Polyphonic novel: lyrics, grotesque and macabra in the music and life of Shostakovich. Polyphonic Novel: Lyrics, Grotesque and Macabre in the Music and Life of Shostakovich Works for Orchestra

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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 filled 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 the Kyiv pianist L. Izarova, N. Malko wrote: “I have just returned from a concert. Conducted for the first time the symphony of the young Leningrader Mitya Shostakovich. I feel like I opened a new page in the history of Russian music.”

The reception of the symphony by the public, the orchestra, the press cannot simply be called a success, it was a triumph. The same was her procession through the most famous symphonic stages of the world. Otto Klemperer, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Hermann Abendroth, Leopold Stokowski bent over the score of the symphony. To them, the conductor-thinkers, it seemed implausible the correlation between the level of skill and the age of the author. I was struck by the complete freedom with which the nineteen-year-old composer disposed of all the resources of the orchestra to translate 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. Striking was the contrast between the music, full of cheerfulness, the exuberant flowering of young forces, the subtle, shy lyrics, and the gloomy expressionist art of many of Shostakovich's foreign contemporaries.

Bypassing the usual youthful stage, Shostakovich stepped confidently into maturity. This confidence gave him a great school. A native of Leningrad, he was educated at 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, in turn a former 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 dilettantism. A spirit of deep respect for work reigned in their classes, for what Ravel liked to designate with the word metier - craft. That is why the culture of mastery was already so high in the first major work of the young composer.

Many years have passed since then. Fourteen more were added to the First Symphony. There were 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.

The early period of Shostakovich's work coincides with the end of the twenties, a time of stormy discussions on the 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 young generation of the Soviet artistic intelligentsia, Shostakovich pays tribute to the passion for the experimental works of director V. E. Meyerhold, the operas of Alban Berg (Wozzeck), Ernst Krenek (Jump over the Shadow, Johnny) , ballet performances by Fyodor Lopukhov.

The combination of sharp 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, Berlioz always lives in him. At one time, he was worried about the grandiose symphonic epic of Mahler: 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 shakes him like Mussorgsky.

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

The beginning of the 1930s is marked in the composer's biography by a stream of works of different genres. Here - the ballets "The Golden Age" and "Bolt", the music for Meyerhold's production of Mayakovsky's play "The Bedbug", the music for several performances of the Leningrad Theater of Working Youth (TRAM), finally, Shostakovich's first entry into cinematography, the creation of music for the films "One", "Golden Mountains", "Counter"; music for the variety and circus performance of the Leningrad Music Hall "Provisionally 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 music.

The central place among the works of Shostakovich in the first half of the 1930s is occupied by the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (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 emphasizing the authenticity, reliability of events, and the portraiture of the characters. The music of "Lady Macbeth" is a tragic story about a terrible era of arbitrariness and lack of rights, when everything human was killed in a person, his dignity, thoughts, aspirations, feelings; when primitive instincts were taxed and ruled by actions, and life itself, shackled in shackles, walked along the endless paths of Russia. On one of them, Shostakovich saw his heroine - a former merchant's wife, a convict who paid the full price for her criminal happiness. I saw - 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 the artistic, social credo of Shostakovich. Belief in the irresistible power of Man, admiration for the wealth 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 arose 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 a 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 symphonic tribune was not erected for eloquence. This is a springboard for militant philosophical thought, fighting for the ideals of humanism, denouncing evil and meanness, as if once again affirming Goethe's famous position:

Only he is worthy of happiness and freedom,
Who every day goes to fight for them!
It is significant that not one of the fifteen symphonies written by Shostakovich escapes the present. 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 that burn in them.

But already from the Fourth Symphony, written in 1936, some alien, evil force enters the world of joyful comprehension of life, kindness and friendliness. She takes on different forms. Somewhere she rudely steps on the ground covered with spring greenery, with a cynical grin defiles purity and sincerity, rages, threatens, portends death. It is internally close to the gloomy themes that threaten human happiness from the pages of the scores of Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies.

And in the Fifth and II parts of Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony, this formidable force makes itself felt. But only in the Seventh, Leningrad Symphony, she rises to her full height. Suddenly, a cruel and terrible force invades the world of philosophical reflections, pure dreams, sports cheerfulness, like Levitan's poetic landscapes. She came to sweep away this pure world and establish darkness, blood, death. Insinuatingly, from afar, a barely audible rustle of a small drum is heard, and a harsh, angular theme appears on its clear rhythm. Repeating eleven times with dull mechanicalness and gaining strength, it acquires hoarse, growling, some kind of shaggy sounds. And now, in all its frightening nakedness, the man-beast steps on the earth.

In contrast to the "theme of invasion", the "theme of courage" is born and grows stronger in music. The monologue of the bassoon is extremely saturated with the bitterness of loss, forcing one to 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 mournful the loss, life declares itself every minute. This idea pervades the Scherzo - Part II. And from here, through reflections (part III), leads to a victorious-sounding finale.

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, hardened in battles, having experienced the deep suffering of a fighter, and was even more beautiful in his severe grandeur. How was it not to love this city, erected by Peter, not to tell the whole world about its glory, about the courage of its defenders ... Music was my weapon.

Passionately hating evil and violence, the composer-citizen denounces the enemy, the one who sows wars that plunge peoples into the abyss of disaster. That is why the theme of war riveted the composer's thoughts for a long time. It sounds grandiose in scale, in depth of tragic conflicts in the Eighth, 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: fought in the name of victory. The defeat of fascism is only a stage in the irresistible offensive movement of man, in the implementation of the progressive mission of the Soviet people.

Ninth Symphony, Shostakovich's first post-war work. It was performed for the first time in the autumn of 1945, to some extent this symphony did not live up to expectations. There is no monumental solemnity in it, which could embody in music the images of the victorious end of the war. But there is something else in it: immediate joy, a joke, laughter, as if a huge weight had fallen from the shoulders, and for the first time in so many years it was possible to turn on the light without curtains, without blackouts, and all the windows of the houses lit up with joy. And only in the penultimate part there appears, as it were, a harsh reminder of the experience. But darkness reigns for a short time - the music returns again to the world of the light of 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 worldview problems, captivating with its pathos the story of an era of great upheavals, an era of great hopes for mankind.

A special place in the list of Shostakovich's symphonies is occupied by the Eleventh and Twelfth.

Before turning to the Eleventh Symphony, written in 1957, it is necessary to recall the Ten Poems for mixed choir (1951) to 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, each bar of which was composed by him, and at the same time is related to the songs of the revolutionary underground, student gatherings that sounded in the casemates Butyrok, and in Shushenskoye, and in Lyunjumo, on Capri, 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, in 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 V. I. Lenin arrived in Petrograd. Here's how the composer talks about it. “I witnessed the events of the October Revolution, I was among those who listened to Vladimir Ilyich on the square in front of the Finland 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 the revolution entered the flesh and blood of the composer 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), which bears the name "1905". Each part has its own name. According to them, one can clearly imagine the idea and dramaturgy of the work: "Palace Square", "January 9", "Eternal Memory", "Nabat". The symphony is permeated with intonations of the songs of the revolutionary underground: “Listen”, “Prisoner”, “You fell a victim”, “Rage, tyrants”, “Varshavyanka”. They give a 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 the revolution. As in the Eleventh, the program names of the parts give a completely clear idea of its content: "Revolutionary Petrograd", "Spill", "Aurora", "Dawn of Humanity".

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

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. The symphony dedicated to Benjamin Britten was written, according to its author, under the influence of Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. In the excellent 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 says how much our time needs both an in-depth interpretation of moral contradictions, and a tragic comprehension of spiritual trials (“passions”) through which humanity passes through the art.

D. Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony was composed in the summer of 1971. After a break of many years, the composer returns to the purely instrumental score of the symphony. The light color of the "toy scherzo" of the first part is associated with images of childhood. The theme from Rossini's overture "William Tell" organically "fits" into the music. The mournful music of the beginning of the second part in the gloomy sound of the brass group gives rise to thoughts of loss, of the first terrible grief. The music of the second part is filled with ominous fantasy, with some features reminiscent of the fairy-tale world of The Nutcracker. At the beginning of Part IV, Shostakovich again resorts to a quotation. This time it is the theme of fate from Valkyrie, which predetermines the tragic culmination of further development.

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

Shostakovich's creative aspirations cover all existing genres of music - from the mass song from "Counter" to the monumental oratorio "Song of the Forests", operas, symphonies, instrumental concerts. A significant section of his work is devoted to chamber music, one of the opuses of which - "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 about the presence or absence of appropriate technology, a special kind of skill. "24 Preludes and Fugues" by Shostakovich is not only a set 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 really penetrates into the "depths of the depths" of his contemporary, the driving forces, contradictions and pathos era of great change.

Next to the symphonies, a large place in the creative biography of Shostakovich 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 that which he tells about in 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, oppresses, what he dreams about.

None of the quartets has a special name to help understand its content. Nothing but a serial number. Nevertheless, their meaning is clear to anyone 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 the thoughtful sarabande of the first part, the Haydnian sparkling finale, the fluttering waltz and the soulful Russian viola chant, drawn out and clear, one feels healing from the heavy thoughts that overcame the hero of the Fifth Symphony.

We remember how important the lyrics were in poems, songs, 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 are the images of the Third Quartet. It contains the carelessness of youth, and painful visions of the "forces of evil", and the field tension of rebuff, and lyrics adjacent to philosophical meditation. 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. On the title page of the Eighth Quartet is: "In memory of the victims of fascism and war." This quartet was written over the course of three days in Dresden, where Shostakovich went to work on the music for the film Five Days, Five Nights.

Along with the quartets, which reflect the "big world" with its conflicts, events, life conflicts, Shostakovich has quartets that sound like the pages of a diary. In the First they are cheerful; in the Fourth they speak of self-deepening, contemplation, peace; in the Sixth - pictures of unity with nature, deep peace 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 the first part, musical images capture the romantic manner of expressing a wide range of feelings: from heartfelt admiration for the beauties of nature to outbursts of spiritual confusion, returning to the peace and tranquility of the landscape. The Adagio of the Fourteenth Quartet brings to mind the Russian spirit of the viola chant in the First Quartet. In III - the final part - the music is outlined by dance rhythms, sounding either more or less distinctly. Evaluating Shostakovich's Fourteenth Quartet, D. B. Kabalevsky speaks of the "Beethovenian 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 in slow tempo: Elegy, Serenade, Intermezzo, Nocturne, Funeral March and Epilogue. The fifteenth quartet strikes with the depth of philosophical thought, so characteristic of Shostakovich in many works of this genre.

The quartet work of Shostakovich is one of the pinnacles of the development of the genre in the post-Beethoven period. Just like in symphonies, the world of lofty ideas, reflections, and philosophical generalizations reigns here. But, unlike symphonies, quartets have that intonation of confidence that instantly awakens an emotional response from the audience. This property of Shostakovich's quartets makes them related 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, which is especially evident in the Prelude and Fugue, and subtle emotionality, which somehow makes one recall Levitan's landscapes.

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

Such an abundance of vocal music based on the texts of classics of poetry and Soviet poets testifies to a wide range of literary interests of the composer. In Shostakovich's vocal music, it is striking not only the subtlety of the sense of style, the poet's handwriting, but also the ability to recreate the national features of music. This is especially striking in the Spanish Songs, in the cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry, and in romances based on verses by English poets. The traditions of Russian romance lyrics, coming from Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, are heard in Five romances, “five days” to the verses of E. Dolmatovsky: “Day of the meeting”, “Day of confessions”, “Day of insults”, “Day of joy”, “Day of memories” .

A special place is occupied by "Satires" to the words of Sasha Cherny and "Humoresques" from "Crocodile". They reflect Shostakovich's love for Mussorgsky. It arose in his youth and manifested itself first in his cycle of Krylov's Fables, then in the opera The Nose, then in Katerina Izmailova (especially in the fourth act of the opera). Three times Shostakovich addresses Mussorgsky directly, re-orchestrating and re-editing Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, and orchestrating Songs and Dances of Death for the first time. And again, 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, having such a bright personality, 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 manner of writing in his own way great realist musician.

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

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

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

Dmitri Shostakovich made a great contribution to the instrumental concerto genre. The first piano concerto in C minor with solo trumpet was written (1933). With its youthfulness, mischief, and youthful, charming angularity, the concerto is reminiscent of the First Symphony. Fourteen years later, a deep in thought, magnificent in scope, in virtuoso brilliance, violin concerto appears; followed, in 1957, by the Second Piano Concerto, dedicated to his son, Maxim, designed for children's performance. The list of concert literature written by Shostakovich is completed by the Cello Concertos (1959, 1967) and the Second Violin Concerto (1967). These concerts are least of all designed for "rapture with technical brilliance." In terms of depth of thought and intense dramaturgy, they occupy a place next to the symphonies.

The list of works given in this essay includes only the most typical works in the main genres. Dozens of names 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 20th 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 the events of each for his time, to delve deeply into the meaning of what is happening, to take a fair position in disputes, clashes of opinions, in the struggle and respond with all the strength of his gigantic gifts for everything that is expressed by one great word - Life.

A special place in the list of Shostakovich's symphonies is occupied by the Eleventh and Twelfth.

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

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

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

Brief biography of Shostakovich

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

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

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

The war brought not only sadness and sorrow, but also a new tragic inspiration. Along with his students, Dmitry Dmitrievich wanted to go to the front. When they didn’t let me in, I wanted to stay in my beloved Leningrad surrounded by the Nazis. But he and his family were almost forcibly taken to Kuibyshev (Samara). The composer did not return to his native city, after the evacuation he settled in Moscow, where he continued teaching. The decree “On the opera The Great Friendship by V. Muradeli” issued in 1948 declared Shostakovich a “formalist”, and his work was anti-people. In 1936, they already tried to call him an “enemy of the people” after critical articles in Pravda about “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district” and “The Bright Path”. That situation actually put an end to the composer's further research in the genres of opera and ballet. But now not only the public, but the state machine itself fell upon him: he was fired from the conservatory, deprived of his professorship, stopped publishing and performing compositions. However, it was impossible not to notice a creator of this level for a long time. In 1949, Stalin personally asked him to go to the United States with other cultural figures, returning all the selected privileges for consent, in 1950 he received the Stalin Prize for the cantata Song of the Forests, and in 1954 he became People's Artist of the USSR.

At the end of the same year, Nina Vladimirovna died suddenly. Shostakovich took this loss hard. He was strong in his music, but weak and helpless in everyday matters, the burden of which was always borne by his wife. Probably, it is precisely the desire to organize life again that explains his new marriage just a year and a half later. Margarita Kainova did not share the interests of her husband, did not support his social circle. The marriage was short lived. At the same time, the composer met Irina Supinskaya, who after 6 years became his third and last wife. She was nearly 30 years younger, but this union was almost not slandered behind her back - the couple's inner circle understood that the 57-year-old genius was gradually losing health. Right at the concert, his right hand began to be taken away, and then the final diagnosis was made in the USA - the disease is incurable. Even when Shostakovich struggled with every step, this did not stop his music. The last day of his life was August 9, 1975.

Interesting facts about Shostakovich

Shostakovich was an avid fan of the Zenit football club and even kept a notebook of all games and goals. His other hobbies were cards - he played solitaire all the time and enjoyed playing "king", moreover, exclusively for money, and an addiction to smoking.
The composer's favorite dish was homemade dumplings made from three types of meat.
Dmitry Dmitrievich worked without a piano, he sat down at the table and wrote down the notes on paper immediately in full orchestration. He possessed such a unique capacity for work that he could completely rewrite his composition in a short time.
Shostakovich long sought the return to the stage of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District." In the mid-1950s, he made a new edition of the opera, calling it Katerina Izmailova. Despite a direct appeal to V. Molotov, the production was again banned. Only in 1962 did the opera see the stage. In 1966, the film of the same name was released with Galina Vishnevskaya in the title role.

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

Shostakovich is one of the 40 most performed opera composers in the world. More than 300 performances of his operas are given annually.
Shostakovich is the only one of the "formalists" who repented and actually renounced his previous work. This caused a different attitude towards him from colleagues, and the composer explained his position by the fact that otherwise he would no longer be allowed to work.
The composer's first love, Tatyana Glivenko, was warmly received by Dmitry Dmitrievich's mother and sisters. When she got married, Shostakovich summoned her with a letter from Moscow. She arrived in Leningrad and stayed at the Shostakovichs' house, but he could not make up his mind to persuade her to leave her husband. He left attempts to renew relations only after the news of Tatiana's pregnancy.
One of the most famous songs written by Dmitry Dmitrievich sounded in the 1932 film "Counter". It's called - "The Song of the Counter."
For many years, the composer was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he received "voters" and, as best he could, tried to solve their problems.

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

In the 30s, the composer expected to be arrested every night, so he put a suitcase with essentials by the bed. In those years, many people from his entourage were shot, including the closest - the director Meyerhold, Marshal Tukhachevsky. The father-in-law and the elder sister's husband were exiled to the camp, and Maria Dmitrievna herself was sent to Tashkent.
The eighth quartet, written in 1960, was dedicated by the composer to his memory. It opens with a musical anagram of Shostakovich (D-Es-C-H) and contains the themes of many of his works. The "indecent" dedication had to be changed to "In memory of the victims of fascism." He composed this music in tears after joining the party.

Creativity of Dmitry Shostakovich

The earliest of the composer's surviving works, the fis-moll Scherzo, is dated to the year he entered the conservatory. During his studies, being also a pianist, Shostakovich wrote a lot for this instrument. Graduation work has become First Symphony. This work was an incredible success, and the whole world learned about the young Soviet composer. The inspiration from his own triumph resulted in the following symphonies - the Second and Third. They are united by the unusual form - both have choral parts based on poems by actual poets of that time. However, the author himself later recognized these works as unsuccessful. Since the late 1920s, Shostakovich has been writing music for cinema and drama theater - for the sake of earning money, and not obeying a creative impulse. In total, he designed more than 50 films and performances by outstanding directors - G. Kozintsev, S. Gerasimov, A. Dovzhenko, Vs. Meyerhold.

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

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

At the end of the same year, the premiere of a new Fourth symphony, orchestral rehearsals were going on at the Leningrad Philharmonic. However, the concert was cancelled. The coming 1937 did not carry any optimistic expectations - repressions were gaining momentum in the country, one of the people close to Shostakovich, Marshal Tukhachevsky, was shot. These events left their mark on the tragic music Fifth Symphony. At the premiere in Leningrad, the audience, not holding back tears, arranged a forty-minute ovation for the composer and the orchestra conducted by E. Mravinsky. The same lineup of performers two years later played the Sixth Symphony, Shostakovich's last major pre-war work.

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

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

In 1958, the composer takes on the orchestration of " Khovanshchina". His version of the opera was destined to become the most popular in the coming decades. Shostakovich, relying on the restored author's clavier, managed to clear Mussorgsky's music from layers and interpretations. Similar work was carried out by him twenty years earlier with " Boris Godunov". In 1959, the premiere of the only operetta by Dmitry Dmitrievich took place - “ Moscow, Cheryomushki”, which caused surprise and was accepted enthusiastically. Three years later, based on the work, a popular musical film was released. At 60-70 the composer writes 9 string quartets, works a lot on vocal works. The last composition of the Soviet genius was the Sonata for Viola and Piano, first performed after his death.

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

Among his films:

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

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

Work	Movie
Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016
	"Nymphomaniac: Part 1", 2013
	Eyes Wide Shut, 1999
Piano Concerto No. 2	Spy Bridge, 2015
Suite from the music to the film "The Gadfly"	"Retribution", 2013
Symphony No. 10	"Child of Man", 2006

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

Video: watch a film about Shostakovich

Orango, prologue to a comic opera, libretto by Alexander Starchakov and Alexei Tolstoy, not orchestrated ()

“The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda”, music for the cartoon-opera ()

"Katerina Izmailova" (second version of the opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"), Op. 114 (1953-1962). First production: Moscow, Moscow Academic Musical Theatre. K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, January 8.

"Players", an opera based on the play of the same name by Gogol (1941-1942), the author has not finished. First performed in concert at the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic on September 18 . First production in Krzysztof Meyer's version - 12 June, Wuppertal. First performance in Moscow - January 24, Chamber Musical Theatre.

Moscow, Cheryomushki, operetta in three acts, libretto by Vladimir Mass and Mikhail Chervinsky, Op. 105 (1957-1958)

ballets

"Golden Age", ballet in three acts to a libretto by A. Ivanovsky, Op. 22 (1929-1930). First production: Leningrad, October 26, choreographer Vasily Vainonen. First performance of the revived version: Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, October 14, choreographer Yuri Grigorovich
"Bolt", a choreographic performance in three acts to a libretto by V. Smirnov, Op. 27 (1930-1931). First production: Leningrad, State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, April 8, choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov.
"Light Stream", a comic ballet in three acts with a prologue to a libretto by F. Lopukhov and A. Piotrovsky, Op. 39 (1934-1935). First production: Leningrad, Maly Opera Theatre, June 4, choreographer F. Lopukhov.

Music for theatrical performances

"Bug", music to the play by V. V. Mayakovsky staged by V. E. Meyerhold, Op. 19 (1929). Premiere - February 13, 1929, Moscow
"Shot", music for the play by A. Bezymensky, Op. 24. (1929). Premiere - December 14, 1929, Leningrad, Theater of Working Youth
"Virgin", music for the play by A. Gorbenko and N. Lvov, Op. 25 (1930); score is lost. Premiere - May 9, 1930, Leningrad, Theater of Working Youth
"Rule Britannia", music for the play by A. Petrovsky, op. 28 (1931). Premiere - May 9, 1931, Leningrad, Theater of Working Youth
"Conditionally Killed", music for the play by V. Voevodin and E. Riess, Op. 31 (1931). Premiere - October 2, 1931, Leningrad, Music Hall
"Hamlet", music for the tragedy by W. Shakespeare, Op. 32 (1931-1932). Premiere - May 19, 1932, Moscow, Theater. Vakhtangov
"The Human Comedy", music for the play by P. Sukhotin based on the novels by O. de Balzac, Op. 37 (1933-1934). Premiere - April 1, 1934, Moscow, Theater. Vakhtangov
"Salute, Spain!", music for the play by A. Afinogenov, op. 44 (1936). Premiere - November 23, 1936, Leningrad, Drama Theater. Pushkin
"King Lear", music for the tragedy by W. Shakespeare, Op. 58a (1941). Premiere - March 24, 1941, Leningrad
"Fatherland", music for the play, Op. 63 (1942). Premiere - November 7, 1942, Moscow, Dzerzhinsky Central Club
"Russian river", music for the play, Op. 66 (1944). Premiere - April 17, 1944, Moscow, Dzerzhinsky Central Club
"Victory Spring", two songs for the performance on the verses of M. Svetlov, op. 72 (1946). Premiere - May 8, 1946, Moscow, Dzerzhinsky Central Club
"Hamlet", music to the tragedy by W. Shakespeare (1954). Premiere - March 31, 1954, Leningrad, Drama Theater. Pushkin

Film music

"New Babylon" (silent film; directors G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg), Op. 18 (1928-1929)
"One" (directed by G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg), op. 26 (1930-1931)
"Golden Mountains" (director S. Yutkevich), op. 30 (1931)
"Counter" (directors F. Ermler and S. Yutkevich), op. 33 (1932)
"The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda" (cartoon; director Mikhail Tsekhanovsky), op. 36 (1933-1934). The work is not finished
"Love and Hate" (director A. Gendelstein), op. 38 (1934)
Maxim's Youth (directed by G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg), Op. 41 (1934)
“Girlfriends” (directed by L. Arnshtam), op. 41a (1934-1935)
“The Return of Maxim” (directors G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg), op. 45 (1936-1937)
Volochaev Days (directed by G. and S. Vasiliev), op. 48 (1936-1937)
"Vyborg Side" (directed by G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg), Op. 50 (1938)
"Friends" (directed by L. Arnshtam), op. 51 (1938)
The Great Citizen (director F. Ermler), op. 52 (episode 1, 1937) and 55 (episode 2, 1938-1939)
"Man with a gun" (director S. Yutkevich), op. 53 (1938)
"Stupid Mouse" (director M. Tsekhanovsky), op. 56 (1939)
"The Adventures of Korzinkina" (director K. Mints), Op. 59 (1940-1941)
Zoya (directed by L. Arnshtam), op. 64 (1944)
"Ordinary people" (directed by G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg), op. 71 (1945)
"Young Guard" (director S. Gerasimov), Op. 75 (1947-1948)
Pirogov (director G. Kozintsev), Op. 76 (1947)
Michurin (directed by A. Dovzhenko), Op. 78 (1948)
“Meeting on the Elbe” (director G. Alexandrov), Op. 80 (1948)
The Fall of Berlin (directed by M. Chiaureli), Op. 82 (1949)
Belinsky (directed by G. Kozintsev), Op. 85 (1950)
"Unforgettable 1919" (director M. Chiaureli), Op. 89 (1951)
Song of the Great Rivers (directed by J. Ivens), op. 95 (1954)
"The Gadfly" (directed by A. Feinzimmer), op. 97 (1955)
"First echelon" (director M. Kalatozov), Op. 99 (1955-1956)
"Khovanshchina" (film-opera - orchestration of the opera by M. P. Mussorgsky), op. 106 (1958-1959)
"Five Days - Five Nights" (director L. Arnshtam), op. 111 (1960)
"Cheryomushki" (based on the operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki"; director G. Rappaport) (1962)
"Hamlet" (director G. Kozintsev), Op. 116 (1963-1964)
“A Year Like Life” (director G. Roshal), Op. 120 (1965)
"Katerina Izmailova" (based on the opera; director M. Shapiro) (1966)
Sofya Perovskaya (directed by L. Arnshtam), Op. 132 (1967)
King Lear (directed by G. Kozintsev), Op. 137 (1970)

Compositions for orchestra

Symphonies

Symphony No. 1 in f minor, Op. 10 (1924-1925). Premiere - May 12, 1926, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor N. Malko
Symphony No. 2 in H-dur "October", Op. 14, with the final chorus to the words of A. Bezymensky (1927). Premiere - November 5, 1927, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Orchestra and choir of the Leningrad Philharmonic, conductor N. Malko
Symphony No. 3 Es-dur "May Day", Op. 20, with final chorus to words by S. Kirsanov (1929). Premiere - January 21, 1930, Leningrad. Orchestra and choir of the Leningrad Philharmonic, conductor A. Gauk
Symphony No. 4 in c-moll, Op. 43 (1935-1936). Premiere - December 30, 1961, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor K. Kondrashin
Symphony No. 5 in d-moll, Op. 47 (1937). Premiere - November 21, 1937, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Symphony No. 6 in h-moll, Op. 54 (1939) in three parts. Premiere - November 21, 1939, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Symphony No. 7 in C-dur "Leningrad", Op. 60 (1941). Premiere - March 5, 1942, Kuibyshev, House of Culture. Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, conductor S. Samosud
Symphony No. 8 in c-moll, Op. 65 (1943), dedicated to E. Mravinsky. Premiere - November 4, 1943, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR, conductor E. Mravinsky
Symphony No. 9 Es-dur, Op. 70 (1945) in five parts. Premiere - November 3, 1945, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Symphony No. 10 in e-moll, Op. 93 (1953). Premiere - December 17, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Symphony No. 11 in g-moll "1905", Op. 103 (1956-1957). Premiere - October 30, 1957, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR, conductor N. Rakhlin
Symphony No. 12 in d-moll "1917", Op. 112 (1959-1961), dedicated to the memory of V. I. Lenin. Premiere - October 1, 1961, Leningrad, the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Symphony No. 13 in b-moll "Babi Yar", Op. 113 (1962) in five parts, for bass, bass choir and orchestra, lyrics by E. Yevtushenko. Premiere - December 18, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. V. Gromadsky (bass), State Choir and Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor K. Kondrashin.
Symphony No. 14, Op. 135 (1969) in eleven movements, for soprano, bass, strings and percussion on verses by F. G. Lorca, G. Apollinaire, W. Küchelbecker and R. M. Rilke. Premiere - September 29, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Glinka Academy of Choral Art. G. Vishnevskaya (soprano), E. Vladimirov (bass), Moscow Chamber Orchestra, conductor R. Barshai.
Symphony No. 15 A-dur, Op. 141(). Premiere - January 8, Moscow, State Television and All-Union Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor M. Shostakovich

Concerts

Piano Concerto (strings and solo trumpet) No. 1 c-moll, Op. 35 (1933). Premiere - October 15, 1933, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. D. Shostakovich (piano), A. Schmidt (trumpet), Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor F. Shtidri.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F-dur, Op. 102 (1957). Premiere - May 10, 1957, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. M. Shostakovich (piano), State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR, conductor N. Anosov.

Violin Concerto No. 1 a-moll, Op. 77 (1947-1948). Premiere - October 29, 1955, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. D. Oistrakh (violin), Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Violin Concerto No. 2 cis-moll, Op. 129 (1967). Premiere - September 26, 1967, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. D. Oistrakh (violin), Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor K. Kondrashin

Cello Concerto No. 1 Es-dur, Op. 107 (1959). Premiere - October 4, 1959, Leningrad, Great Hall of the Philharmonic. M. Rostropovich (cello), Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor E. Mravinsky
Cello Concerto No. 2 in G-dur, Op. 126 (1966). Premiere - September 25, 1966, Moscow, Great Hall of the Conservatory. M. Rostropovich (cello), USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra, conductor E. Svetlanov

Other works

Scherzo fis-moll, Op. 1 (1919)
Theme and Variations in B-dur, Op. 3 (1921-1922)
Scherzo Es-dur, Op. 7 (1923-1924)
Suite from the opera "The Nose" for tenor and baritone and orchestra, Op. 15a (1928)
Suite from the ballet The Golden Age, Op. 22a (1930)
Two pieces for E. Dressel's opera "Poor Columbus", op. 23 (1929)
Suite from the ballet "The Bolt" (Ballet Suite No. 5), Op. 27a (1931)
Suite from the music to the film The Golden Mountains, Op. 30a (1931)
Suite from the music to the film Hamlet, Op. 32a (1932)
Suite No. 1 for variety orchestra (1934)
Five Fragments, Op. 42 (1935)
Suite No. 2 for variety orchestra (1938)
Suite from music for films about Maxim (choir and orchestra; arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 50a (1961)
Solemn march for brass band (1942)
Suite from the music to the film "Zoya" (with choir; arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 64a (1944)
Suite from the music to the film "The Young Guard" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 75a (1951)
Suite from the music to the film "Pirogov" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 76a (1951)
Suite from the music to the film "Michurin" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 78a (1964)
Suite from the music to the film "Meeting on the Elbe" (voices and orchestra; arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 80a (1948)
Suite from the music to the film "The Fall of Berlin" (with choir; arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 82a (1950)
Ballet Suite No. 1 (1949)
Suite from the music to the film "Belinsky" (with choir; arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 85a (1960)
Suite from the music to the film "Unforgettable 1919" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), op. 89a (1952)
Ballet Suite No. 2 (1951)
Ballet Suite No. 3 (1951)
Ballet Suite No. 4 (1953)
Festive Overture A-dur, Op. 96 (1954)
Suite from the music to the film "The Gadfly" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 97a (1956)
Suite from the music for the film "First Echelon" (with choir; arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 99a (1956)
Suite from the music to the film "Five Days - Five Nights" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 111a (1961)
Suite from the opera "Katerina Izmailova" for soprano and orchestra, Op. 114a (1962)
Overture on Russian and Kyrgyz Themes, Op. 115 (1963)
Suite from the music to the film "Hamlet" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 116a (1964)
Suite from the music to the film "A Year Like Life" (arranged by L. Atovmyan), Op. 120a (1969)
Funeral and triumphal prelude in memory of the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, Op. 130 (1967)
"October", symphonic poem, Op. 131 (1967)
March of the Soviet Militia for brass band, Op. 139 (1970)

Choir compositions

"From Karl Marx to the present day", symphonic poem to the words of N. Aseev for solo voices, choir and orchestra (1932), unfinished, lost
"Oath to the People's Commissar" to the words of V. Sayanov for bass, choir and piano (1941)
Song of the Guards Division ("The Fearless Guards Regiments Are Coming") to the words of Rakhmilevich for bass, choir and piano (1941)
"Glory, Fatherland of the Soviets" to the words of E. Dolmatovsky for choir and piano (1943)
"Black Sea" to words by S. Alimov and N. Verkhovsky for bass, male choir and piano (1944)
"A congratulatory song about the Motherland" to the words of I. Utkin for tenor, choir and piano (1944)
"Poem about the Motherland", cantata for mezzo-soprano, tenor, two baritones, bass, choir and orchestra, Op. 74 (1947)
"Anti-formalistic Paradise" for four basses, a reader, choir and piano (1948/1968)
"Song of the Forests", oratorio to the words of E. Dolmatovsky for tenor, bass, boys' choir, mixed choir and orchestra, Op. 81 (1949)
"Our Song" to the words of K. Simonov for bass, choir and piano (1950)
"March of Peace" to words by K. Simonov for tenor, choir and piano (1950)
Ten Poems to Words by Revolutionary Poets for unaccompanied choir (1951)
“The sun is shining over our Motherland”, cantata to words by E. Dolmatovsky for boys’ choir, mixed choir and orchestra, Op. 90 (1952)
"We Glorify the Motherland" (words by V. Sidorov) for choir and piano (1957)
“We keep October dawns in our hearts” (words by V. Sidorov) for choir and piano (1957)
Two arrangements of Russian folk songs for unaccompanied choir, Op. 104 (1957)
October Dawn (words by V. Kharitonov) for choir and piano (1957)
"The Execution of Stepan Razin", vocal-symphonic poem to the words of E. Yevtushenko for bass, choir and orchestra, Op. 119 (1964)
"Loyalty", eight ballads to the words of E. Dolmatovsky for male choir without accompaniment, Op. 136 (1970)

Compositions for voice with accompaniment

Two Fables by Krylov for mezzo-soprano, choir and orchestra, Op. 4 (1922)
Six romances on poems by Japanese poets for tenor and orchestra, Op. 21 (1928―1932)
Four romances on poems by A. S. Pushkin for bass and piano, Op. 46 (1936-1937)
Seven adaptations of Finnish folk songs (Suite on Finnish Themes) for soloists (soprano and tenor) and chamber ensemble. Without n / op. (1939)
Six romances on verses by British poets, translated by B. Pasternak and S. Marshak for bass and piano, Op. 62 (1942). Later orchestrated and published as Op. 62a (1943), second version of orchestration - as Op. 140 (1971)
"Patriotic Song" to the words of Dolmatovsky (1943)
"Song of the Red Army" to the words of M. Golodny (1943), together with A. Khachaturian
"From Jewish Folk Poetry" for soprano, alto, tenor and piano, Op. 79 (1948). Later orchestrated and published as Op. 79a
Two romances on verses by M. Yu. Lermontov for voice and piano, Op. 84 (1950)
Four songs to words by E. Dolmatovsky for voice and piano, Op. 86 (1950-1951)
Four monologues on poems by A. S. Pushkin for bass and piano, Op. 91 (1952)
"Greek Songs" (translated by S. Bolotin and T. Sikorskaya) for voice and piano (1952-1953)
"Songs of Our Days" to the words of E. Dolmatovsky for bass and piano, Op. 98 (1954)
"There were kisses" to the words of E. Dolmatovsky for voice and piano (1954)
Spanish Songs (translated by S. Bolotin and T. Sikorskaya) for mezzo-soprano and piano, Op. 100 (1956)
"Satires", five romances on words by Sasha Cherny for soprano and piano, Op. 109 (1960)
Five romances on texts from the magazine "Crocodile" for bass and piano, Op. 121 (1965)
Preface to my Complete Works and a Brief Reflection on this Preface for bass and piano, Op. 123 (1966)
Seven Poems by A. A. Blok for soprano and piano trio, Op. 127 (1967)
"Spring, Spring" on poems by A. S. Pushkin for bass and piano, Op. 128 (1967)
Six romances for bass and chamber orchestra, Op. 140 (after Op. 62; 1971)
Six poems by M. I. Tsvetaeva for contralto and piano, Op. 143 (1973), orchestrated as Op. 143a
Suite to words by Michelangelo Buonarroti, translated by A. Efros for bass and piano, Op. 145 (1974), orchestrated as Op. 145a
Four Poems by Captain Lebyadkin (from F. M. Dostoevsky's novel "Demons") for bass and piano, Op. 146 (1974)

Chamber instrumental compositions

Sonata for cello and piano in d-moll, Op. 40 (1934). First performance - December 25, 1934, Leningrad. V. Kubatsky, D. Shostakovich
Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 134 (1968). First performance - May 3, 1969, Moscow. D. F. Oistrakh, S. T. Richter
Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 147 (1975). First performance - October 1, 1975, Leningrad. F. S. Druzhinin , M. Muntyan

Three pieces for cello and piano, Op. 9 (1923-1924). Not published, lost.
Moderato for cello and piano (1930s)
Three pieces for violin (1940), lost

Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8 (1923)
Piano Trio No. 2 in e-moll, Op. 67 (1944), dedicated to the memory of I. I. Sollertinsky. First performance - Leningrad, November 14, 1944. D. Tsyganov (violin), S. Shirinsky (cello), D. Shostakovich (piano)

String Quartet No. 1 C-dur, Op. 49 (1938). First performance - October 10, 1938, Leningrad. Glazunov Quartet
String Quartet No. 2 A-dur, Op. 68 (1944). First performance - November 14, 1944, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73 (1946). First performance - December 16, 1946, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83 (1949). First performance - December 3, 1953, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 5 B-dur, Op. 92 (1952). First performance - November 13, 1953, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 6 G-dur, Op. 101 (1956). First performance - October 7, 1956, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 7 fis-moll, Op. 108 (1960). First performance - May 15, 1960, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 8 in c-moll, Op. 110 (1960). First performance - October 2, 1960, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 9 Es-dur, Op. 117 (1964). First performance - November 20, 1964, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 10 As-dur, Op. 118 (1964). First performance - November 20, 1964, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 11 in f minor, Op. 122 (1966). First performance - May 28, 1966, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 12 Des-dur, Op. 133 (1968). First performance - September 14, 1968, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 13 in b minor, Op. 138 (1970). First performance - December 13, 1970, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 14 Fis-dur, Op. 142 (1973). First performance - November 12, 1973, Leningrad. Beethoven Quartet
String Quartet No. 15 in es-moll, Op. 144 (1974). First performance - November 15, 1974, Leningrad. Taneyev Quartet

Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 (1940). First performance - November 23, 1940, Moscow. Beethoven Quartet, D. Shostakovich (piano)

Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 (1924―1925)

Compositions for piano

Sonata No. 1 in D-dur, Op. 12 (1926). First performance - Leningrad, December 12, 1926, D. Shostakovich
Sonata No. 2 in h-moll, Op. 61 (1943). First performance - Moscow, June 6, 1943, D. Shostakovich

Numerous early compositions, including the Funeral March in memory of the victims of the revolution, etc.
Eight Preludes, Op. 2 (1918-1920), unpublished
Minuet, prelude and intermezzo (circa 1919-1920), unfinished
"Murzilka"
Five Preludes (1919-1921), together with P. Feldt and G. Clemens
Three Fantastic Dances, Op. 5 (1920-1922)
Aphorisms, ten pieces, Op. 13 (1927)
Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 34 (1932-1933)
"Children's Notebook", seven pieces, Op. 69 (1944-1945)
Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 (1950-1951). First performance - Leningrad, December 23 and 28, 1952, T. Nikolaeva
"Seven Dancing Dolls" (1952)

Suite fis-moll for two pianos, Op. 6 (1922)
"Merry March" for two pianos (1949)
Concertino for two pianos, Op. 94 (1954)
Tarantella for two pianos (1954)

orchestrations

N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov - “I was waiting in the grotto” (1921)
V. Youmans - "Tea for Two" (orchestra under the title "Tahiti Trot"; 1927), op. 16
Two pieces by D. Scarlatti (for brass band; 1928), op. 17
P. Degeyter - The International (1937)
M. P. Mussorgsky - opera "Boris Godunov" (1939-1940), op. 58
M. P. Mussorgsky - Song of Mephistopheles in the cellar of Auerbach ("Song of the Flea"; 1940)
I. Strauss - Polka "Jolly Train" (1941)
Twenty-seven romances and songs (1941)
Eight English and American Folk Songs (translated by S. Marshak, S. Bolotin, T. Sikorskaya) for bass and orchestra (1943)
V. Fleishman - opera "Rothschild's Violin" (completion and orchestration; 1944)
M. P. Mussorgsky - opera "Khovanshchina" (1958-1959), op. 106
M. P. Mussorgsky - "Songs and Dances of Death" (1962)
A. Davidenko - two choirs, Op. 124 (1963)
R. Schumann - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 125 (1963)
B. I. Tishchenko - concerto for cello and orchestra No. 1 (1969)
L. van Beethoven - "Song of the Flea" (op. 75 No. 3; 1975)

Literature

Meskhishvili E. Dmitri Shostakovich: notographic guide. - M., 1995

Dmitri Shostakovich. Photo - en.wikipedia.org

The program of the concert halls of the world last Sunday was built around one of the main dates of the year - the 110th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Shostakovich.

On Friday, the first part of an essay dedicated to the anniversary appeared on our website -.

Composer Anton Safronov continues to talk about the fate and work of a man recognized by his contemporaries as an independent phenomenon in the art of the last century.

The most successful essays

It is very difficult to name a single most outstanding work by Shostakovich.

The composer worked for more than half a century. This is a creative longevity comparable to Haydn or Stravinsky. You can try to name his most outstanding works created in various creative periods.

Opera "The Nose" (1928)

The Nose, created by Shostakovich in the late 1920s, is one of the most important operas of the 20th century and one of the best works of world musical theater.

Gogol's text is preserved here very accurately and carefully, and its musical and stage refraction is extremely close to the absurdist world of Kharms. All the music of the opera and all its stage solutions are the quintessence of musical “Oberiutism”, with numerous “removals”, “alienations” and emphasized stage conventions.

The composer himself said:

“In The Nose, the elements of action and music are equalized. I tried to create a synthesis of music and theatrical performance.”

Everything about the musical solution of the opera is magnificent: both caustic parodic sound imitations, and an intermission between two scenes, written for one percussion (the first work in the world history for such an instrumental composition!), And a “double duet” of four characters located on the same stage in pairs in two different places of action (a technique that parodies the beginning of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", and at the same time anticipates the post-war "total musical theater" of Bernd Alois Zimmermann).

In a word - a masterpiece from the first to the last note!

Opera Nose. Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre, conductor - Gennady Rozhdestvensky, 1979:

Symphony No. 4 (1936)

One of the best and still the most underrated of Shostakovich's symphonies. The most “Mahlerian” not only in terms of drama and irony, but also in size, and in the composition of the orchestra, and the incredible ingenuity with which the author uses this gigantic instrumental apparatus.

Shostakovich never used such a large orchestra in any of his other compositions. It is also undoubtedly the most "Oberiutian" among the composer's symphonies. Its powerful tragedy goes hand in hand with the methods of deliberate play, the exposure of a formal framework. Many episodes of the symphony sound like the “cry from the underground” of the heroes of Kharms.

At the same time it is a visionary symphony. For the first time, not only signs of Shostakovich's late style appear in it, but also some techniques of the future musical postmodernism.

For example, the third and final movement of the symphony makes an unusual dramatic shift. Starting as a funeral march, it turns into a dimensionless divertissement of successive themes from the field of musical “thrash” - waltzes, marches, polkas, gallops, until it comes to a genuine denouement, moreover, a “double” denouement.

First, “loud and major” - a terrifying shamanic ritual of continuous victorious cries against the background of an invariable rhythmic ostinato of percussion (perceived as a living sound allusion to the bloody mass Soviet actions of that time). Then - “quiet and minor”: against the background of numb chords, the solo celesta repeats simple short melancholic motifs, very reminiscent of Pärt's future music.

In the year of the creation of his symphony, in an atmosphere of persecution that had begun (), in order to protect himself from new attacks, the author considered it good to cancel the already announced premiere at the Leningrad Philharmonic, which was to be conducted by Fritz Stiedry, an Austro-German conductor and student of Gustav Mahler, who emigrated to USSR from Nazi Germany.

So one of the best symphonies of Shostakovich did not see the light. It sounded only a quarter of a century later. The cancellation by the composer of the premiere of his work, together with the subsequent “paradigm shift” in his further works, became a creative break in everything he was going to during the first decade of his work. And what he will return to only in the very last years.

Symphony No. 4. Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conductor - Neeme Järvi:

Symphony No. 8 (1943)

The most frequently performed, most dramatically perfect symphony by Shostakovich and one of the best works of world art related to the theme of war.

It also raises the general philosophical theme of the catastrophe of universal violence, the destruction of man by man. The Eighth Symphony can be compared to a multi-themed, multi-faceted polyphonic novel, consisting of several “circles of development”, the most powerful of which are the last three parts, which go without interruption.

It begins with an ominously mechanical toccata that creates a visible image of the machine of destruction and the "banality of evil." After the strongest climax comes a decline - a tragic-philosophical understanding of the catastrophe of the burnt offering. This part-episode is built on an unchanging theme (ostinato) that runs twelve times in the bass (a reference to the old form of the passacaglia, which Shostakovich often resorts to at the climax of his works).

At the lowest point of decline, the finale of the symphony begins: in it, the only image of hope in the whole work is born.

Where to listen: October 9, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. State Orchestra of Russia named after Svetlanov, conductor - Vladimir Yurovsky. Price: from 3000 rubles.

Symphony No. 8. ZKR ASO of the Leningrad Philharmonic, conductor - Evgeny Mravinsky:

Symphony No. 14 (1969)

In the 1950s, although Shostakovich wrote several outstanding works (for example, 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano, the Tenth Symphony, the First Cello Concerto), the best compositions of those years did not introduce anything fundamentally new into his musical language and imagery. Significant changes in the creative world of Shostakovich began to occur in the next decade - in the 1960s.

His most outstanding late work, and one of his best compositions in general, is the vocal Symphony Fourteenth, a kind of cantata symphony, in many respects successive to Mahler's idea of \u200b\u200ba farewell symphony about death, like the Song of the Earth.

The author himself also pointed out the connection of his work with Mussorgsky's vocal cycle Songs and Dances of Death. For Shostakovich, Mussorgsky and Mahler were the most important composers throughout their lives. In addition to semantic echoes with them, the Fourteenth Symphony is in many respects close to Shostakovich's late vocal cycles.

Like Mahler's "Song of the Earth", it was written for two solo singers: a male and a female voice. But, unlike Mahler, this is Shostakovich's most chamber symphony - both in its mood and in the composition of the orchestra, unusual for the composer, deliberately reduced to an ensemble of strings and percussion (including the celesta): two opposite sound worlds entering into a dialogue both among themselves, the same with human voices. Here you can see the continuity with Bartok. And also with Britten, to whom the symphony is dedicated.

In total, there are 11 parts in the Fourteenth Symphony - the longest by Shostakovich and the most “non-symphonic” of their sequence. Like Song of the Earth, Shostakovich's symphony was written to verses by various authors and also translated into the composer's native language.

In total, it features four poets succeeding each other: Lorca (the first two parts), Apollinaire (next six), Kuchelbecker (only one part and the only poem in the symphony by a Russian poet!) and Rilke (two final parts). The music of the symphony is filled with soulful lyrics and equally gloomy images of macabra. Her musical language opens up many new things for Russian music: it is no coincidence that it was this work that so inspired Shostakovich's younger contemporaries - Schnittke, Denisov, Gubaidulina, Shchedrin.

In the score of the Fourteenth, one can find quite a few sound solutions that are bold for Shostakovich, including timbre-sound streams with individual notes that are difficult to distinguish by ear (sonoristics). The composer seems to be returning to the sound world of The Nose and the Second Symphony, written four decades earlier.

The last part of the symphony (“Conclusion”), which speaks of the expectation and approach of death, is especially shocking: the music ends with a powerful dissonant crescendo that ends abruptly and unexpectedly, like life itself.

Symphony No. 14. Symphony Orchestra of the Cologne (West German) Radio (WDR), conductor - Rudolf Barshai:

A special theme in the work of Shostakovich

In a number of works by Shostakovich, there is a theme of the tragedy of the Jewish people.

During the war, she first appears in the finale of the Piano Trio in Memory of Sollertinsky (1944), where a motif reminiscent of the traditional Jewish dance freilakhs sounds with special desperate power. Later, this same theme is reproduced in Shostakovich's Eighth Quartet, built largely on musical autoquotations from previous compositions.

In the same 1944, Shostakovich completed the one-act opera Rothschild's Violin (after Chekhov) by his student Veniamin Fleishman, which remained unfinished after its author volunteered for the front and died in the fall of 1941 in the battles near Leningrad.

Already after the war, in 1948, Shostakovich created the First Violin Concerto and the vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry”. In the second part of the violin concerto, a theme reminiscent of freilakhs sounds again. And in the vocal cycle, the Jewish theme for the first time acquires verbal expression in Shostakovich.

The theme reaches its fullest disclosure in the Thirteenth vocal symphony to the verses of Yevtushenko, written in 1962. Its first part “Babi Yar” tells about the execution of Kyiv Jews at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and the theme of anti-Semitism is fully revealed in it.

Preparations for the premiere of the symphony were not without excesses: the Soviet authorities were not enthusiastic about the new work. Mravinsky, who had previously been the first performer of almost all of Shostakovich's symphonies (beginning with the Fifth), preferred to eschew "politics" and refused to conduct the Thirteenth. This led to a cooling of relations between the conductor and the composer.

The premiere was conducted by Kirill Kondrashin. The authorities wished that Yevtushenko "edited" the poem "Babi Yar", strengthening the "internationalist principle" in it. The poet, it must be said, who always avoided serious clashes with the authorities, made this compromise. The performances of the symphony in the USSR took place with a new, censored version of the text.

Piano Trio No. 2 op. 67, Finale. Svyatoslav Richter (piano), Oleg Kagan (violin), Natalia Gutman (cello):

Shostakovich created a lot of official Soviet music. It is believed that in this way he threw the necessary “bone” to the authorities so that they would leave him alone and give him the opportunity to do what was really close and important to him.

His famous "Song of the Counter" (from the film "The Counter", 1932) became a musical symbol of the optimism cultivated in the era of industrialization. His last composition in this genre - a short musical intro to the Soviet Intervision (1971), which sounded before television broadcasts of parades and party congresses - is already a granite monument to Brezhnev's "stagnation". Shostakovich wrote most of the “Soviet music” in the late 1940s and 1950s.

But his most musically outstanding Soviet work is the song “The Motherland Hears” to the words of Dolmatovsky (1950). A real anthem of the era, impressive with rare melodic beauty.

This song (the words of which are parting words to a pilot flying over his native country) is far from the loud pathos of a typical Stalinist musical "Empire". Her music delights with restrained expressiveness, the feeling of a frozen sky and rarefied air, conveyed by an almost motionless accompaniment.

Since Gagarin flew into space and (in his own words) sang this song during landing, its initial motives became the call signs of the All-Union Radio, where they sounded along with the signals of the first satellite - something like the official “melody for mobile phones”, a sound symbol of Soviet prosperity era of the scientific and technological revolution.

The words of the song are the purest Orwell:

“The motherland hears
Motherland knows
where her son flies through the clouds.

With friendly affection
with tender love
the scarlet stars of the tower of Moscow,
Kremlin tower
she's watching you."

D. Shostakovich, verses - E. Dolmatovsky, “The Motherland hears ..”. Boys Choir of the Moscow School. A. V. Sveshnikov, V. S. Popov:

"Bad Shostakovich"

For half a century of creativity, the composer created about one hundred and fifty different works. Along with masterpieces, among them there are also “passing” works, written obviously on a semi-automatic device.

Most often these are works of the applied genre or on official occasions. The composer wrote them without investing much soul and inspiration. They replicate the most common "Shostakovich" techniques - all these endless fragmentation of the rhythm, "gloomy" scales with lower steps, "powerful climaxes", etc. etc. Since then, the expression “bad Shostakovich” has appeared, meaning a superficial shorthand of this kind.

Among his symphonies, not the most successful, for example, the Third ("May Day") with a choir to the words of Semyon Kirsanov (1929). Written with the clear intention of experimenting with form, it ends up being loose and crumbling into episodes that are not tightly connected to each other.

Obviously not the best of Shostakovich and his Twelfth Symphony "1917", dedicated to the memory of Lenin (1961), reminiscent, rather, of sound film music. However, in the opinion of the author of these lines, Yevtushenkov's “Thaw” Symphony Thirteenth (1962) is also interesting more for its programmatic themes than for its music.

Not every string quartet by Shostakovich is on the same level with his best examples of this kind (such as the Third, Eighth or Fifteenth), as well as some other chamber works of the composer.

Dead and resurrected works by Shostakovich

As already mentioned, some of Shostakovich's works saw the light much later than they were written. The first example of this kind is the Fourth Symphony, composed in 1936 and performed a quarter of a century later.

A number of works of the post-war years Shostakovich had to put "on the table" until better times, which came along with the Khrushchev "thaw". This also applies to works directly or indirectly related to Jewish themes: the vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry” and the First Violin Concerto.

Both were written in 1948, when in the Soviet Union, along with the “fight against formalism”, an anti-Semitic campaign was launched to “fight against cosmopolitanism”. They sounded for the first time only in 1955.

During the years of liberalization, along with the premieres of Shostakovich's works, which were not published during the years of Stalin's dictatorship, there was also a "rehabilitation" of his operas. In 1962, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" was revived in a new, more "chaste" author's edition called "Katerina Izmailova".

A year before the composer's death, the opera The Nose also returned to the USSR. In 1974, it was staged at the Moscow Chamber Musical Theater under the direction of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, directed by Boris Pokrovsky. Since then, this performance has become the main hallmark of the theater, like "The Seagull" at the Moscow Art Theater.

Shostakovich has a work that saw the light of day and became famous after the death of the author. This is “Anti-Formalistic Raek” – an evil and witty mockery of the ideological pogrom of 1948, written in hot pursuit on the composer’s own text.

It is a cantata (or one-act mini-opera) modeled on Mussorgsky's satirical Raik and depicts a gathering of cultural officials denouncing musical "formalism". The composer kept this thing a secret all his life and showed it only to a few close friends, including Grigory Kozintsev and Isaac Glikman. "Anti-formalistic rayek" came to the West only during the years of Gorbachev's "perestroika" and was performed for the first time in 1989 in the USA. Immediately after that, he sounded in the USSR.

In the satirical characters of the cantata Edinitsyn, Dvoikin and Troikin one can easily guess their prototypes: Stalin, Zhdanov and Shepilov (a party leader who spoke about music already in the 1950s). The music of this work is replete with quotations and parodies. The score is preceded by a witty and bilious stylized author's preface-mystification (allegedly about a "manuscript found in a box with sewage"), where several more encrypted surnames are named, behind which it is easy to recognize the ideological inquisitors of the Stalin era.

Shostakovich also has unfinished works. His opera, begun during the war, remained unfinished - "Players" based on the play of the same name by Gogol (to the original text). After the death of the composer, the opera was completed by Krzysztof Meyer and premiered in Wuppertal in 1983.

Other unfinished (or even barely begun) opera projects by Shostakovich have also survived. Probably, there are still some works of the composer (partially performed, but unfinished composer's ideas), which we have yet to discover.

"Anti-formalistic rayek". Moscow Virtuosos, conductor – Vladimir Spivakov, Alexei Mochalov (bass), Boris Pevzner Choir Theatre:

Disciples and followers

Shostakovich laid the foundation for a whole school of composers. He taught for several decades - with a break during the years of "struggle against formalism."

Several well-known composers came out of the “DSh school”. One of the composer's favorite students was Boris Tishchenko (1939-2010), a prominent representative of the Leningrad school formed by Shostakovich. Two other most famous and equally beloved students of the Children's School of Music later went far from him into the "right" and "left" wing of post-war Russian music.

The first of them - Georgy Sviridov (1915-1998) - already in the 1950s became the most influential representative of the "national-soil" trend in Russian music, in many respects close to writers and "village poets". Another - Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) - in the darkest years (already from the end of the 1940s) became an uncompromising representative of the national "new music".

Subsequently, she spoke of her complete creative break with the teacher. But despite how far her own musical language has gone from it, having acquired extreme asceticism and, at the same time, an equally extreme measure of expression, she can be considered an expression of “not a letter, but a spirit” of Shostakovich, elevated to the ultimate degree of existential power.

Any composing school is fraught with epigonism and style inertia. Apart from a few creative personalities, Shostakovich's school has formed many "pale shadows" replicating the most typical elements of his music. Quite quickly, these clichés of musical thinking became the standard in the composition departments of Soviet conservatories. About this kind of epigonism, the late Edison Denisov liked to say that such authors write “not like Shostakovich, but like Levitin” (meaning one of the typical non-creative followers of “Dmit-Dmitch”).

In addition to direct students, many other composers were influenced by Shostakovich. The best of them inherit not so much the features of style as the main principles of his music - narrativity (eventfulness), collision (a tendency to direct dramatic collisions) and pointed intonation.

Shostakovich's creative successors include our compatriot Alfred Schnittke, the German Wolfgang Rihm, the Pole Krzysztof Meyer, and the Englishman Gerard McBurney. The last two authors also made a major contribution to the reconstruction of Shostakovich's unfinished works.

Edison Denisov, DSCH. Richard Valitutto (piano), Brian Walsh (clarinet), Derek Stein (cello), Mat Barbier (trombone):

Critics and Detractors

Dissatisfaction with Shostakovich's music was expressed not only by Soviet apparatchiks. Even before any "Muddle instead of music", the emphasized naturalism of the opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" did not please the critics of the American newspaper "New York Sun", who called this work "pornophony".

Prokofiev, then living in the West, spoke of “waves of lust” in opera music. Stravinsky, on the other hand, believed that in "Lady Macbeth ..." "a disgusting libretto, the musical spirit of this work is directed to the past, and the music comes from Mussorgsky." However, the relationship between the three largest Russian composers of the 20th century has never been simple...

If Soviet leaders, opportunists and retrogrades criticized Shostakovich for excessive "modernism", then critics from the "left", on the contrary, for insufficient "relevance". The latter included the recently deceased French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, one of the founders of the post-war musical avant-garde in the West.

For him, there simply did not exist music based on a free programmatic and dramatic eventfulness, and not on the novelty of the musical language and the impeccability of the sound structure. The music of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky always “disappeared” from the repertoire of the orchestras that Boulez led. For the same reason, Philip Gershkovich, a Viennese student of Berg and Webern, who emigrated to the USSR during the war, scolded Shostakovich. With his characteristic maximalism, he caustically called Shostakovich "a hack in a trance", referring to the replicated techniques of his music.

Shostakovich had enough of critics from the “right”. At the beginning of the 21st century, the diaries of the late Sviridov, a student of Shostakovich, were published, largely indebted to him for his successful composing career. In them, he extremely sharply criticizes his teacher for the "false path" of his work, for symphonism, "alien to the nature of Russian music." Sviridov declares Shostakovich's operas a mockery of old Russia: "The Nose" - over metropolitan-urban Russia, and "Lady Macbeth" - over provincial-rural Russia. The teacher also got it for songs and oratorios to the words of Dolmatovsky ...

Of course, such a position also has the right to exist. It remains only to ask: what prevented Sviridov, by that time already a major functionary of the Union of Composers, from saying his honest opinion of principle to Shostakovich in person, instead of pouring out bile in his diary entries?

And was it really worth condemning the author of the oratorio about Stalin to the words of Dolmatovsky, the author of the oratorio about Lenin to the words of Mayakovsky, the music for the film about Stalin's industrialization (which later became the screensaver of the main Soviet propaganda television program) and the participant in the competition for the new national anthem of the USSR, conducted by Khrushchev in early 1960 -s?

Of course, Shostakovich had enough political critics both at home and abroad. Some considered him too “anti-Soviet”. Others, on the contrary, are too “Soviet”.

So, for example, Solzhenitsyn, in whom the composer showed great interest when his camp prose was published in the USSR, reprimanded Shostakovich peremptorily for the Fourteenth Symphony, reproaching the author for the lack of religiosity in it, thus acting as an "ideologist on the contrary."

Shostakovich's attitude to the Soviet power can be called "Hamletian". This gave rise to many disputes, conjectures and legends. The image of the “Soviet composer Shostakovich” was spread mainly by official propaganda. Another, opposite myth, about the “anti-Soviet composer Shostakovich”, was created in the circles of opposition-minded intellectuals.

In fact, Shostakovich's attitude to power changed throughout his life. For a native of the St. Petersburg raznochinskaya intelligentsia, where, according to tradition, they hated and despised the “tsarist regime”, the Bolshevik revolution meant both a new just structure of society and support for everything new in art.

Until the mid-1930s, in Shostakovich's statements (both in the press and in personal letters) one can find many words of approval of the then Soviet cultural policy. In 1936, Shostakovich received the first blow from the authorities, which made him seriously frightened and thoughtful. After him, the composer's romance with leftist ideology and aesthetics ended. This was followed by a new blow in 1948. Thus, the composer's internal discord grew in his attitude to former ideals and to the reality that existed around him.

Even from pre-war times, Shostakovich belonged to the elite of domestic "masters of art." Starting in the 1950s, he gradually became part of the nomenklatura, taking on more and more “responsible duties and positions” (as he himself sarcastically put it in “Foreword to my complete works ...”).

It is surprising that Shostakovich took on all these “burdens” already in those relatively liberal times, when no one forced him to do this by force and, if desired, he could refuse them. More and more Hamletian double-mindedness appeared in his statements and actions. At the same time, in dealing with people, Shostakovich remained an extremely decent person.

Using his privileges, he helped a lot those who needed it, especially young composers of the "left" wing. Apparently, in his relations with the authorities, Shostakovich once and for all chose the path of least resistance. Pronouncing in public the “correct” speeches, befitting his “responsible loads”, in everyday life he allowed himself to be frank only with the closest people.

Of course, Shostakovich can by no means be called a "dissident." According to some testimonies, he was skeptical of well-known representatives of the dissident environment, having managed to discern unsightly human features in them. And Shostakovich had a great flair for the owners of leadership habits, no matter what political camp they belonged to.

Music for Kozintsev's film "Hamlet". Episode "Death of Ophelia":

The grounds for them are episodes of official attacks on the composer that took place in 1936 and 1948. But do not forget that during the years of Stalin's dictatorship, there were practically no "unwhacked" representatives of the intelligentsia. The masters of culture were treated by the Stalinist authorities with their favorite method of carrot and stick.

The blows that Shostakovich happened to experience could be more accurately called a short-term disgrace, rather than repression. He was no more a “victim” and “martyr of the system” than many of his fellow artists, who retained their position as a cultural elite, receiving state orders, honorary titles and government awards. The hardships of Shostakovich cannot be even closely compared with the fate of such people as Meyerhold, Mandelstam, Zabolotsky, Kharms or Platonov, who took their share in executions, prison, camps or poverty.

The same is true of composers who “tasted” the Stalinist Gulag (like Vsevolod Zaderatsky or Alexander Veprik) or were forever expelled from musical life and morally destroyed (like Nikolai Roslavets or Alexander Mosolov).

The lack of clear standards in assessments becomes especially evident when, on the one hand, it comes to Shostakovich in the USSR, and, on the other hand, about composers in Nazi Germany. Today, both in Russia and in the West, Shostakovich is often called a “victim” of totalitarianism, and such German composers as Richard Strauss or Karl Orff are his “fellow travelers” (the periods of cooperation between Strauss or Orff with the Nazi authorities were very short-lived, both composers were not part of the ruling party, and their compositions, written on official occasions, were isolated in their work). Moreover, like Shostakovich, Richard Strauss experienced the disfavor of the Nazi authorities. It is not clear why some should then be considered “victims” and others “conformists”…

Shostakovich through the eyes of biographers: letters and apocrypha

Shostakovich rarely trusted his innermost thoughts to paper. Despite the many press appearances and documentaries where we can see him and hear his voice, we have access to very few statements by the composer made outside the official setting.

Shostakovich did not keep a diary. Among his acquaintances there were very few people with whom he was frank in conversations and personal correspondence. The great merit of Isaac Glickman is that in 1993 he published about 300 surviving letters from Shostakovich to him in the book Letters to a Friend. Dmitri Shostakovich to Isaac Glikman. In these letters we read the true thoughts of Shostakovich on a variety of topics.

The absence of a documented authentic uncensored "direct speech" of Shostakovich turned the citation of his words into the subject of oral folklore. From this arose many anecdotes and urban legends about him. Over many decades, hundreds of books, articles, memoirs and studies have been published about the composer.

To date, the most conscientious, detailed and reliable monograph on Shostakovich can be considered the book by Krzysztof Meyer "Dmitry Shostakovich: Life, Work, Time", published in the mid-1990s in Germany (and shortly after that in Russia). It is written in an accessible language, contains a detailed study of the composer's life, numerous quotations and musical examples.

Alas, otherwise most of the existing literature on Shostakovich deserves Mayakovsky's well-known definition: "just nonsense, or harmful nonsense." Many of these publications were made not so much for the sake of objective research, but for the self-promotion of their authors or for other selfish purposes. It was beneficial for someone to create a myth about the “Soviet” Shostakovich. Someone, on the contrary, to create a legend about the “victim and the dissident”.

After Shostakovich’s death, foreign publishers, record companies, concert agents and our domestic performers who emigrated to the West turned out to be very interested in cultivating the “anti-Soviet” image of the composer in order to increase Shostakovich’s “marketability” and extract as many advantages from his name as possible for themselves.

A classic example of unreliable literature about Shostakovich was Solomon Volkov's book Testimony, published in 1979 in the United States in English. Its text is presented as an oral autobiographical memoir, dictated by Shostakovich himself to the author before the latter's departure for permanent residence abroad.

In this book, Shostakovich is the way Volkov presents him: he expresses his negative attitude towards the Soviet regime, speaks sharply about his colleagues and contemporaries. Some of these statements sound really plausible, since they quite naturally reproduce Shostakovich's manner of speaking and they are confirmed by other replicas of the composer known to us on similar topics.

Other statements raise serious doubts about their authenticity, especially the author's interpretations of his own writings and their sensational political interpretations.

Volkov assured readers and critics that he recorded on a dictaphone, and then transcribed Shostakovich's direct speech on paper, and he then personally read and endorsed all these sheets. In support of his words, Volkov published a facsimile of some of the pages that bear Shostakovich's signatures.

Shostakovich's widow does not deny that her husband's several brief meetings with Volkov actually took place, but it would be completely unbelievable to expect such frankness from Shostakovich in a conversation with a young man unfamiliar to him.

The fact that for almost 40 years since the first publication, Volkov never bothered to provide the original texts, which he passes off as the words of Shostakovich (entirely all the pages endorsed personally by the composer, or dictaphone tapes on which his voice would have sounded), gives every reason to believe this book is fake. Or, at best, an apocrypha based on a compilation of true and imaginary statements by Shostakovich.

Shostakovich died a little over a year before his 70th birthday.

Russian composers in general very rarely managed to overcome this age barrier. The exception is Igor Stravinsky. We wish those who are still alive long life. Perhaps only now is the time when the life and music of Shostakovich, while retaining its great power of influence and interest for the new generation, gets a chance to wait for its honest and impartial research.

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