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'''Dmitri Shostakovich''' (1906-1975) was a Russian composer who worked in many different styles and forms.  While he is primarily known for his symphonies and string quartets, he also composed several operas, orchestral suites, concertos, and much piano music.  Shostakovich actually began his musical career as a pianist in a silent movie theater; these influences can be seen in his first Trumpet Concerto (Op. 35), which features piano obbligato.

'''Dmitri Shostakovich''' (1906-1975) was a Russian composer who worked in many different styles and forms.  While he is primarily known for his symphonies and string quartets, he also composed several operas, orchestral suites, concertos, and much piano music.  Shostakovich actually began his musical career as a pianist in a silent movie theater; these influences can be seen in his first Trumpet Concerto (Op. 35), which features piano obbligato.

Shostakovich has been criticized for composing "banal" music due to the restrictions placed on him by the Communist Party.  However, most critics feel that he was able to successfully transcend these restrictions and create great works of art.  In addition, many of his works are ''intentionally'' banal and satirize the Soviet government; for example, his opera ''The Love for Three Oranges'' as well as his famous Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 2 No. 3.

Shostakovich has been criticized for composing "banal" music due to the restrictions placed on him by the Communist Party.  However, most critics feel that he was able to successfully transcend these restrictions and create great works of art.  In addition, many of his works have been interpreted by critics as being ''intentionally'' banal as a way of satirising the Soviet regime.  A well-known example of this [needs a citation] is the conclusion of the Fifth Symphony, viewed by the authorities as a triumphant conclusion.  However, later, in his alleged memoirs "Testimony", Shostakovich was supposed to have said that the end of the Fifth symphony is about enforced rejoicing.  The authenticity of "Testimony", however, is disputed, and hence this, and much else that has been surmised about Shostakovich's intentions, has to be taken as a matter of conjecture.

==Return to Russia==

During the siege of Leningrad, Shostakovich lived in the city and wrote his seventh symphony in C major (subtitled "Leningrad").  The work is notable for an extended march section in the first movement, building up an intentionally banal tune in a manner reminiscent of Ravel's "Bolero".  The symphony was premiered in Leningrad in 1942, and flown out of Russia in microfilm score, and was premiered in the USA under the baton of Toscanini very shortly afterwards.  The symphony, which ends with a triumphant conclusion, described by the composer as "victory - a beautiful life in the future" , was a significant propaganda coup.

When Shostakovich returned to Russia, the Second World War had just begun.  He was called into service to write propaganda music for the war effort and immediately complied, writing several operas based on Norse mythology, an orchestral piece called "Mars, the Bringer of War," and his famous "Stalingrad symphony".  However, he soon fell into disfavor after writing a series of variations based on the aria from Bach's "Goldberg Variations" that were cited by the CCCP as "too abstract and Westernized".  After almost being purged from the party and set to a gulag in Siberia, Shostakovich wrote a long self-criticism and followed it up with his Second Piano Concerto, based on the etudes of the famous composer Charles-Louis Hanon.  The Party was pleased and restored Shostakovich to official status.

However, the composers next two symphonies were not well received by the authorities - the Eighth symphony in C minor also depicted the war, and ended in a pessimistic, exhausted fashion.  The Ninth symphony was completed just after the war.  The authorities expected a massive paean of triumph at the end of the war, on the scale of Beethoven's Ninth symphony.  What Shostakovich delivered was a small scale, lightweight work with considerable humor and irony.  This led to the composer being severely criticised as "formalist" in the notorious "Zhdanov decree" of 1948.

==Latter years==

==Latter years==

Shostakovich settled in St. Petersburg, and spent less time composing serious music, instead turning to film scores.  Some of his most famous works include the score to the Russian film [[Jack Frost]], which features a series of traditional Russian fairy-tales, the score to the Finnish production [[The Day the Earth Froze]] (an adaptation of the [[Kalevala]]) strongly reminiscent of the earlier works of [[Sibelius]], and the animated Disney version of [[Peter and the Wolf]] (based on a story by [[Dostoevsky]].  However, he wrote some of his most serious pieces during this time, including several string quartets, a viola sonata, and several symphonies.  Eventually, he died, leaving a series of fugues known as [[The Way of the Fugue]] incomplete, as well as an incomplete re-scoring of the film [[Alexander Nevsky]].

In his later years, Shostakovich's music became increasingly personal, and often involving the theme of death.  Notably, the Fourteenth Symphony (1968) is a series of eleven songs on the theme of death.  In contrast to many classical works dealing with death, the Fourteenth symphony does not seek to offer religious consolation.  The late String Quartets, notably the Thirteenth (Op 138) and the Fifteenth (Op 144) are similarly bleak and death-obsessed.  Shostakovich's final work is a sonata for viola and piano (Op 147) which was completed a few days before his death from lung cancer in 1975.