“No, and I am very sorry about it”
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Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.
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politics · Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist (1906–1975) · classical composer · choreographer · pianist · politician · jazz musician · university teacher · librettist · music educator · composer · director · also Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Dmitrievitch Chostakovitch, Dmitriii Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Dimitri Shostakovich, Dmitrij Šostakovič
Born 25 September 1906 · Died 9 August 1975 · Q80135
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2026· 3 entries
Time Out Worldwide: Holy Fool, Park Theatre: Drama about Dmitri Shostakovich”s efforts to stay on the right side of the Soviet regime
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The Guardian: Shostakovich: Symphonies No 2 and 5 album review – early experiment meets mature power
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2025· 4 entries
The Guardian: Aurora Orchestra/Collon review – high impact and high intensity as Shostakovich’s fifth is brought to life
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The Guardian: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3; Two Scherzos album review – deft execution of the Russian’s early exuberance
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The Guardian: Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk album review
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The Guardian: Commemorating Shostakovich review – vivid and nervy chamber music with Kissin a sensitive voice
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2024· 2 entries
The Guardian: Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos 1-5 album review – complete survey opens with bite and promise
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The Guardian: Shostakovich: Symphonies 4, 5 and 6 album review – Klaus Mäkelä takes on history
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2023· 1 entry
The Guardian: Shostakovich: Symphonies 2, 3, 12 and 13 album review – Nelsons ends his cycle as convincingly as it began
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2004· 1 entry
Musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a trove of Shostakovich manuscripts at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow
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1981· 1 entry
That Volkov's book was not his father's work
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1980· 1 entry
“Theme from the film Pirogov, Opus 76a: Finale”
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1976· 1 entry
Awarded Shevchenko National Prize (1976).
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1975· 2 entries
Died 1975-08-09.
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“What do you think of Puccini?[ Britten: "I think his operas are dreadful." ]No, Ben, you are wrong. He wrote marvellous operas, but dreadful music.”
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1974· 2 entries
Awarded Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1974).
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Awarded Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1974).
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1973· 2 entries
Awarded Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1973).
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Of the Soviet physicist and political activist Andrei Sakharov
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1972· 3 entries
Awarded People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1972).
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Awarded Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972).
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Awarded Star of People's Friendship (1972).
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1971· 1 entry
Awarded Order of the October Revolution (1971).
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1968· 1 entry
Awarded USSR State Prize (1968).
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1967· 2 entries
Won Great Silver Medal of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (1967).
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Wrote in a letter: "Target achieved so far: 75% (right leg broken, left leg broken, right hand defective)
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1966· 3 entries
Awarded Order of Lenin (1966).
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Won Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (1966).
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Won "Hammer and Sickle" gold medal (1966).
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1965· 1 entry
Shostakovich raised his voice in defence of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor
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1964· 1 entry
Shostakovich composed the music for the Russian film Hamlet, which was favorably reviewed by The New York Times: "But the lack of this aural stimulation—of Shakespeare's eloquent words—is recompensed in some measure by a
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1962· 2 entries
Was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Khovanshchina (1959)
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Shostakovich married for the third time, to Irina Supinskaya
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1961· 1 entry
Was dedicated to Lenin and called "The Year 1917"
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1960· 1 entry
Was appointed Chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers; from 1962 until his death, he also served as a delegate in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
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1959· 1 entry
Shostakovich appeared on stage in Moscow at the end of a concert performance of his Fifth Symphony, congratulating Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for their performance (part of a concert tour o
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1958· 4 entries
Awarded Lenin Prize for Symphony No. 11 (1958).
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Awarded Wihuri Sibelius Prize (1958).
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Shostakovich experienced a decline in his motor functions
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Suffered from a debilitating condition that particularly affected his right hand, eventually forcing him to give up piano playing; in 1965, it was diagnosed as poliomyelitis, but consensus on his diagnosis is unclear
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1956· 2 entries
Awarded Order of Lenin (1956).
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Performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Thirteenth Symphony (1962)
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1954· 3 entries
Awarded People's Artist of the USSR (1954).
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Awarded World Peace Council prizes (1954).
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Shostakovich wrote the Festive Overture, opus 96; it was used as the theme music for the 1980 Summer Olympics
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1953· 1 entry
Was the biggest step toward Shostakovich's rehabilitation as a creative artist, which was marked by his Tenth Symphony
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1952· 1 entry
Awarded Stalin Prize (1952).
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1950· 1 entry
Awarded Stalin Prize for The Fall of Berlin (1950).
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1949· 2 entries
When Stalin decided that the Soviets needed to send artistic representatives to the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York City, and that Shostakovich should be among them
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Under the pressure of the anti-Semitism that gripped the country
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1948· 3 entries
Shostakovich acquired a book of Jewish folk songs, from which he composed the song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry
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His work was denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years
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Shostakovich, along with many other composers, was again denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov decree
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1947· 2 entries
Awarded People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947).
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Shostakovich was made a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
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1946· 3 entries
Awarded Order of Lenin (1946).
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Awarded Stalin Prize (1946).
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And the work was finally premiered in 1961
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1942· 2 entries
Awarded Honored art worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1942).
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Awarded Stalin Prize for Symphony No. 7 (1942).
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1941· 2 entries
Awarded Stalin Prize (1941).
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Shostakovich initially remained in Leningrad
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1940· 1 entry
Awarded Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1940).
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1939· 1 entry
Before Soviet forces attempted to invade Finland, the Party Secretary of Leningrad Andrei Zhdanov commissioned a celebratory piece from Shostakovich, the Suite on Finnish Themes, to be performed as the marching bands of
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1935· 1 entry
But the couple soon remarried when Nina became pregnant with their first child, Galina
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1934· 1 entry
And 1935 cited Berg, Schoenberg, Krenek, Hindemith, "and especially Stravinsky" among his influences
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1927· 1 entry
Shostakovich wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled To October), a patriotic piece with a pro-Soviet choral finale
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1926· 1 entry
And thereafter was regarded as a major composer
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1925· 2 entries
Enrolled in the conducting classes of Nikolai Malko, where he conducted the conservatory orchestra in a private performance of Beethoven's First Symphony
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Studied at Saint Petersburg Conservatory (1919–1925).
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1921· 2 entries
“taught [him] to understand and love such great masters as Brahms, Mahler, and Bruckner”
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Through their mutual friends Lev Arnshtam and Lydia Zhukova
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1919· 1 entry
At age 13, Shostakovich was admitted to the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, who monitored his progress closely and promoted him
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1918· 1 entry
Wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet Party murdered by Bolshevik sailors
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1906· 1 entry
Born 1906-09-25.
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1903· 1 entry
Married another Siberian immigrant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Siberian Russian
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1875· 1 entry
And studied physics and mathematics at Saint Petersburg State University, graduating in 1899
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1866· 1 entry
In the crackdown that followed Dmitry Karakozov's assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II
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