Dmitry Shostakovich short biography. Dmitry Shostakovich short biography

The name of D. D. Shostakovich is known all over the world. He is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. His music sounds in all countries of the world, it is listened to and loved by millions of people of different nationalities.
Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg. His father, a chemical engineer, worked in the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures. Mother was a gifted pianist.
From the age of nine, the boy began to play the piano. In the fall of 1919, Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Conservatory. The young composer's diploma work was the First Symphony. Her resounding success - first in the USSR, then in foreign countries - marked the beginning of the creative path of a young, brightly gifted musician.

Shostakovich's work is inseparable from his contemporary era, from the great events of the 20th century. With tremendous dramatic force and captivating passion, he captured grandiose social conflicts. In his music, images of peace and war, light and darkness, humanity and hatred collide.
Military 1941-1942 years. In the "iron nights" of Leningrad, illuminated by the explosions of bombs and shells, the Seventh Symphony appears - "The Symphony of All-Conquering Courage," as it was called. It was performed not only in our country, but also in the United States, France, England and other countries. During the war years, this work strengthened the belief in the triumph of light over the fascist darkness, truth over the black lies of Hitler's fanatics.

The time of the war was leaving the past. Shostakovich writes Song of the Forests. The crimson glow of fires replaces a new day of peaceful life - the music of this oratorio speaks about it. And after her appear choral poems, preludes and fugues for piano, new quartets, symphonies.

The content reflected in Shostakovich's works required new means of expression, new artistic techniques. He found these tools and techniques. His style is distinguished by a deep individual originality, genuine innovation. The remarkable Soviet composer was one of those artists who follow unbeaten paths, enriching art, expanding its possibilities.
Shostakovich wrote a huge number of works. Among them - fifteen symphonies, concerts for piano, violin and cello with orchestra, quartets, trios and other chamber instrumental compositions, the vocal cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry, the opera Katerina Izmailova based on Leskov's novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, ballets , operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki". He belongs to the music for the films "Golden Mountains", "Counter", "Great Citizen", "Man with a Gun", "Young Guard", "Meeting on the Elbe", "Gadfly", "Hamlet" and others. The song on poems by B. Kornilov from the film "The Counter" - "The morning greets us with coolness."

Shostakovich also led an active social life and fruitful pedagogical work.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born on September 25 (September 12, old style) 1906 in St. Petersburg. Father - Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich (1875-1922) - worked in the Chamber of Weights and Measures. Mother - Sofya Vasilievna (Kokoulina, 1878-1955) - graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory and from early childhood instilled a love of music in her son.
The first music lessons were given to Dmitry by his mother, and already in 1915 his serious musical training began from the beginning at the Commercial Gymnasium of Maria Shidlovskaya and from 1916 at the private school of I.A. Glasser. His first experiments in composing music date back to this time. In 1919 he entered the Petrograd Conservatory. After the death of his father in 1922, Dmitry had to look for work. He moonlights as a pianist in a cinema and continues his studies. During this period, the director of the conservatory A.K. Glazunov. In 1923 he graduated from the conservatory in the piano class, and in 1925 in the composition class, but continued his postgraduate studies, combining with teaching. His diploma work was the First Symphony, which brought Shostakovich worldwide fame. The first performance of the symphony abroad took place in 1927 in Germany. In the same year, at the International Chopin Pianist Competition, he received an honorary diploma.
In 1936, Stalin attended the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, after which a critical article entitled “Confusion Instead of Music” was published in the newspaper Pravda. A number of the composer's works fall under the ban, which will be canceled only in the sixties. This pushes Shostakovich to abandon the operatic genre. The release of the composer's Fifth Symphony in 1937 was commented on by Stalin with the words: "The business creative response of a Soviet artist to fair criticism." Since 1939 Shostakovich has been a professor at the Leningrad Conservatory. The war finds Dmitry Dmitrievich in Leningrad, where he begins to write the Seventh ("Leningrad") Symphony. The first performance took place in Kuibyshev in 1942, and in August of the same year in Leningrad. For this symphony, Shostakovich received the Stalin Prize. Since 1943 he has been teaching in Moscow.
In 1948, a Politburo resolution was issued, in which prominent Soviet composers: Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and others were subjected to sharp criticism. And as a consequence, the accusation of incompetence and deprivation of the titles of professor of the Leningrad and Moscow conservatories. During this period Shostakovich “wrote on the table” the musical play “Antiformalist Paradise”, in which he ridiculed Stalin and Zhdanov and the Politburo resolution. The play was performed for the first time only in 1989 in Washington. Nevertheless, Shostakovich demonstrates submissiveness to the authorities and thus avoids more serious consequences. Writes music for the film "Young Guard". And already in 1949 he was even released in the United States as part of a delegation in defense of peace, and in 1950 he received the Stalin Prize for the cantata "Song of the Forests". But he returned to teaching only in 1961, studying with several graduate students at the Leningrad Conservatory.
Shostakovich was married three times. He lived with his first wife Nina Vasilievna (Varzar, 1909-1954) until her death in 1954. They had two children, Maxim and Galina. The second marriage with Margarita Kainova quickly disintegrated. Dmitry Dmitriev lived with his third wife Irina Antonovna (Suspinskaya, born in 1934) until his death. He had children only from his first marriage.
In many European academies and in the United States, Shostakovich was an honorary member (Royal Academy of Music of Great Britain, French Academy of Fine Arts, National Academy of the United States and others).
In the last years of his life, Shostakovich struggled with lung cancer. Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975 in Moscow. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

D.D. Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg. This event in the family of Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofia Vasilievna Shostakovich took place on September 25, 1906. The family was very musical. The mother of the future composer was a talented pianist and gave piano lessons to beginners. Despite the serious profession of an engineer, Dmitry's father simply adored music and sang a little himself.

Home concerts were often held in the house in the evenings. This played a huge role in the formation and development of Shostakovich as a person and a true musician. He presented his debut work, a piano piece, at the age of nine. By the age of eleven, he already had several. And at the age of thirteen he entered the Petrograd Conservatory for the class of composition and piano.

Youth

Young Dmitry devoted all his time and energy to music lessons. He was described as an exceptional talent. He did not just compose music, but forced listeners to immerse themselves in it, experience its sounds. He was especially admired by the director of the conservatory A.K. Glazunov, who later, after the sudden death of his father, procured a personal scholarship for Shostakovich.

However, the family's financial situation left much to be desired. And the fifteen-year-old composer went to work as a musical illustrator. The main thing in this amazing profession was improvisation. And he improvised beautifully, composing real musical pictures on the go. From 1922 to 1925, he changed three cinemas, and this invaluable experience remained with him forever.

Creation

For children, the first acquaintance with the musical heritage and a short biography of Dmitry Shostakovich takes place at school. They know from music lessons that symphony is one of the most difficult genres of instrumental music.

Dmitry Shostakovich composed his first symphony at the age of 18, and in 1926 it was performed on the big stage in Leningrad. And a few years later it was performed in concert halls in America and Germany. It was an incredible success.

However, after the conservatory, Shostakovich was still faced with the question of his future fate. He could not decide on his future profession: author or performer. For a while, he tried to combine one with the other. Until the 30s, he performed solo. Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky often sounded in his repertoire. And in 1927 he received an honorary diploma at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

But over the years, despite the growing fame of a talented pianist, Shostakovich abandoned this kind of activity. He rightly believed that she was a real hindrance to the composition. In the early 30s, he was looking for his own unique style and experimented a lot. He tried his hand at everything: opera ("The Nose"), songs ("Song of the Counter"), music for cinema and theater, piano pieces, ballets ("Bolt"), symphonies ("May Day").

Other biography options

• Every time Dmitry Shostakovich was about to get married, his mother would certainly interfere. So, she did not allow him to connect his life with Tanya Glivenko, the daughter of a famous linguist. She also did not like the composer's second darling, Nina Vazar. Due to her influence and his doubts, he did not appear at his own wedding. But, fortunately, after a couple of years they made up and again went to the registry office. In this marriage, a daughter, Galya, and a son, Maxim, were born.
• Dmitry Shostakovich was a gambling card player. He himself said that once in his youth he won a large sum of money, for which he later bought a cooperative apartment.
• Before his death, the great composer was ill for many years. The doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis. Later it turned out that it was a tumor. But it was too late to heal. Dmitry Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975.

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

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

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

Origin

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

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 the "Land and Freedom". After graduating from the gymnasium, at the end of 1862, he went to Moscow, following the Kazan "landowners" Yu. M. Mosolov and NM Shatilov; worked in the management of the Nizhny Novgorod railway, took an active part in organizing the escape from prison of the revolutionary Yaroslav Dombrovsky. In 1865 Boleslav Shostakovich returned to Kazan, but already in 1866 he was arrested, taken 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 in Siberia; lived in Tomsk, in 1872-1877 - in Narym, where on October 11, 1875 his son was born, named Dmitry, then in Irkutsk, 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 preferred 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 Physics and Mathematics Faculty 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. By the beginning of the 20th century, participation in the revolutionary movement in the Shostakovich family had already become a tradition, and Dmitry was no exception: according to family testimonies, on January 9, 1905, he participated in the procession to the Winter Palace, and later proclamations were printed in his apartment.

The maternal grandfather of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Vasily Kokulin (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 cheap goods for them, built warm barracks. His wife, Alexandra Petrovna Kokoulina, opened a school for workers' children; there is no information about her education, but it is known that in Bodaibo she organized an amateur orchestra, widely known in Siberia.

The youngest daughter of the Kokoulins, Sofya Vasilievna (1878-1955) inherited love for music from her mother: she studied piano playing under the guidance of her mother and at the Irkutsk Institute for Noble Maidens, and after graduation, following her older brother Yakov, she went to the capital and was admitted to St. Conservatory, where she studied first with SA Malozyomova, and then with AA Rozanova. Yakov Kokulin studied at the natural sciences department of the physics and mathematics faculty of St. Petersburg University, where he met his fellow countryman Dmitry Shostakovich; brought their love of music closer. As an excellent singer, Yakov introduced Dmitry Boleslavovich to his sister Sophia, and in February 1903 their wedding took place. In October of the same year, the young couple had a daughter, Maria, in September 1906, a son named Dmitry, and three years later, their youngest daughter, Zoya.

Childhood and youth

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born in house number 2 on Podolskaya Street, where DI Mendeleev in 1906 rented the first floor for the City Test Tent.

In 1915, Shostakovich entered the Maria Shydlovskaya Commercial Gymnasium, and his first serious musical impressions date back to the same time: after attending a performance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, young Shostakovich announced his desire to take music seriously. The first piano lessons were given to him by his mother, and after several months of studies Shostakovich was able to begin his studies at a private music school of the well-known 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 next year, the young musician was listened to by A.K. Glazunov, 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 under N.A.Sokolov, while also conducting in parallel. At the end of 1919, Shostakovich wrote his first major orchestral work - Fis-moll Scherzo.

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 the time. Shostakovich also became an active participant in this circle, he met the composers B.V. Asafiev and V.V. Shcherbachev, the 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 particular zeal, despite the difficulties of that time: the First World War, revolution, civil war, devastation, famine. There was no heating in the conservatory in winter, transport was bad, and many people threw music and skipped classes. Shostakovich, however, "gnawed the granite of science." Almost every night he could be seen at concerts of the Petrograd Philharmonic Society, which reopened in 1921.

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

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 graduate school of the Conservatory, he taught reading scores at the Musorgsky Music College. Traditionally dating back to Rubinstein, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, Shostakovich intended to pursue a career both as a concert pianist and as a composer. In 1927, at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, where Shostakovich also performed a sonata of his own composition, he received an honorary diploma. Fortunately, the famous German conductor Bruno Walter noticed the unusual talent of the musician even earlier, during his tours in the USSR; on 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 took place in Shostakovich's life. In January, the Austrian composer of the Novovensk 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 of N.V. Gogol. Another important event was Shostakovich's acquaintance with II Sollertinsky, who, during his many years of friendship with the composer, enriched Shostakovich with an acquaintance with the work of the great composers of the past and present.

At the same time, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the following two symphonies by Shostakovich were written - both with the participation of the chorus: Second ( "Symphonic dedication to October", to the words of A. I. Bezymensky) and the 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 section of the Leningrad TRAM (now the theater "Baltic House").

1930s

His opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District based on the novel by NS Leskov (written in 1930-1932, staged in Leningrad in 1934), initially received with enthusiasm, having already existed on stage for a season and a half, was defeated in the Soviet press ( article "Muddle instead of music" in the newspaper "Pravda" on January 28, 1936).

In the same 1936, the premiere of the Fourth Symphony was supposed to take place - works of a much more monumental scope than all previous symphonies by 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 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 the sonata form of the first movement, scherzo, adagio and the finale with externally triumphant end) and other "classic" elements. On the pages of Pravda, Stalin commented on the premiere of the Fifth Symphony with the phrase: "The business creative response of a Soviet artist to fair criticism."

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

1940s

D. Shostakovich, member of the volunteer fire brigade of the faculty of the Conservatory, on duty. Archived May 26, 2013.

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

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

In 1943, the composer moved to Moscow and until 1948 taught composition and instrumentation at the Moscow Conservatory (since 1943, professor). He taught V.D.Bibergan, R.S. Bunin, A.D. Gadzhiev, G.G. Galynin, O. A. Yevlakhov, K. A. Karaev, G. V. Sviridov (at the Leningrad Conservatory), B. I. Tishchenko, A. Mnatsakanyan (in graduate school of the Leningrad Conservatory), K. S. Khachaturian, B. A. Tchaikovsky, A. G. Chugaev.

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

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

Despite the accusations, Shostakovich, already in the year following the Resolution (1949), visited the United States as part of a delegation to the world conference in defense of peace, which was held in New York, and delivered a lengthy report at this conference, and the next year (1950) he received the Stalin's the prize for the cantata "Song of the Forests" (written in 1949) - an example of the pathetic "grand style" of official art of those times.

1950s

The fifties began for Shostakovich with very important work. Taking part as a member of the jury 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 inhabitant - J.S.Bach - that upon his arrival in Moscow he began to compose 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano.

In 1952 he wrote a cycle of plays "Dances of the Dolls" for piano without orchestra.

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

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

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

1960s

In 1961 Shostakovich performed the second part of his "revolutionary" symphonic dilogy: in tandem with the Eleventh Symphony "1905" he wrote Symphony No. 12 "1917"- a work of "pictorial" character (and in fact brings the symphonic genre closer to film music), where, like paints on a canvas, the composer draws musical pictures of Petrograd, Lenin's refuge on Lake Razliv and the October events themselves. Despite the pronounced "ideological" program, the Twelfth Symphony did not receive high-profile official recognition in the USSR and was not (unlike the Eleventh Symphony) awarded government prizes.

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

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

After NS Khrushchev was removed from power, with the beginning of the era of political stagnation in the USSR, Shostakovich's music again acquired a gloomy tone. His quartets No. 11 (1966) and No. 12 (1968), the Second Cello (1966) and the Second Violin (1967) concerts, the 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 a chamber one, for two solo singers and an orchestra consisting of one string and percussion - Shostakovich used verses by G. Apollinaire, R. M. Rilke, V. K. Kuchelbecker and F. Garcia Lorca, who are connected by one theme - death (they tell about an unjust, early or violent death).

1970s

During these years, the composer created vocal cycles based on poems by M. I. Tsvetaeva and Michelangelo, 13th (1969-1970), 14th (1973) and 15th (1974) string quartets and Symphony No. 15, a work that differs in mood reverie, 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 the overture by G. Rossini to the opera "Wilhelm Tell" and the theme of fate from the operatic tetralogy of R. Wagner "Ring of the Nibelungen", as well as musical allusions to the music of M. I. Glinka, G. Mahler and, finally , their own previously written music. The symphony was created in the summer of 1971 and premiered on January 8, 1972. The last work of Shostakovich 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 muscles of the legs. 1970-1971 he came to the city of Kurgan three times and spent a total of 169 days here undergoing treatment in the laboratory (at the Sverdlovsk Scientific Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics) of Dr. GA Ilizarov.

Dmitry Shostakovich died in Moscow on August 9, 1975, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery (plot number 2).

A family

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

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

Daughter - Galina Dmitrievna Shostakovich.

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

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

The value of creativity

The high level of composing technique, the ability to create bright and expressive melodies and themes, mastery of polyphony and the finest mastery of the art of orchestration, combined with personal emotionality and colossal efficiency, made his musical works bright, distinctive and of great artistic value. Shostakovich's contribution to the development of 20th century music is generally recognized as outstanding; he had a significant impact 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 filled and touching the hearts of musicians and music lovers all over the world.

In the work of D. D. Shostakovich, the influence of his beloved and revered composers is noticeable: J.S. Bach (in his fugues and passacals), L. Beethoven (in his later 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 method of musical quotation). Of the Russian composers, Shostakovich had the greatest love for 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.

Genres

The most notable genres in Shostakovich's work are symphonies and string quartets - in each of them he wrote 15 works. 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 - the Eighth and Fifteenth.

Specificity of the musical language

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

From the point of view of compositional technique, the dark, darkly condensed coloring of the minor scale in Shostakovich is realized, first of all, in 4-step scales in the volume of a reduced fourth ("hemiquarts"), which is symbolically contained in the very monogram of Shostakovich DSCH ( es-h in d-es-c-h). On the basis of a 4-step hemiquart, the composer builds 8- and 9-step frets in the range of a reduced octave ("hemioctaves"). Shostakovich's music does not distinguish any one, especially preferred, type of hemi-octave mode, since the author creatively combines hemiquarta with different diatonic and mixodiatonic scales from composition to composition.

Common to all varieties of "Shostakovich's modes" is the unmistakable ear identification of reduced fourths and octaves in the context of the minor scale. Examples of hemi-octave modes (of different structure): Prelude for piano cis-moll, II movement of the Ninth Symphony, the theme of the Passacaglia from "Katerina Izmailova" (intermission to the 5th scene) and many others. dr.

Very rarely Shostakovich also resorted to the serial technique (as, for example, in the first part of the Fifteenth Symphony), used clusters as a means of coloring ("illustration" of a blow to the jaw in the romance "Sincere Confession", op. 121, No. 1, vols. 59-64 ).

Compositions (sample)

• Symphonies No. 5, 7, 8, 11 (total 15)
• Operas "The Nose" and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" ("Katerina Izmailova")
• Ballets "Golden Age", "Bolt" and "Bright Stream"
• Oratorio "Song of the Forests"
• Cantata "Execution of Stepan Razin"
• Concerts (two each) for piano, violin, cello and orchestra
• Chamber instrumental music, including 15 string quartets, Piano Quintet, Piano Trio No. 2 (in memory of Sollertinsky)
• Chamber vocal music, including "Antiformalistic paradise", cycle "From Jewish folk poetry", Suite on verses by Michelangelo (for bass and piano)
• "24 preludes and fugues for piano", "Seven dances of dolls", "Three fantastic dances" and other piano compositions
• Music for films (35 in total), including Song of the Counter (from the music for the film “Counter”), Romance (from the music for the film “The Gadfly”), for the film “Hamlet”, music for drama performances
• Operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki"
• "Tahiti trot", for orchestra (based on the song "Tea for two" by V. Yumens)

Awards, honorary titles and prizes

• Hero of Socialist Labor (09.24.1966)
• Three Orders of Lenin (28.12.1946; 24.09.1956; 24.09.1966)
• Order of the October Revolution (07/02/1971)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (05/23/1940)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972)
• Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942)
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947)
• People's Artist of the USSR (1954)
• People's Artist of the BASSR (1964)
• Stalin Prize 1st degree (1941) - for the piano quintet
• Stalin Prize 1st degree (1942) - for the 7th ("Leningrad") symphony
• Stalin Prize 2nd degree (1946) - for a trio
• Stalin Prize 1st degree (1950) - for the oratorio "Song of the Forests" and the music for the film "The Fall of Berlin" (1949)
• Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (1952) - for ten unaccompanied poems for chorus to verses 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, chorus and orchestra
• State Prize of the RSFSR named after MI Glinka (1974) - for the 14 string quartet and the choral cycle "Faithfulness"
• State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR named after T.G. Shevchenko (1976 - posthumously) - for the opera "Katerina Izmailova", staged on the stage of the T. G. Shevchenko KUGATOB
• International Peace Prize (1954)
• Prize to them. J. Sibelius (1958)
• Leonie Sonning Prize (1973)
• Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1958)
• Silver Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of 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

• Member of the CPSU since 1960
• Doctor of Arts (1965)
• Member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since 1949), the Slavic Committee of the USSR (since 1942), the World Peace Committee (since 1968)
• Honorary Member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters (1943), the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1954), the Italian Academy of Arts "Santa Cecilia" (1956), the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (1965)

Shostakovich Street, Samara. The composer worked in house No. 5 during the war. On the left is the building of the Institute of Culture

• Honorary Doctor of Music, Oxford University (1958)
• Honorary Doctor of 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), a member of the British Royal Academy of Music (1958).
• Honorary Professor of the Mexican Conservatory.
• President of the "USSR-Austria" society (1958)
• Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6-9th convocations.
• Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of the 2-5th convocations.

Memory

• St. Petersburg State Philharmonic named after D. D. Shostakovich
• On May 28, 2015, the first monument to D.D.Shostakovich in Moscow was unveiled in front of the Moscow International House of Music.
• A street in the north of St. Petersburg was named in memory of D. D. Shostakovich in 1977. A monument to D.D.Shostakovich was erected on it in 2009. It is complemented by music written by the composer, broadcast through the speakers.
• Novorossiysk College of Music D. D. Shostakovich.
• Since 1996, the Yuri Bashmet International Charitable Foundation has awarded the annual Dmitry Shostakovich Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of world musical art.
• Kurgan College of Music D. D. Shostakovich.

To the cinema

In 1988, the British feature film Testimony was released based on the book of the same name by Solomon Volkov, based, according to the author, on the memoirs of Shostakovich recorded by him. The role of the composer was performed by Ben Kingsley.

Childhood and family of Dmitry Shostakovich

Dmitry Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. His parents were from Siberia, where the grandfather (on the paternal side) of the future composer was exiled for his participation in the People's Will movement.

The boy's father, Dmitry Boleslavovich, was a chemical engineer and a passionate music lover. Mother - Sofya Vasilievna, studied at the conservatory at one time, was a good pianist and piano teacher for beginners.

In the family, besides Dmitry, two more girls grew up. Mitya's older sister Maria later became a pianist, and the younger Zoya became a veterinarian. When Mitya was 8 years old, the First World War began. Listening to the constant conversations of adults about the war, the little boy wrote his first piece of music "Soldier".

In 1915, Mitya was sent to study at the gymnasium. During the same period, the boy became seriously interested in music. His mother became his first teacher, and a few months later little Shostakovich began his studies at the music school of the famous teacher I.A.Glyasser.

In 1919 Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Conservatory. His piano teachers were A. Rozanova and L. Nikolaev. Dmitry graduated from the conservatory in two classes at once: in 1923 in piano, and two years later in composition.

Creative activity of the composer Dmitry Shostakovich

The first significant work of Shostakovich was Symphony No. 1 - the diploma work of a graduate of the Conservatory. In 1926 the premiere of the symphony took place in Leningrad. Music critics started talking about Shostakovich as a composer who could make up for the loss of Sergei Rachmaninov, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev, who emigrated from the country by the Soviet Union.

The famous conductor Bruno Walter was delighted with the symphony and asked Shostakovich to send him the score of the work to Berlin.

On November 22, 1927, the premiere of the symphony took place in Berlin, and a year later in Philadelphia. The foreign premieres of Symphony No. 1 made the Russian composer world famous.

Inspired by his success, Shostakovich wrote the Second and Third Symphonies, the operas "The Nose" and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (based on the works of Nikolai Gogol and Nikolai Leskov).

Shostakovich. Waltz

Critics received Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District with almost enthusiasm, but the "leader of the peoples" did not like it. Naturally, a sharply negative article is immediately published - "Confusion instead of music." A few days later, another publication appeared - "Ballet Falsity", in which Shostakovich's ballet "The Bright Stream" was subjected to devastating criticism.

Shostakovich was saved from further troubles by the appearance of the Fifth Symphony, which Stalin himself commented: "The Soviet artist's response to fair criticism."

Leningrad Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich

The 1941 war found Shostakovich in Leningrad. The composer began work on the Seventh Symphony. The work, which received the name "Leningrad Symphony", was first performed on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev, where the composer was evacuated. Four days later, the symphony was performed in the Column Hall of the Moscow House of Unions.

Leningrad Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich

On August 9, the symphony was performed in besieged Leningrad. This work of the composer has become a symbol of the struggle against fascism and the resilience of the Leningraders.

The clouds are gathering again

Until 1948, the composer had no trouble with power. Moreover, he received several Stalin prizes and honorary titles.

But in 1948, in the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which spoke about the opera by the composer Vano Muradeli "Great Friendship", the music of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian was recognized as "alien to the Soviet people."

Submitting to the party dictates, Shostakovich "realizes his mistakes." In his work, works of a military-patriotic character appear and "friction" with the authorities ceases.

Personal life of Dmitry Shostakovich

According to the recollections of people close to the composer, Shostakovich was timid and insecure in dealing with women. His first love was a 10-year-old girl Natasha Kube, to whom 13-year-old Mitya dedicated a short musical prelude.

In 1923, the aspiring composer met his contemporary Tanya Glivenko. A seventeen-year-old boy fell madly in love with a beautiful, well-educated girl. The young people began a romantic relationship. Despite ardent love, Dmitry did not think to make Tatiana an offer. In the end, Glivenko married her other fan. Only three years after that, Shostakovich suggested that Tanya leave her husband and marry him. Tatyana refused - she was expecting a child and asked Dmitry to forget about her forever.

Realizing that he cannot return his beloved, Shostakovich marries Nina Varzar, a young student. Nina gave her husband a daughter and a son. They lived in marriage for more than 20 years, until the death of Nina.

After the death of his wife, Shostakovich married two more times. The marriage with Margarita Kayonova was short-lived, and the third wife, Irina Supinskaya, took care of the great composer until the end of his life.

Tatyana Glivenko became the composer's muse, to whom he dedicated his First Symphony and Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello.

The last years of Shostakovich's life

In the 70s of the XX century, the composer wrote vocal cycles based on poems by Marina Tsvetaeva and Michelangelo, 13, 14 and 15 string quartets and Symphony No. 15.

The last work of the composer was the Sonata for viola and piano.

At the end of his life Shostakovich suffered from lung cancer. In 1975, illness brought the composer to his grave.

Shostakovich was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Dmitry Shostakovich's awards

Shostakovich was not only scolded. From time to time he received government awards. By the end of his life, the composer had accumulated a significant number of orders, medals and honorary titles. He was a hero of Socialist Labor, had three Orders of Lenin, as well as the Orders of Friendship of Peoples, the October Revolution and the Red Banner of Labor, the Silver Cross of the Austrian Republic and the French Order of Arts and Literature.

The composer was awarded the title of Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR and the USSR, People's Artist of the USSR. Shostakovich received the Lenin and five Stalin prizes, the State Prizes of the Ukrainian SSR, the RSFSR and the USSR. He was a laureate of the International Peace Prize and the I. J. Sibelius.

Shostakovich was an Honorary Doctor of Music from Oxford and Evanston Northwestern Universities. He was a member of the French and Bavarian Academies of Fine Sciences, the English and Swedish Royal Academies of Music, the Santa Cecilia Academy of Arts in Italy, etc. All these international awards and titles speak of one thing - the worldwide fame of the great composer of the 20th century.