Biography of Shostakovich

Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina

Shostakovich was born on September 25 1906 to Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. He had 2 sisters, Mariya Shostakovich and Zoya Shostakovich. Shostakovich’s mother forbade him from playing the piano until he was relatively old compared to when other composers started their musical careers. Shostakovich was left watching his sisters' lessons in envy. At the age of 9, he finally began playing piano under his mother’s guidance. Shortly afterwards, he began lessons with O. F. and I. A. Gljasser. After 4 years, he was accepted into the Petrograd Conservatory for the arts, where he would study the piano with Leonid Nikolayev and composition with Maximilian Shteynberg. Here, he would spend the next 6 years learning composition and 4 learning the piano. Notable works include his first piece, Scherzo in F# Minor composed in 1919, and Symphony No. 1 in F minor composed in 1924. Shostakovich's first Symphony was performed in Leningrad in 1926 as his graduation piece.

Shostakovich's Graduating Class:

While he was staying in Dietskoïe Zielo in 1927, Shostakovich met his future wife Nina Vasilevna Varzar who he spotted playing tennis with her three sisters. During the same time, Shostakovich would compose his second symphony, nicknamed “To October” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October revolution. His second symphony was met with mixed reception. Many enjoyed the orchestral instrumentation but not the choral “lyrics”. In 1930, Shostakovich composed his Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district opera, which was only aired in 1934, but had over 200 performances by 1936. In the same year, Shostakovich entered into an affair with Elena Konstantinovskaya , breaking Shostakovich’s marriage with Nina (However they still bore two children, Galina Dmitrievna Shostakovich and Maxim Shostakovich, and remarried in 1954). His light opera was showered with praise. However, once Stalin went to see the opera for himself in 1936 and was left unsatisfied, Pravda (Russia’s official newspaper organization) started ripping into Shostakovich and his opera, calling it “chaos”, not “music”.

Shostakovich disappeared from public life to flee the Russian government, until the 1937 première of his 5th symphony. Even with all the underlying tension and despair, his 5th symphony was met with great reception - even from Stalin himself, who was warming up to Shostakovich’s style (Stalin awarded him the Stalin Prize in 1940 for Shostakovich’s piano quartet in g minor).

In December 1941, Shostakovich finished composing his 7th symphony which he dedicated to Leningrad. Funnily enough, this quartet became the symbol of resistance against Nazism after a score was stolen and taken out of Russia where it was conducted by Toscanini, an Italian conductor. Sadly, during the cultural purges in 1948, Shostakovich, along with many other contemporary composers like Prokofiev were denounced for joining the ‘cult of atonality, dissonance and discord’. Shostakovich was forced into hiding again.

However, Shostakovich returned triumphantly in 1953 with his 10th Symphony (composed in 1951) which was regarded as a masterpiece. Sadly, one year later, Shostakovich’s wife, Nina, dies. He then married Margarita Andreevna Kajnova in 1956, but their marriage would only last 3 years.

In 1960, Shostakovich composed his 7th and 8th string quartets, with his 8th being dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and the war”. Unexpectedly, Shostakovich’s music took a conservative turn. He criticized musical avant-garde and published his 12th symphony, nicknamed “The Year 1917” or “To the memory of Lenin” the year after. Afterwards, in 1962, he married Irina Antonova Supinskaja but fell ill to severe arthritis and heart troubles in 1966. Finally, in 1975, Shostakovich was elected as an honorary member of the French Academy of Arts and Science, composed his Viola Sonata, and died on August 9th.