Born in St. Petersburg in September 1906, Dmitri Shostakovich began showing significant musical talent at the age of 9, after beginning piano lessons with his mother. At the age of 13, he enrolled in the (then) Petrograd Conservatory to study piano and composition. He performed his First Symphony on 12 May 1926 and would jokingly refer to the date as his ‘artistic birthday’
With the fraught political climate in the Soviet Union during this time, the state-run newspaper Pravda denounced his work on multiple occasions, claiming that the compositions were not representative nor compliant with the values of the Union. His relationship with the state would continue to fluctuate throughout his life, and his first opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk was slated by Pravda in 1936. However, he still received the Lenin and Wihuri Sibelius Prizes for his Symphony No 11.
His early work shows the influence of classical Russian composers, and his withdrawn Fourth Symphony was heavily influenced by Mahler. Following his study of Moisei Beregovski’s 1944 thesis on Jewish Folk Music, Shostakovich would include Jewish folk themes within his music, allegedly due to his fascination with the music’s ‘ability to build jolly melody on sad intonations’. During the latter parts of his life, his work would reflect the influence of Beethoven and Bach.
Unlike other composers, Shostakovich was not in the habit of quoting other composers in his work. Instead, he developed his own signature, based on his Germanic initials. DSCH became a musical motif that would feature throughout his late career. Formed by the notes D, E flat, C and B, this musical signature appeared in multiple compositions, including his String Quartet No 6, Symphony No 15 and the Cello Concerto No 1. Multiple composers have paid homage to his memory by including the motif within their own works, including Ronald Stevenson, Schnittke and Tsintsadze.
While Lady Macbeth of Mtensk was lambasted by Pravda, his operetta Cheryomushski was better received, and the tale of hope against corrupt bureaucracy has been performed across the world since it’s inception, and comes to Welsh National Opera this Autumn, in a brand new production, Cherry Town, Moscow directed by Daisy Evans.
Like numerous other artists in the Soviet Union, Shostakovich knew that any outspoken criticism of the government could easily lead to his arrest and denouncement. His work soon contained subliminal instances of dissonance as he expressed his distaste with the state he was living in. His compositions were consistently affected by his emotional and mental state, and while compatriots Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev were influential to his work, his later symphonies are saturated with his obsession with his own mortality.
Shostakovich’s Cherry Town, Moscow will be performed by WNO Youth Opera at Wales Millennium Centre on Sunday 9 October as part of our Autumn 2022 Season.