Dmitry Shostakovich: biography of the great composer

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Dmitry Shostakovich, whose biography is of interest to many lovers of classical music, is a famous Soviet composer who became famous far beyond the borders of his native country.

Childhood of Shostakovich

Born September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg in the family of a pianist and chemist. Music, which was an important component in his family (his father is a passionate music lover, his mother is a piano teacher), was carried away from an early age: a taciturn thin boy, sitting down at the piano, turned into a daring musician.

His first work "Soldier" was written at the age of 8, under the influence of constant conversations of adults about the outbreak of the First World War. D. Shostakovich, whose biography was associated with music all his life, became a student of the music school of I. A. Glyasser, a well-known teacher. Although Dmitry was introduced to the basics of musical notation by his mother.

Shostakovich: biography of the Soviet composer

In Dmitry's life, along with music, love has always been present. For the first time, a magical feeling visited the young man at the age of 13: 10-year-old Natalya Kube became the object of love, to whom the musician dedicated a small prelude. But the feeling faded awayand the desire to dedicate his creations to his beloved women remained with the virtuoso pianist forever.

After studying at a private school, in 1919 Dmitry Shostakovich, whose biography took a professional musical start, entered the Petrograd Conservatory, successfully graduating in 1923 in two classes at once: composition and piano playing. At the same time, a new sympathy met on his way - the beautiful Tatyana Glivenko. The girl was the same age as the composer, pretty, well-educated, cheerful and cheerful, who inspired Shostakovich to create the First Symphony, which, upon graduation, was handed over as a graduation work. The depth of feelings expressed in this work was caused not only by love, but also by an illness that became the result of many sleepless nights of the composer, his experiences and depression developing against the background of all this.

A worthy start to a musical career

The premiere of the First Symphony, which spread all over the world after many years, took place in 1926 in St. Petersburg. Music critics considered the talented composer a worthy replacement for Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, who emigrated from the country. The same symphony brought the young composer and virtuoso pianist worldwide fame. When performing at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in 1927, held in Warsaw, one of the members of the competition jury, Bruno W alter, an Austro-American composer andconductor. He suggested that Dmitry play something else, and when the First Symphony began to sound, W alter asked the young composer to send him a score to Berlin. On November 22, 1927, the conductor performed this piece of music, which made Shostakovich famous all over the world.

In 1927, the talented Shostakovich, whose biography includes many ups and downs, inspired by the success of the First Symphony, set about creating the opera The Nose after Gogol. Then the First Piano Concerto was created, after which two more symphonies were written in the late 1920s.

Matters of the Heart

And what about Tatyana? She, like most unmarried girls, waited a long time for a marriage proposal, which the timid Shostakovich, who had exceptionally pure and bright feelings for his inspirer, either did not guess, or did not dare to do. A more agile cavalier, who met Tatiana on the way, took her down the aisle; to him she bore a son. After three years, Shostakovich, who had been pursuing all this time now someone else's beloved, invited Tatyana to become his wife. But the girl chose to completely break off all relations with a talented fan who turned out to be too timid in life.

Finally convinced that his beloved could not be returned, Shostakovich, whose biography was closely intertwined with music and love experiences, in the same year married Nina Varzar, a young student with whom he lived for more than 20 years. The woman who bore him two children steadfastly survived all these years of her husband's passion for other women,his frequent infidelities and died before her beloved husband.

After the death of Nina Shostakovich, whose brief biography includes several masterpieces and world-famous works, he created a family twice: with Margarita Kayonova and Irina Supinskaya. Against the backdrop of affairs of the heart, Dmitry did not stop creating, but in relations with music, he behaved much more decisively.

On the waves of the mood of the authorities

In 1934, the opera "The Lady of the Mtsensk District" was staged in Leningrad, immediately accepted by the audience with a bang. However, after a season and a half, its existence was in jeopardy: the piece of music was sharply criticized by the Soviet authorities and was removed from the repertoire. The premiere of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony, which was characterized by a more monumental scope in contrast to the previous ones, was to take place in 1936. Due to the unstable situation in the country and the biased attitude of government officials towards people of creativity, the first performance of a musical work took place only in 1961. The 5th symphony was published in 1937. During the Great Patriotic War, Shostakovich set to work on the 7th symphony - "Leningrad", first performed on March 5, 1942.

From 1943 to 1948, Shostakovich was engaged in teaching at the Moscow Conservatory of the city of Moscow, from where he was subsequently expelled by the Stalinist authorities, who undertook to “put things in order” in the Union of Composers, due to unsuitability. The “correct” work released by Dmitry on time saved his position. Next, the composer was expected to join the party (forced),as well as many other circumstances, of which there were still more ups than downs.

In recent years, Shostakovich, whose biography is studied with interest by many music fans, was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. The composer died in 1975. His ashes were buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Today, Shostakovich's works, embodying a pronounced inner human drama, conveying a chronicle of terrible mental suffering, are the most performed all over the world. The most popular are the Fifth and Eighth symphonies out of fifteen written. Of the string quartets, which are also fifteen, the Eighth and Fifteenth are the most performed.