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Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich [a] [b] (25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist [1] who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.
It is the duty of all Soviet composers to celebrate this anniversary with dignity. And the best gift for the anniversary will be new beautiful works lauding the image of the beloved leader, the greatness of the achievements of the Soviet people building communism. [6] In April 1969, Shostakovich announced that he had begun to work on an ...
The Communist party again encouraged composers to incorporate themes of the Russian Revolution, as well as nationalist tunes. Zhdanov castigated composers on an individual basis, particularly Prokofiev and Shostakovich, for embracing Western ideals during the war. Tikhon Khrennikov, meanwhile, was appointed head of the Union of Soviet Composers ...
The film adopts the revisionist view of Shostakovich put forward by Solomon Volkov in his book Testimony (which is quoted extensively in the film without attribution). [1] This view holds that Shostakovich was strongly opposed to the leadership of Josef Stalin, and that he included anti-government messages in his compositions under the Soviet ...
The piece was written shortly after Shostakovich reluctantly joined the Communist Party.According to the score, it is dedicated "to the victims of fascism and the war"; his son Maxim interprets this as a reference to the victims of all totalitarianism, while his daughter Galina says that he dedicated it to himself, and that the published dedication was imposed by Soviet authorities.
Particularly, the premiere of Symphony No. 13 "Babi Yar" (1962), which had provoked enormous disapproval among the Soviet leadership of the Communist Party (the symphony's song text denounces the Soviet anti-Semitism of the time), was probably the main reason why Shostakovich had not considered publishing his satirical cantata. [4]
Some of Shostakovich's works at the time had been subject to condemnation by the Communist Party. His opera Katerina Izmailova was a 1962 revision of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which had been banned by the Communist government in 1936. Because of this controversy, it premiered with no publicity.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material.In January 1936, halfway through this period, Pravda—under direct orders from Joseph Stalin [1] —published an editorial "Muddle Instead of Music" that denounced the composer and targeted his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.