Origin

In Yekaterinburg Peter 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 Boleslaw 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) in the mid-90s went to St. Petersburg 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, recently 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's grandfather Dmitrievich Shostakovich on the maternal side, Vasily Kokoulin (1850-1911), was born, like Dmitry Boleslavovich, in Siberia; After graduating from the city school in Kirensk, at the end of the 60s 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 graduating, 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, and in September 1906, a son named Dmitry, and three years later - the youngest daughter, Zoya.

Childhood and youth

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,” the young Shostakovich declared his desire to take 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 a private music school of the then famous piano teacher I. A. Glyasser.

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 autumn of the same year, 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.

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, focusing on the latest trends in Western music of that time. An active participant in this circle also becomes Shostakovich, he meets composers B.V. Asafiev and V.V. Shcherbachev, conductor N.A. Malko. Shostakovich writes “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. And after a few months 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 during these years was provided by Glazunov, who managed to procure Shostakovich additional rations and personal stipend..

1920s

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 start writing the opera “The 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 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 the Third (“May Day” , to the words of S. I. Kirsanov).

In 1928 Shostakovich meets V. E. Meyerhold in Leningrad and, at his invitation, works 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

In the same 1936, the premiere of the 4th Symphony was supposed to take place - a work of much more monumental scope than all previous symphonies Shostakovich, combining tragic pathos with 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 4th Symphony was first performed only in 1961.

In May 1937 Shostakovich released the 5th Symphony - a work whose thoroughly dramatic character, in contrast to 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. Stalin commented on the release of the 5th Symphony on the pages of Pravda with the phrase: “The Soviet artist’s business-like creative response to fair criticism.” After the premiere of the work, a laudatory article was published in Pravda.

Since 1937 Shostakovich taught a composition class at the Leningrad State Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1939 he became a professor.

1940s

In a year Shostakovich writes the 8th Symphony (dedicated to Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Mravinsky) in which, as if following Mahler’s precept that “the whole world should be reflected in the symphony,” he paints a monumental fresco of what is happening around him.

In 1943, the composer moved to Moscow and until 1948 taught composition and instrumentation at the Moscow Conservatory (professor since 1943). 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 your innermost ideas, thoughts and feelings Shostakovich uses genres of chamber music. In this area, he created such masterpieces as Piano Quintet (1940), Piano Trio (1944), String Quartets No. 2 (1944), No. 3 (1946) and No. 4 (1949).

In 1945, after the end of the war, Shostakovich writes the 9th Symphony.

In 1948 he was accused of “formalism”, “bourgeois decadence” and “creeping before the West”. Shostakovich was accused of professional incompetence, deprived of the title of professor at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories and expelled from them. The main accuser was the secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A. A. Zhdanov. In 1948, he created 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, and its first performance took place only in 1955. Only 13 years later, Shostakovich returned to teaching work at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he supervised several graduate students, including V. Bibergan, G. Belov, V. Nagovitsyn, B. Tishchenko, V. Uspensky (1961-1968).

In 1949, Shostakovich wrote the cantata “Song of the Forests” - an example of the pathetic “grand style” of the official art of those times (based on the poems of E. A. Dolmatovsky, which tells the story of the triumphant post-war restoration of the Soviet Union). The premiere of the cantata is an unprecedented success and brings Shostakovich Stalin Prize.

1950s

In 1954 he wrote the “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 and uncharacteristic Shostakovich previously joyful playfulness. These are the 6th String Quartet (1956), the Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1957), and the operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki”. In the same year, the composer creates the 11th Symphony, calling it “1905”, and continues to work in the instrumental concert genre: First Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1959).

During these years the rapprochement begins Shostakovich with official authorities. 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

After the removal of N. S. Khrushchev from power, with the beginning of the era of political stagnation in the USSR, the tone of Shostakovich’s works again acquired a gloomy character. 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 uses 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

In the last few years of his life, the composer was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. Dmitry Shostakovich died in Moscow on August 9, 1975 and was buried, contrary to his will, at the capital's Novodevichy cemetery (plot No. 2).

Wife - Shostakovich Nina Vasilievna (nee Varzar) (1909-1954)

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

The Meaning of Creativity

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

Music

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.

In creativity D. D. Shostakovich the influence of the composers he loved and revered is noticeable: J. S. Bach (in his fugues and passacaglias), 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 M. P. Mussorgsky, for his operas “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina” Shostakovich made new orchestrations. 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.

Major works

• 15 symphonies
• Operas: “The Nose”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (“Katerina Izmailova”), “The Players” (finished by K. Meyer)
• Ballets: “The Golden Age” (1930), “Bolt” (1931) and “Bright Stream” (1935)
• 15 string quartets
• Cycle "Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues", Op. 87 (1950-1951)
• Festive overture for the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition for the night light and music program of fountains (1954)
• Quintet
• Oratorio “Song of the Forests”
• Cantatas “The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland” and “The Execution of Stepan Razin”
• Anti-formalist paradise
• Concertos and sonatas for various instruments
• Romances and songs for voice with piano and symphony orchestra
• Operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki”
• Music for films: “Ordinary People” (1945), “The Young Guard” (1948), “The Capture of Berlin” (1949), “The Gadfly” (1955), “Hamlet” (1964), “Cheryomushki”, “King Lear” (1971).

Awards and prizes

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1966)
• Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942)
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947)
• People's Artist of the USSR (1954)
• Stalin Prize, first degree (1941) - for piano quintet
• Stalin Prize, first degree (1942) - for the 7th (“Leningrad”) symphony
• Stalin Prize, second degree (1946) - for the trio
• Stalin Prize, first degree (1950) - for the oratorio “Song of the Forests” and music for the film “The Fall of Berlin” (1949)
• Stalin Prize, second degree (1952) - for ten poems for unaccompanied choir based on poems by revolutionary poets (1951)
• Lenin Prize (1958) - for the 11th symphony “1905”
• USSR State Prize (1968) - for the poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin” for bass, choir and orchestra
• State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. I. Glinka (1974) - for the 14th string quartet and the choral cycle “Fidelity”
• State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR named after T. G. Shevchenko (1976 - posthumously) - for the opera “Katerina Izmailova”, staged on the stage of the KUGATOB named after T. G. Shevchenko
• International Peace Prize (1954)
• Prize named after J. Sibelius (1958)
• Leonie Sonning Award (1973)
• Three Orders of Lenin (1946, 1956, 1966)
• Order of the October Revolution (1971)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1940)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972)
• Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1958)
• Silver Commander's Cross of the Order of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1967)
• Medals
• Honorary diploma at the 1st International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1927).
• Prize of the 1st All-Union Film Festival for the best music for the film “Hamlet” (Leningrad, 1964).
• Membership in organizations[edit | edit wiki text]
• Member of the CPSU since 1960
• Doctor of Art History (1965)
• Member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since 1949), Slavic Committee of the USSR (since 1942), World Peace Committee (since 1968)
• Honorary member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters (1943), Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1954), Italian Academy of Arts "Santa Cecilia" (1956), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1965)
• Honorary Doctor of Music from Oxford University (1958)
• Honorary Doctorate from Northwestern University in Evanston (USA, 1973)
• Member of the French Academy of Fine Arts (1975)
• Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR (1956), the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (1968), member of the Royal Academy of Music of England (1958).
• Professor Emeritus of the Mexican Conservatory.
• President of the USSR-Austria Society (1958)
• Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th-9th convocations.
• Deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 2nd-5th convocations.

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich

Soviet composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and public figure. One of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich's work had a significant influence on the development of world musical culture.

Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942).
People's Artist of the RSFSR (1948).
People's Artist of the USSR (1954).
People's Artist of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1964).

Born on September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg.
He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in piano in 1923 (workshop of L.V. Nikolaev), in composition in 1925 (workshop of M.O. Steinberg). He worked as a pianist-illustrator in cinemas.

Author of 15 symphonies (1925-1971), a piano trio (1944), and a number of string quartets; operas "The Nose" (1928), "Katerina Izmailova" (2nd edition, 1956); ballet "The Golden Age" (1930), "Bolt" (1931); operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki" (1959), vocal-symphonic poem "The Execution of Stepan Razin" (1964), 10 poems for unaccompanied choir based on poems by Russian poets (1951), chamber works (including 15 string quartets, piano quintet, 24 preludes and fugues for piano).

In 1928 - head of the musical department of the Meyerhold Theater (Moscow), in 1930-1933 - Leningrad Theater of Working Youth. In 1943-1948 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, and since 1943 he has been a professor.
Since 1957 - Secretary of the Union of Composers of the USSR, since 1960 - of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR (in 1960-1968 - First Secretary).
Doctor of Art History (1965).

In the last few years of his life, the composer was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. Dmitry Shostakovich died in Moscow on August 9, 1975 and was buried at the capital's Novodevichy cemetery (site No. 2).

prizes and awards

Hero of Socialist Labor (1966).
Stalin Prize, first degree (1941) - for the piano quintet.
Stalin Prize, first degree (1942) - for the 7th (“Leningrad”) symphony.
Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946) - for the trio.
Stalin Prize, first degree (1950) - for the music for the film “Meeting on the Elbe” (1949).
Stalin Prize, second degree (1952) - for 10 poems for choir.
International Peace Prize (1954).
Lenin Prize (1958) - for the 11th symphony “1905”.
USSR State Prize (1968) - for the poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin” for bass, choir and orchestra.
Three Orders of Lenin (1946, 1956, 1966).
Order of the October Revolution (1971).
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1940).
Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972).
Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
Medal “In memory of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad” (1957).
State Prize of the RSFSR named after M.I. Glinka (1974) - for the 14th string quartet and the choral cycle “Fidelity”.
State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR named after T.G. Shevchenko (1976 - posthumously) - for the opera “Katerina Izmailova”, staged on the stage of the KUGATOB named after T.G. Shevchenko.
Silver Commander's Cross of the Order of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1967).
Prize of the 1st All-Union Film Festival for the best music for the film "Hamlet" (Leningrad, 1964).
Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1958).
Prize named after J. Sibelius (1958).
Leonie Sonning Award (1973).
Honorary diploma at the 1st International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1927).

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 middle... Read all

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. He saw it and excitedly told her fate in his 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 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 movements 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.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich(September 12, St. Petersburg - August 9, Moscow) - Russian Soviet composer, pianist, musical and public figure, doctor of art history, teacher, professor. In - gg. - Secretary of the Board of the Union of Composers of the USSR, in - Chairman of the Board of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR.

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 theatrical productions.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Shostakovich documentary / Shostakovich - Sketches for a portrait of the composer

✪ D. Shostakovich. Symphony No. 10. Conductor G. Rozhdestvensky (1982)

✪ “My Shostakovich” - documentary film (Russia, 2006)

✪ Shostakovich works on his piano trio, op. 67 (1944)

✪ To the 110th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Shostakovich

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Biography

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 Dombrowski. 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 evidence, on January 9, 1905, he took part in a 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 graduating, 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 musician’s unusual talent was noticed even earlier, during his tour in the USSR, by the famous German conductor Bruno Walter; upon hearing 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

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. Stalin commented on the premiere of the Fifth Symphony on the pages of Pravda 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

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.

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.

Many works of the second half of the decade are imbued with optimism. These are the Sixth String Quartet (), the Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (), 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). In those same years, Shostakovich's rapprochement with official authorities began. In 1957, he became secretary of the NC USSR, in 1960 - NC RSFSR (in 1960-1968 - first secretary). Also in 1960, Shostakovich joined the CPSU.

1960s

Also in 1962, Shostakovich visited (together with G. N. Rozhdestvensky, M. L. Rostropovich, G. P. Vishnevskaya and other famous 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 () and No. 12 (), Second Cello () and Second Violin () concerts, Violin Sonata (), vocal cycle to the words of A. A. Blok, are imbued with anxiety, pain and inescapable melancholy. In the Fourteenth Symphony () - 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 () and 15th () string quartets and Symphony No. 15, a work characterized by a pensive mood, 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, the premiere took place 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.

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). 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 musical quotation). Of the Russian composers, Shostakovich had the greatest love for Mussorgsky, for his operas “

short biography

Shostakovich Dmitry Dmitrievich (1904-1975). Russian composer, pianist, teacher, People's Artist of the USSR (1954), Doctor of Art History (1965), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966)

Shostakovich began playing music professionally at the age of 9. At first, his mother gave him piano lessons, then Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Music School of I. Glyasser. At the same time he began composing music. In 1919, Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Conservatory, where he studied two specialties at once: piano and composition. As his graduation work, he presented the First Symphony. In 1927, he entered graduate school in composition, and in the same year he took part in the 1st International Chopin Competition, held in Warsaw, where he received an honorary diploma.

Until the end of the 1930s. Shostakovich gave concerts throughout the country, and then became a teacher at the Leningrad Conservatory, and in parallel with this work, he also led a composition class at the Moscow Conservatory.

When World War II began, Shostakovich did not leave besieged Leningrad and until October 1941 he was composing the Seventh Symphony. Then he was evacuated to Kuibyshev. In 1943 he moved permanently to Moscow, where he directed graduate studies at the composition department of the Leningrad Conservatory. Shostakovich's merits are marked by the awarding of many honorary titles and awards to him.

Shostakovich's compositions reveal his creative individuality and unique musical style. Shostakovich achieved the highest mastery of all musical and expressive means, in particular polyphonic technique. 15 symphonies embody deep philosophical concepts and tragic conflicts.

Shostakovich made a great contribution to the development of musical theater. However, ill-wishers tried to do everything to prevent him from achieving success in this field: the newspaper Pravda published critical articles in which the composer’s experiments in this area were assessed very biasedly. Shostakovich is the author of the operas “The Nose” (based on Gogol’s story), “Katerina Izmailova”, “The Players”, ballets “The Golden Age”, “Bolt”, “Bright Stream” as well as cantata-oratorio works, quartets, instrumental concertos, sonatas, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, music for the films “Gadfly”, “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, etc.

Shostakovich's music is a reflection of the era

It is not the consciousness of people that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness. - Karl Marx.

Our twentieth century turned out to be more cruel than all previous ones, and its horrors were not limited to the first fifty years. - Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Let those who have ears hear in the music of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich a truthful and reliable reflection of his life and time. Yes, notes are not words, but for Shostakovich music is a story about an experience: in his works, an eventful time is presented with that realism and sharpness that is so characteristic of the age of cinema and photography. And at the same time, the composer was not just a music reporter: he received a musical education in the reliable traditions of the old masters, and those enduring values ​​that he himself later sought to express in sounds forever entered his flesh and blood.

According to one contemporary, “the philosophical power of Shostakovich’s works is enormous, and who knows, perhaps in the future our descendants will be able, by listening to them, to comprehend the spirit of our time more deeply than through dozens of weighty volumes.” Getting to know the personality of the composer from his music, full of nervous tension, humor and tragic strength, we feel in it a tough, heroic and yet deeply personal and reverent response to the challenge of a difficult and dangerous time and sympathy for humanity, overflowing, but in no way sentimental .

There is no country that suffered more in the twentieth century than Russia, and, belonging to this “great and tragic people” (as G. Wells called the Russians), Shostakovich was formed as a person during the years of war and deep social upheaval. It is therefore not at all surprising that one of his first experiments in composition was the large play Soldiers. “Here a soldier is shooting,” ten-year-old Dmitry wrote in the score, which contained “a lot of illustrative material and verbal explanations.”

In 1917, the revolutionary year, he composed the Funeral March in memory of the victims of the revolution, inspired by a mass demonstration in memory of the fallen in Petrograd, in which the young musician and his family participated. That same year, Shostakovich experienced a deep shock, which was later reflected in his music: during the suppression of mass riots, a Cossack killed a boy, apparently just for stealing an apple. He recreated this incident in one of the passages in the Second Symphony: the listener also has to experience all the cruelty of this short scene. “I have not forgotten this boy. And I will never forget,” Shostakovich later said to his young friend Solomon Volkov.

From his parents and from newspapers, Shostakovich knew about the shooting of a peaceful demonstration by tsarist troops on Palace Square in January 1905, an event that is generally considered to be the beginning of Russia’s path to revolution and the overthrow of the autocracy. In the Eleventh Symphony (1957), Shostakovich talks about his shock at this event as vividly as if it were still before his eyes. And in the first part of this symphony, where the soulful songs of political prisoners are heard, the spirit of the oppressed working-class Russia, anxiously calling to us from the abyss, is truly expressed. (Like Dickens or Dostoevsky, Shostakovich had an innate capacity for compassion for humiliated and insulted humanity.) Battle fanfare and drumming, the rhythms of funeral marches, painful, pensive melody, insane frenzy, ferocious outbursts of fierce rage - these are just some of the sound images of military documentary style of Shostakovich.

Already at the very beginning of his journey in music, Dmitry found a way out of his spiritual need to vividly respond to the topic of the day. During his student years, he earned some money for his desperate family by playing the piano in a movie theater. The experience gained then, although it was not pleasant 1 , later reflected in his creative style - both realistic (in the sense of imitating the sounds of real life) and full of hints, allusions, appeals to music of a variety of genres and directions with which his audience might be familiar.

An equally characteristic feature of this simple and at the same time complex music is its irony and dark humor, based on the contradiction between the light, carefree style and the deep tragedy of what is depicted. This contradiction is inherent in both of his operas - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and The Nose. And not only operas, but also symphonic and instrumental works. Much of their outward fun hides pain. Such is the “light” music of the “small” Ninth Symphony, which displeased Stalin, who expected to hear something written in the majestic tradition of the ninth symphonies - heroic, monumental - to worthily mark the end of the war. Such is the dashing xylophone solo in the Fourteenth Symphony, which paints an image of the compassionate, self-sacrificing sister of a young soldier about to die.

Living under the yoke of a totalitarian state, striving to adapt the work of artists to the “correct” party worldview, Shostakovich had to learn to hide his experiences and not show too much romantic “subjectivity”, forbidden in a “collectivist” society. The cheerful rhythms of the musical themes seem optimistic, but their string-tight notes sometimes express completely different feelings. To verify this, it is enough to carry out a simple experiment and try to whistle the “cheerful” opening theme of the Fifteenth Symphony.

However, it cannot be said that Shostakovich always saw only the dark side of life (although rays of sunshine appear in his music no more often than through the clouds over Leningrad). On the contrary, bursts of folk humor, galloping hopak rhythms, which so abound in his dance finales, and a manic, sometimes gloomy, addiction to repetition for the sake of repetition sometimes make the composer look like a Russian Chaplin, ready to play the fool, no matter what. (Chaplin’s realism, full of humor and pathos, balancing on the edge of fantasy in the style of Gogol, was very close to the composer and his entire generation).

Shostakovich, unlike his great contemporaries Solzhenitsyn or Pasternak, was not a dissident. Having dedicated his talent as a composer to the ideals of the Russian Revolution and the state it gave birth to, he was always at the center of the country's political life, willingly accepted honorary official positions, and in 1960 became a member of the Communist Party. At the same time, again and again he had to listen to criticism addressed to him, fair and unfair, petty and condescending, but the composer always remained true to himself, his listeners and performers. He had no doubt about the high mission of music, about its urgency for his compatriots, whose entire life, spiritual and social, had the revolution as its source. And although there were times when Shostakovich, to the displeasure of more radical opponents of the regime, seemed to grovel at the feet of cultural watchdogs, the composer’s voice remained - and could not help but remain - his own.

Before Stalin came to power, the young composer, sensitive to everything new, wrote music that sounded no less bold than what was then appearing in the West. The twenties were an exciting time of ferment and experimentation in art in Russia, and the creative Leningrad of 1927-1928 was strongly influenced by new foreign music. Both Lenin and his highly educated People's Commissar of Culture and Enlightenment, Anatoly Lunacharsky, encouraged freedom in the arts as long as it did not conflict with the goals of the new society. The denial of traditional methods and views has become fashionable. The poet Mayakovsky called for “spitting out the past,” considering it “a bone stuck in the throat”; Malevich (who created the “Composition with the Mona Lisa” back in 1914) painted his “Black Square”, perceived as a negation of classical art; Rodchenko based his work on circles and lines - “constructions”; the technique of photomontage was discovered in photography, and in cinematography (or “cinema”) the star of the brilliant Eisenstein rose; finally, Meyerhold's theater became a real arsenal of avant-garde techniques. All these trends of thought and art of the late twenties had a great influence on Shostakovich, who shared the rebellious sentiments of his colleagues. His former teachers from the conservatory did not understand anything that the young composer wrote during these years.

And then Stalin came to power and quickly put an end to this “meaningless art”, replacing it with the doctrine of “socialist realism”, which demanded, among other things, that Soviet art reflect reality and focus on achieving the Great Goal. The Soviet symphony was entrusted with a historical mission, and composers had to breathe new life into music of monumental forms, which, according to ideologists, was becoming increasingly difficult to create in Western capitalist society. The works of Beethoven were considered an example of such music.

Shostakovich, who, together with his close friend Sollertinsky, had thoroughly studied the symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner, was able to fulfill this requirement. In his Fifth Symphony, written after his first serious fall from grace (immediately following Stalin's visit to the production of Lady Macbeth in January 1936), the composer showed his inherent gift for depicting large-scale conflicts in a new, accessible, post-Mahlerian style. By creating music of majestic, epic simplicity, he immediately established himself as a worthy successor to Beethoven, Mahler and Tchaikovsky. And it was this component of his talent that primarily provided him with wide international recognition.

In his “heroic” symphonies, Shostakovich, trying to express a new social consciousness, actually applied the socio-historical principles of Hegel and Marx. Starting with the Fourth Symphony (which he did not allow to be played for more than twenty-five years), these works reflected such philosophical constructs as the unity of opposites and the dialectic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. At the same time, the composer's music was never cold and abstract; it sought to embrace life in all its contradictory manifestations. Man always remained at the center of his works.

During the Second World War (or the Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Russia), Shostakovich's music expressed the thoughts and feelings of a country that was again hit by heavy losses and destruction, although they are said to be incomparable to the losses from Stalin's repressions. Shostakovich’s so-called “war” symphonies - the Seventh and especially the Eighth - were a direct expression of the spirit of the fighting people, but they also contain persistent reflections on the forces of Evil, the personification of which for all those who suffered under the Stalinist regime was not only Hitler. (After all, according to Solomon Volkov, the Seventh Symphony was conceived long before the siege of Leningrad - as a response to Stalin’s terror.)

The symphony dedicated to Leningrad became a symbol of the heroic spirit of this city, which was under siege for 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During this time, about a million people died from starvation and enemy bombing. The Eighth Symphony, written during the same years, was another work of heroic proportions, full of ominous images of mechanized warfare. Its final movement is very different from the finale of the Seventh Symphony: the music gradually stops, and silence sets in, permeated with bitterness and despair. Therefore, it caused conflicting assessments in official circles.

As soon as the war ended, Stalin's repressions resumed, and in 1948, at the infamous party conference chaired by Zhdanov, Shostakovich, along with Prokofiev and several other composers, was again condemned. Neither the Eighth nor the Ninth Symphonies were welcomed; and Shostakovich wisely kept silent about the fact that the next one was already ready (by that time he had already written his serious works only “on the table”), and dutifully began composing music for films.

After Stalin's death, the opportunity to breathe freely arose again. On December 17, 1953, Shostakovich finally presented the long-awaited Tenth Symphony - his most personal work at that time, in which darkness is replaced by light, and oppressive melancholy by a joyful, upbeat mood. A truly happy ending is finally possible!

We can say that Shostakovich’s initials are encrypted in this symphony. (The first letters of his first and last name - D(mitrу) Sch(оstakovitsch) - correspond in German to the names of musical notes - D, E-flat, C and B.) And it is very opportune that the symphony was first performed in Leningrad, the composer's hometown, at the end of the festivities on the occasion of his two hundred and fifty birthday. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that this work, like the Leningrad Symphony, was a copy of its time.

After Stalin's death, the country gradually entered a period of cultural thaw: contacts with the West were renewed, visits were exchanged, and some new trends in Western music were cautiously welcomed - although cultural ideologists could never be sure that everything would not turn upside down after another contradictory statement from the capricious and peasant Khrushchev. A new word came into use - “rehabilitation”, and again one could hear two of Shostakovich’s forbidden works: the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (renamed Katerina Izmailova) and the Fourth Symphony (which the composer himself withdrew from performance in 1936). Both at home and abroad, the impression they made was stunning and was only intensified by their long ban. Both works have stood the test of time brilliantly.

The Thaw continued, and after creating two works dedicated to the October Revolution, the Eleventh and Twelfth Symphonies (1957 and 1961, respectively), Shostakovich, in collaboration with the young poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, dared to introduce words into a symphony for the first time since 1929. In his Eighth Quartet, written after a trip to war-ravaged Dresden, Shostakovich exposed the atrocities of fascism; Now he spoke out against the same evil in Russian society itself, convincingly demonstrating the incompatibility of patriotism and anti-Semitism, celebrating human rebellion and admiring the attitude of Galileo, Shakespeare, Pasteur and Tolstoy, who stood up for the truth, regardless of the consequences.

The deeply Russian style of the symphony brought it particular popularity: at the premiere it was greeted with wild applause, but immediately fell out of favor with the authorities. Having taken advantage of some liberalization and donning the mask of a holy fool (that is, a traditional “clown saint” who is allowed to tell unpleasant truths to the ruler), Shostakovich nevertheless crossed the line of what was permitted. (By the way, the jester from King Lear was one of his favorite literary characters, and the composer was happy to set this play to music. Its premiere took place in Leningrad in 1941.)

After this, Shostakovich turned to more personal themes in his music. Yes, and before, in addition to symphonies, he had many works of an intimate, confessional nature. The string quartets (and Shostakovich had written eight of them by that time) became a kind of diary in which the composer recorded his innermost, deeply personal experiences. (It is symbolic that quartets No. 7 and 9 were dedicated to very close people: the first - in memory of the early deceased first wife Nina Vasilievna, and the second - to the third wife Irina Suprinskaya.) These quartets, as well as some other very intimate and “non-ideologized” works, for example, two cello concertos fully reveal the nature of this strange and complex person - taciturn, expansive, withdrawn and manically sociable, capable of compassion and cruelty. Their moods are unclear and mysterious. And yet these works - as always with Shostakovich - are invariably united by a sense of structural unity, classical proportionality and continuity. The composer's music expresses the spirit of Peter the Great's architectural symphony, imprinted in stone - the spirit of St. Petersburg.

The Soviet cultural bureaucracy showered honors and awards on the sick and decrepit musician, but did not entirely approve of him, although they were proud of their only brilliant composer who had received undeniable international recognition (Prokofiev, Shostakovich’s only rival, ironically died on the same day as Stalin ). And the composer himself was overcome by grave forebodings of approaching death. The horror and loneliness of man in the later quartets, especially in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth, the sad triumph of the almighty figure of death in the Fourteenth Symphony, the road to eternity in the Viola Sonata (the last composition he completed) and, finally, a farewell in the spirit of Prospero in the last completed symphony (in much like a retrospective of many of his earlier achievements) with its acute awareness of the inevitable end - all these are motives that came from the soul of a man who, like Mahler in the gloomy last trilogy, needed to come to terms with the inevitability of the end of physical existence. In these energetic and technically perfect works there is neither heroism nor self-pity, but rather the ability to think, to firmly state the inevitability of our common fate, and even humor - after all, Shostakovich could joke with a creepy, bony old woman, as he already showed in The second cello concerto is a work that does not offer illusory consolation in a world full of sadness. In all these later works, in addition to the all-pervasive motif of the funeral march, the medieval image of the “danse macabre”, the Tometanz, so beloved by Liszt and the romantics of the last century, which fascinated the young Shostakovich in his early Aphorisms for piano, is constantly repeated.

As the end approached, the only consolation left for the composer was the knowledge that what he had done would survive mortal flesh and tell posterity about himself and about time. Shostakovich's art became more and more like a monumental epitaph. In the last song of Michelangelo's Poems, the composer, to the accompaniment of the piccolo flute, a child's symbol of immortality, playing a short dance, says through the mouth of the Renaissance poet:

I seem to be dead, but the world is a consolation

I live in the hearts of thousands of souls

To all who love, and that means I am not dust,

And mortal decay will not touch me

And Shostakovich lives. Like Goya, Dickens, Tolstoy or Pasternak, he belongs to his time and to all times at once. More than the work of any twentieth-century composer since Mahler, his works, especially the symphonies of his mature period, the Fifth through the Thirteenth, bear comparison with the music of Beethoven in their revolutionary idealism and boundless humanism. And like Beethoven, he also left a will - his last quartets. Soviet society and politics largely determined the phenomenon of Shostakovich, an artist who had to constantly overcome the restrictions of the authorities; but he owes his unique creative personality, human individuality, “everything good in himself,” as the composer once said in an official speech, to his father and mother.