Dmitri Shostakovich - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# Dmitri Shostakovich

### From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image:Shostakovichportraitphoto.jpg
Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (born St Petersburg, September 25 1906; died Moscow August 9 1975 was a Soviet composer. People think he was the greatest writer of symphonies in the mid-20th century. He was also a great writer of string quartets. He lived at a time when Russia was part of the Soviet Union, ruled by dictators like Joseph Stalin. People who critised the way the country was being ruled were punished. The politicians wanted music and art to be easy to understand and to show how great their country was. If it was too difficult to understand it was called “formalist” and that composer was not allowed to have his music performed. When Shostakovich wanted to put his real feelings into his music he had to be careful how he did it so that he did not offend the politicians.

## [edit] Shostakovich's life

### [edit] Early years

Shostakovich’s parents came from Siberia. His father was a biologist and engineer and his mother was a pianist. They lived comfortably, although this was to change after the Revolution (1917). Shostakovich studied the piano and composition at the Petrograd Conservatory (St Petersburg was called Petrograd between 1914 and 1924, after which it became Leningrad until 1991 when it became St Petersburg again). After his father died the family were short of money so the young Dmitri had to earn money by playing the piano in cinemas for silent films. He worked extremely hard and with a lot of concentration. He was very successful both as a pianist and a composer. His First Symphony was very popular. His music sounded very modern with lots of dissonant chords. His first dramatic works include an opera called The Nose and a ballet called The Golden Age.

### [edit] Maturity

In 1930 he wrote an important opera called Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district. It was a huge success and the critics said that “it could only have been written by a Soviet composer brought up in the best traditions of Soviet culture”. One night in 1936 Stalin came to watch it. He left before the end. Two days later there was an article in the official government paper Pravda. The title was “Chaos instead of Music”. It said that this opera was primitive and vulgar, full of screaming and noise. The politicians were criticizing not just Shostakovich but all modern Soviet music. Shostakovich was denounced (meaning: they said that he was bad) and his friends were too frightened to defend him in case they were denounced as well. Shostakovich suffered quietly and wrote another symphony (his Fifth Symphony). The politicians liked this symphony. He was once more thought of as the leading Soviet composer. He was supposed to have said that his new symphony was the “creative reply of a Soviet artist to justified criticism”, but it was actually a critic who said this. Shortly afterwards he received the Stalin Prize for his Piano Quintet.

During World War II Shostakovich was evacuated with his wife and two children. His next two symphonies (nos 7 and 8) describe the war. They were hugely popular in the West. In the United States, the Seventh Symphony became the symbol of resistance against Nazism.

### [edit] After World War II

After the war the Soviet politicians again tightened their grip of artistic life. In 1948 there was a big meeting at which Shostakovich, Prokofiev and several other composers were criticized. Their music was called “formalist”, “anti-democratic” and lots of other things which actually had nothing to do with music. There was nothing the composers could do except to say how sorry they were. For the next five years Shostakovich was careful not to write anything the politicians would not like. He wrote songs such as The sun shines on our motherland. Some of his other compositions in which he expressed his real feelings he kept in a drawer so that no one could see them.

In 1953 Stalin died and things became easier again. He wrote his Tenth Symphony. The whole world now saw Shostakovich as the greatest Soviet composer. He suffered less from official repression. Surprisingly he often criticized the music of modern young composers, but a lot of these articles he never wrote himself. He was persuaded to sign them so that the politicians would leave him in peace. He wrote more symphonies and quartets as well as concertos. His opera Lady Macbeth was revised and given a different title: Katerina Izmaylova. It was made into a film and was performed in many countries.

In his later years Shostakovich suffered from ill-health. He had poliomyelitis which made it difficult for him to use his hands and legs. He suffered several heart attacks and started to lose his sight. He died of lung cancer in 1975.

## [edit] Shostakovich’s Music

Shostakovich is best known for his 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets. His most important opera is Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. He also wrote a lot of film music and music for plays (including Hamlet). Shostakovich read a lot of Russian literature. His songs set words by famous Russian writers such as Pushkin, Dostoyevsky and Blok. He wrote 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, a piano trio, a piano quintet, a sonata for cello and piano and a sonata for viola and piano (his last work).

He had lots of friends who regularly gave the first performances of his works. Most of his symphonies were first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Eugeny Mravinsky. His string quartets were first performed by the Beethoven String Quartet. The violinist David Oistrakh, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch and the pianist Sviatoslav Richter were all close friends who played his music.

## [edit] Shostakovich the pianist

Shostakovich had an amazing musical memory and could play almost anything he knew by ear. When he was young he spent hours improvising, composing and playing. He was a very gifted pianist although he had small hands. He had no difficulty in playing any of his works on the piano, even music written for an orchestra. He often played his music too fast and without much expression.

## [edit] Shostakovich’s personality

Shostakovich was a very nervous person. He was shy and very self-critical. He hated having to talk to people he did not know. He did not sit still but was always fidgeting and twitching his face nervously. He was always very polite and very kind to everyone he met. He was very careful not to criticize musicians who asked him for advice. He said very little, but what he said was carefully thought out. He wrote lots of letters to the authorities to try to help his friends. He was very reliable and always tried to arrive everywhere on time. He hated being five seconds late for anything. In his last years he found it very difficult to use his hands because of his illness but he always insisted on writing down his music himself.

## [edit] References

- The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians edited by Stanley Sadie (1980) ISBN 1-56159-174-2
- Shostakovich: A life Remembered by Elizabeth Wilson (1994) ISBN 0-571-17486-8

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Categories: Russian composers | 20th century composers | 1906 births | 1975 deaths

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