917, the day of V.I. Lenin’s arrival in Petrograd. This is how the composer talks about it. “I witnessed the events of the October Revolution, was among those who listened to Vladimir Ilyich on the square in front of the Finlyandsky Station on the day of his arrival in Petrograd. And, although I was very young then, it was forever imprinted in my memory.”

The theme of revolution entered the composer's flesh and blood even in his childhood and matured in him along with the growth of consciousness, becoming one of his foundations. This theme crystallized in the Eleventh Symphony (1957), called “1905.” Each part has its own name. From them you can clearly imagine the idea and dramaturgy of the work: “Palace Square”, “January 9”, “Eternal Memory”, “Alarm”. The symphony is permeated with the intonations of songs of the revolutionary underground: “Listen”, “Prisoner”, “You have fallen a victim”, “Rage, tyrants”, “Varshavyanka”. They give the rich musical narrative a special excitement and authenticity of a historical document.

Dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Twelfth Symphony (1961) - a work of epic power - continues the instrumental tale of revolution. As in the Eleventh, the program names of the parts give a completely clear idea of ​​its content: “Revolutionary Petrograd”, “Razliv”, “Aurora”, “Dawn of Humanity”.

Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony (1962) is close in genre to oratorio. It was written for an unusual composition: a symphony orchestra, a bass choir and a bass soloist. The textual basis of the five parts of the symphony is the verses of Evg. Yevtushenko: “Babi Yar”, “Humor”, “In the Store”, “Fears” and “Career”. The idea of ​​the symphony, its pathos is the denunciation of evil in the name of the fight for truth, for man. And this symphony reveals the active, offensive humanism inherent in Shostakovich.

After a seven-year break, in 1969, the Fourteenth Symphony was created, written for a chamber orchestra: strings, a small number of percussion and two voices - soprano and bass. The symphony contains poems by Garcia Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, M. Rilke and Wilhelm Kuchelbecker. Dedicated to Benjamin Britten, the symphony was written, according to its author, under the influence of M. P. Mussorgsky’s “Songs and Dances of Death.” In the magnificent article “From the Depths of the Depths,” dedicated to the Fourteenth Symphony, Marietta Shaginyan wrote: “... Shostakovich’s Fourteenth Symphony, the culmination of his work. The fourteenth symphony - I would like to call it the first “Human Passions” of the new era - convincingly speaks of how much our time needs both an in-depth interpretation of moral contradictions and a tragic understanding of spiritual trials (“passions”), through which humanity passes.”

D. Shostakovich's fifteenth symphony was composed in the summer of 1971. After a long break, the composer returns to a purely instrumental score for the symphony. The light coloring of the “toy scherzo” of the first movement is associated with images of childhood. The theme from Rossini’s “William Tell” overture “fits” organically into the music. The mournful music of the beginning of Part II in the gloomy sound of a brass band gives rise to thoughts of loss, of the first terrible grief. The music of Part II is filled with ominous fantasy, in some ways reminiscent of the fairy-tale world of The Nutcracker. At the beginning of Part IV, Shostakovich again resorts to quotation. This time it is the theme of fate from Valkyrie, which predetermines the tragic climax of further development.

Fifteen symphonies of Shostakovich are fifteen chapters of the epic chronicle of our time. Shostakovich joined the ranks of those who are actively and directly transforming the world. His weapon is music that has become philosophy, philosophy that has become music.

Shostakovich's creative aspirations cover all existing genres of music - from the mass song from "The Counter" to the monumental oratorio "Song of the Forests", operas, symphonies, and instrumental concerts. A significant section of his work is devoted to chamber music, one of whose opuses, “24 Preludes and Fugues” for piano, occupies a special place. After Johann Sebastian Bach, few people dared to touch a polyphonic cycle of this kind and scale. And it’s not a matter of the presence or absence of appropriate technology, a special kind of skill. Shostakovich’s “24 Preludes and Fugues” is not only a body of polyphonic wisdom of the 20th century, they are the clearest indicator of the strength and tension of thinking, penetrating into the depths of the most complex phenomena. This type of thinking is akin to the intellectual power of Kurchatov, Landau, Fermi, and therefore Shostakovich’s preludes and fugues amaze not only with the high academicism of revealing the secrets of Bach’s polyphony, but above all with the philosophical thinking that truly penetrates into the “depths of the depths” of his contemporary, the driving forces, contradictions and pathos era of great transformations.

Next to the symphonies, a large place in Shostakovich’s creative biography is occupied by his fifteen quartets. In this ensemble, modest in terms of the number of performers, the composer turns to a thematic circle close to the one he talks about in his symphonies. It is no coincidence that some quartets appear almost simultaneously with symphonies, being their original “companions”.

In the symphonies, the composer addresses millions, continuing in this sense the line of Beethoven's symphonism, while the quartets are addressed to a narrower, chamber circle. With him he shares what excites, pleases, depresses, what he dreams about.

None of the quartets has a special title to help understand its content. Nothing but a serial number. And yet, their meaning is clear to everyone who loves and knows how to listen to chamber music. The first quartet is the same age as the Fifth Symphony. In its cheerful structure, close to neoclassicism, with a thoughtful sarabande of the first movement, a Haydnian sparkling finale, a fluttering waltz and a soulful Russian viola chorus, drawn-out and clear, one can feel healing from the heavy thoughts that overwhelmed the hero of the Fifth Symphony.

We remember how important lyricism was in poems, songs, and letters during the war years, how the lyrical warmth of a few sincere phrases multiplied spiritual strength. The waltz and romance of the Second Quartet, written in 1944, are imbued with it.

How different the images of the Third Quartet are from each other. It contains the carelessness of youth, and painful visions of the “forces of evil”, and the field tension of resistance, and lyrics adjacent to philosophical reflection. The Fifth Quartet (1952), which precedes the Tenth Symphony, and to an even greater extent the Eighth Quartet (I960) are filled with tragic visions - memories of the war years. In the music of these quartets, as in the Seventh and Tenth symphonies, the forces of light and the forces of darkness are sharply opposed. The title page of the Eighth Quartet reads: “In memory of the victims of fascism and war.” This quartet was written over three days in Dresden, where Shostakovich went to work on the music for the film Five Days, Five Nights.

Along with quartets that reflect the “big world” with its conflicts, events, life collisions, Shostakovich has quartets that sound like pages of a diary. In the First they are cheerful; in the Fourth they talk about self-absorption, contemplation, peace; in the Sixth - pictures of unity with nature and deep tranquility are revealed; in the Seventh and Eleventh - dedicated to the memory of loved ones, the music reaches almost verbal expressiveness, especially in the tragic climaxes.

In the Fourteenth Quartet, the characteristic features of Russian melos are especially noticeable. In Part I, the musical images captivate with their romantic manner of expressing a wide range of feelings: from heartfelt admiration for the beauty of nature to outbursts of mental turmoil, returning to the peace and tranquility of the landscape. The Adagio of the Fourteenth Quartet makes one recall the Russian spirit of the viola chorus in the First Quartet. In III - the final part - the music is outlined by dance rhythms, sounding more or less clearly. Assessing Shostakovich's Fourteenth Quartet, D. B. Kabalevsky speaks of the “Beethoven beginning” of its high perfection.

The fifteenth quartet was first performed in the fall of 1974. Its structure is unusual; it consists of six parts, following one after another without interruption. All movements are at a slow tempo: Elegy, Serenade, Intermezzo, Nocturne, Funeral March and Epilogue. The fifteenth quartet amazes with the depth of philosophical thought, so characteristic of Shostakovich in many works of this genre.

Shostakovich's quartet work represents one of the peaks of the development of the genre in the post-Beethoven period. Just as in symphonies, a world of lofty ideas, reflections, and philosophical generalizations reigns here. But, unlike symphonies, quartets have that intonation of trust that instantly awakens an emotional response from the audience. This property of Shostakovich's quartets makes them similar to Tchaikovsky's quartets.

Next to the quartets, rightfully one of the highest places in the chamber genre is occupied by the Piano Quintet, written in 1940, a work that combines deep intellectualism, especially evident in the Prelude and Fugue, and subtle emotionality, somewhere making one remember Levitan’s landscapes.

The composer turned to chamber vocal music more and more often in the post-war years. Six romances appear based on the words of W. Raleigh, R. Burns, W. Shakespeare; vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry”; Two romances to poems by M. Lermontov, Four monologues to poems by A. Pushkin, songs and romances to poems by M. Svetlov, E. Dolmatovsky, the cycle “Spanish Songs”, Five satires to the words of Sasha Cherny, Five humoresques to words from the magazine “Crocodile” ", Suite based on poems by M. Tsvetaeva.

Such an abundance of vocal music based on texts by classics of poetry and Soviet poets testifies to the wide range of literary interests of the composer. In Shostakovich's vocal music, one is struck not only by the subtlety of the poet's sense of style and handwriting, but also by the ability to recreate the national characteristics of the music. This is especially vivid in the “Spanish Songs”, in the cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry”, in romances based on poems by English poets. The traditions of Russian romance lyrics, coming from Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, are heard in the Five Romances, “Five Days” based on the poems of E. Dolmatovsky: “The Day of the Meeting”, “The Day of Confessions”, “The Day of Resentments”, “The Day of Joy”, “The Day of Memories” .

A special place is occupied by “Satires” based on the words of Sasha Cherny and “Humoresques” from “Crocodile”. They reflect Shostakovich's love for Mussorgsky. It arose in his youth and appeared first in his cycle “Krylov’s Fables”, then in the opera “The Nose”, then in “Katerina Izmailova” (especially in Act IV of the opera). Three times Shostakovich turns directly to Mussorgsky, re-orchestrating and editing “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina” and orchestrating “Songs and Dances of Death” for the first time. And again the admiration for Mussorgsky is reflected in the poem for soloist, choir and orchestra - “The Execution of Stepan Razin” to the verses of Evg. Yevtushenko.

How strong and deep must be the attachment to Mussorgsky, if, possessing such a bright individuality, which can be unmistakably recognized by two or three phrases, Shostakovich so humbly, with such love - does not imitate, no, but adopts and interprets the style of writing in his own way great realist musician.

Once upon a time, admiring the genius of Chopin, who had just appeared on the European musical horizon, Robert Schumann wrote: “If Mozart were alive, he would have written a Chopin concerto.” To paraphrase Schumann, we can say: if Mussorgsky had lived, he would have written “The Execution of Stepan Razin” by Shostakovich. Dmitry Shostakovich is an outstanding master of theater music. He is close to different genres: opera, ballet, musical comedy, variety shows (Music Hall), drama theatre. They also include music for films. Let's name just a few works in these genres from more than thirty films: “The Golden Mountains”, “The Counter”, “The Maxim Trilogy”, “The Young Guard”, “Meeting on the Elbe”, “The Fall of Berlin”, “The Gadfly”, “Five” days - five nights", "Hamlet", "King Lear". From the music for dramatic performances: “The Bedbug” by V. Mayakovsky, “The Shot” by A. Bezymensky, “Hamlet” and “King Lear” by V. Shakespeare, “Salute, Spain” by A. Afinogenov, “The Human Comedy” by O. Balzac.

No matter how different in genre and scale Shostakovich’s works in film and theater are, they are united by one common feature - music creates its own, as it were, “symphonic series” of embodiment of ideas and characters, influencing the atmosphere of the film or performance.

The fate of the ballets was unfortunate. Here the blame falls entirely on the inferior scriptwriting. But the music, endowed with vivid imagery and humor, sounding brilliantly in the orchestra, has been preserved in the form of suites and occupies a prominent place in the repertoire of symphony concerts. The ballet “The Young Lady and the Hooligan” to the music of D. Shostakovich based on the libretto by A. Belinsky, who based the film script by V. Mayakovsky, is being performed with great success on many stages of Soviet musical theaters.

Dmitri Shostakovich made a great contribution to the genre of instrumental concerto. The first to be written was a piano concerto in C minor with solo trumpet (1933). With its youth, mischief, and youthful charming angularity, the concert is reminiscent of the First Symphony. Fourteen years later, a violin concerto, profound in thought, magnificent in scope, and virtuosic brilliance, appears; followed by, in 1957, the Second Piano Concerto, dedicated to his son, Maxim, designed for children's performance. The list of concert literature from the pen of Shostakovich is completed by the cello concertos (1959, 1967) and the Second Violin Concerto (1967). These concerts are least of all designed for “intoxication with technical brilliance.” In terms of depth of thought and intense drama, they rank next to symphonies.

The list of works given in this essay includes only the most typical works in the main genres. Dozens of titles in different sections of creativity remained outside the list.

His path to world fame is the path of one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century, boldly setting new milestones in world musical culture. His path to world fame, the path of one of those people for whom to live means to be in the thick of events of everyone for his time, to deeply delve into the meaning of what is happening, to take a fair position in disputes, clashes of opinions, in struggle and to respond with all the forces of his gigantic gifts for everything that is expressed in one great word - Life.

😉 Greetings my dear readers! The article “Dmitry Shostakovich: short biography, facts” is about the main stages of the life of the outstanding Soviet composer, pianist, teacher, doctor of art history. The famous composer of Soviet times received well-deserved fame far beyond the borders of the country.

Biography of Dmitry Shostakovich

This child prodigy was born on September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg. Zodiac sign - To some extent, Shostakovich’s fate was predetermined from childhood. His father was a chemist, but passionately loved music; his mother was a pianist and taught piano lessons.

Parents: Sofya Vasilievna and Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich

Since childhood, Dmitry has absorbed the sounds of the piano and received the gift of musical talent at the genetic level. In addition to Dima, his sisters were raised in the family: the eldest, Maria, and the youngest, Zoya.

In 1915, nine-year-old Shostakovich entered the Maria Shidlovskaya Commercial Gymnasium to study. Around the same time, impressed by watching the opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” written by Rimsky-Korsakov, he decided to study music seriously.

He received his first lessons, of course, from his mother. Later, he began studying piano, choosing a private school with the famous teacher I.A. Glasser. Some success was achieved in the studies. In 1918, the young man decided to interrupt his studies and start composing music.

Creative path

In the summer of 1919, Shostakovich was auditioned by A.K. Glazunov, in the fall of the same year, the young talent entered the Petrograd Conservatory. There he continued his studies with Steinberg and Sokolov, and took conducting lessons. He wrote his first composition by the end of 1919 - Scherzo fis-moll.

In 1920, many new acquaintances took place among musicians and he wrote such works as “Two Fables of Krylov” and “Three Fantastic Dances.”

Despite the difficult times, the revolution, the civil war, all the hardships of the First World War, the hungry and cold times, Shostakovich continued his studies at the conservatory.

When the city Philharmonic was reopened in 1921, the young man practically attended it every evening. Many people gave up music lessons, but not him.

The musician led a half-starved existence, which resulted in severe exhaustion of the body. And in 1922 his father died, and the family had a very bad time. In the same year, Dmitry underwent a complex operation, miraculously surviving. But all these difficulties could not discourage him from loving music. With great difficulty, he found a position as a pianist in a cinema.

Dmitri Shostakovich, 1925

In 1923, Dmitry graduated from the conservatory, studying composition and piano. He wrote the first symphony specifically for his thesis. After this, he decides to continue his education in graduate school, completely devoting himself to music.

Confession

In 1927, an international piano competition was held in Warsaw and Shostakovich was invited to take part. There he presented his own composition - a sonata, for which he was rewarded with a diploma.

The talented musician was noticed by a German conductor during his tour in the Soviet Union. It was Bruno Walter. He became interested in the First Symphony and asked to send him the score.

The premiere of the symphony took place in Berlin on November 22, 1927, and a year later - the premiere in Philadelphia (USA). Dmitry Shostakovich became famous far beyond the borders of the USSR.

• the late 1920s and early 1930s saw the writing of three more symphonies;
• 1930-1932 - the brilliant composer writes the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, which the audience greeted with delight;
• 1936 - The Fourth Symphony was completed. It was performed for the first time, many years later, only in 1961;
• 1937 - work on the Fifth Symphony was completed. And in the same year, Shostakovich was awarded the title of professor;
• 1939 - Sixth Symphony;

• The writing of the Seventh Symphony took place in the first years of the Great Patriotic War. But the world heard it in 1942 in America;
• Dmitry Dmitrievich devoted the next year to writing the Eighth Symphony;
• in 1945 - the Ninth Symphony was written and performed after the end of the war. (Total 15 symphonies);
• in 1943 - Shostakovich moved to Moscow;
• 1943-1948 — work as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

1948 was a difficult year for the composer. The Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee brought several charges against him: “creeping before the West”, “formalism”, “bourgeois decadence” and professional incompetence. He was stripped of his professorship and dismissed from his positions.

Despite this, Shostakovich continued to write his immortal works and visit other countries as part of delegations. Stalin's "press" could not crush this man! Dmitry Dmitrievich had the opportunity to stay in the West, but he did not.

In 1950, the composer was awarded the fourth Stalin Prize. In total there were five Stalin Prizes and many of the highest awards, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. (The list of well-deserved awards is very extensive).

Personal life

What was the great Shostakovich like? The main traits of his character:

• isolation;
• modesty;
• honesty;
• shyness;
• tact;
• strength of will;
• courage;
• independence;
• good manners;
• honor.

Dmitry Dmitrievich entered into his first marriage with Nina Vasilievna Varzar (her years of life were 1909-1954). She was an astrophysicist by profession, but her family turned out to be more important to her than her scientific career. This marriage produced a son, Maxim, and a daughter, Galina. The son also became a musician and conductor.

The second wife is Margarita Kaynova, an employee of the Komsomol Central Committee. The marriage did not last long.

For the third time, Shostakovich married Irina Anatolyevna Supinskaya. She worked as editor of the magazine “Soviet Composer” and remained the musician’s wife until his death.

In the last years of his life, Shostakovich struggled with a complex disease - lung cancer. He smoked a lot! The great composer ended his days in Moscow on August 9, 1975, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Dmitry Shostakovich: short biography (video)