Dmitry Shostakovich, whose biography interests many lovers of classical music, is a famous Soviet composer, who became famous far beyond the borders of his native country.
Shostakovich childhood
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 lover of music, his mother is a piano teacher), was carried away from an early age: the taciturn thin boy, sitting down at the piano, turned into an impudent musician.
“The Soldier” wrote his first work at the age of 8, under the influence of constant adult conversations about the outbreak of the First World War. D. Shostakovich, whose biography was connected with music all his life, became a student of the music school of I.A. Glassera, a well-known teacher. Although with the basics of
musical notation Dmitry introduced his mother.
Shostakovich: biography of the Soviet composer
In Dmitry’s life, along with music, there was always love. For the first time, a young man visited a magical feeling at the age of 13: the object of love was 10-year-old Natalya Kube, to whom the musician dedicated a small prelude. But the feeling gradually died away, and the virtuoso pianist remained forever with the desire to devote his creations to his beloved women.
After studying at a private school, in 1919, Dmitry Shostakovich, whose biography took a professional musical start, entered the Petrograd Conservatory, successfully completing it in 1923 in two classes at once: composition and playing the piano. 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 thesis. The depth of feelings expressed in this work was caused not only by love, but also by a disease that resulted from the composer's many sleepless nights, his experiences and depression, developing against the backdrop of all this.
A worthy start to a musical career
The premiere of the First Symphony, which flew around the world after many years, took place in 1926 in St. Petersburg. Music critics considered in a talented composer a worthy replacement for those who emigrated from the country, Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. The same symphony brought world fame to the young composer and virtuoso pianist. Speaking at the First Chopin International Piano Competition in 1927, held in Warsaw, one of the members of the jury Bruno Walter, an Austro-American composer and conductor, drew Shostakovich’s unusual talent. He invited Dmitry to play something else, and when the First Symphony began to sound, Walter asked the young composer to send him a score in Berlin. On November 22, 1927, the conductor performed this piece of music, which made Shostakovich famous throughout the world.
In 1927, the talented Shostakovich, whose biography includes many downs and ups, inspired by the success of the First Symphony, set about creating the opera Nose by Gogol. Next, the First Piano Concerto was created, after which two more symphonies were written in the late 1920s.
Heart affairs
But what about Tatyana? She, like most unmarried girls, waited a long time for a marriage proposal, which timid Shostakovich, who had extremely pure and bright feelings for his mastermind, either did not guess, or did not dare to do. The more agile gentleman who met on the way of Tatyana took her down the aisle; to him she gave birth to a son. After three years, Shostakovich, who had been persecuting all that time now a stranger’s beloved, suggested that Tatyana become his wife. But the girl preferred to completely break off all relations with a talented fan, who turned out to be too timid in life.
Having finally made sure 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 steadily survived all these years of her husband’s passion for other women, his frequent betrayals 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 Supinsky. Amid hearty affairs, Dmitry did not stop creating, but in his relations with music he acted much more decisively.
On the waves of the mood of the authorities
In 1934, the opera “Lady of Mtsensk Uyezd” was staged in Leningrad, which the audience immediately accepted with a bang. However, after a season and a half, its existence was threatened: the piece of music was sharply criticized by the Soviet authorities and was removed from the repertoire. The premiere of the Fourth Symphony of Shostakovich, characterized by a more monumental scale in contrast to the previous ones, was supposed 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 occurred only in 1961. The 5th symphony was released 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 Moscow, from where he was subsequently expelled by the Stalinist authorities, who undertook to "restore order" in the Union of Composers, due to unsuitability. The “correct” work released by Dmitry on time saved his position. Further, 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 seriously ill, suffering from lung cancer. The composer died in 1975. His ashes were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Today, Shostakovich’s works, personifying a pronounced inner human drama, conveying a chronicle of terrible mental suffering - the most performed in the whole world. The most popular are the Fifth and Eighth Symphonies out of fifteen written. Of the string quartets, which are also fifteen, the most performed are the Eighth and Fifteenth.