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Dmitry Shostakovich
Significant 20th-century Soviet composer. Notable as one of the great symphonists of the time, Shostakovich wrote tonal music coloured by an expressive use of dissonance. Fast-working and productive his varied ouput includes symphonies, concertos, chamber music, ballets, operas, cantatas and oratorios and many instrumental and vocal works.
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 Symphony no.5 (4th movt.)
Leningrad PO/Mravinsky - Erato 2292-45752
String Quartet no.2 (1st movt.)
Borodin String Quartet - Virgin 61630
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Born: 1906
Died: 1975
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As for the strictly technical devices from such musical 'systems' as, say, the twelve-tone or the aleatory ... everything is good in moderation ... The use of elements from these complex systems is entirely justified if it is dictated by the idea of the composition.
Shostakovich on the use of avant-garde techniques.
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![See Also [closely related to this]](/web/20060619045417im_/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/images/seealso.gif) |
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Discovering Music:
Video:
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A collection of documents and photographs relating to Shostakovich
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| SHOSTAKOVICH IN ONE MINUTE |
- His First Symphony was written when he was only 19 and soon performed internationally
- Active as a teacher throughout most of his career, he taught at both the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories
- Originally hailed as a product of the "best traditions of Soviet culture" his early opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was later denounced by Pravda and Stalin as "chaos"
- His complex relationship with prevailing Soviet aesthetics, and the notion of an "official" and "real" Shostakovich, has often overshadowed the simple appreciation of his music
- The Seventh Symphony was written during the siege of Leningrad and depicts the city's struggle with the Nazi invaders
- 1948 saw tighter Soviet restrictions on creative expression, with Shostakovich accused of embracing "the formalistic perversions and anti-democratic tendencies in music"
- A prolific film composer, he wrote 36 film scores including those for prize-winning films Encounter at the Elbe and The Fall of Berlin
- He counted amongst his Soviet friends and colleagues such musical giants as Rostropovich, Mravinsky, Richter, David Oistrakh and Emil Gilels
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Latest » 
![Suggestions? [different angles on this]](/web/20060619045417im_/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/images/suggestions.gif)
Symphony no.5
Cello Concerto no.1
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk 
Quartets 2,3,7,8,12
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered
Shostakovich Studies