Musical Mondays No. 2
Musical Mondays, produced by a musician for people who are always on the go.
July 3rd, 2023
Greetings everyone!
Welcome to Musical Mondays, where I, Somiah Nettles
, introduce you to a different classical composer on the first Monday of each month in an effort to, in the words of the Berkeley Piano Club, "cultivate and encourage the study, understanding, and appreciation of great music." Because we’ll be honoring one composer for a whole month, on the following Mondays, additional highlights from their lives and music will be made available via Notes.This month, I'd like to introduce you to Dmitri Shostakovich, one of my favorite Soviet-era Russian composers and pianists, who was born on September 25th, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Shostakovich was raised by both of his parents: his engineer father, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, and his mother, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. Shostakovich, popularly known as ‘‘Shosty’’ by fans, was the second of three siblings. He had two sisters, Maria Fredericks and Zoya Dmitrievna Shostakovich. Shostakovich spent practically his entire life in Soviet Russia, which was a major subject in both his music and life.
Unfortunately, he died at the age of 68 after being hospitalized in Moscow for a heart ailment. Shostakovich's heart failed 10 days after he was taken to Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital. He passed away on August 9th, 1975, at 6:30 p.m.
At age nine, young Shosty began piano lessons with his mother and showed exceptional talent. He would frequently play pieces that his mother had played for him from memory. At age thirteen, in 1919, Shostakovich attended the Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory, where he studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev (Russian pianist/composer) until 1923 and composition with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg (both Russian composers) until 1925. Although Shostakovich did not officially begin taking piano lessons until he was nine years old, his musicality advanced at such a rapid pace that he produced his Symphony No.1 within ten years! He rose to international prominence following the premiere of his First Symphony on May 12th, 1926, in Leningrad with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nicolai Malko (A Russian conductor).
Because Shostakovich was influenced by neoclassical and romantic styles, his compositions are brilliantly innovative. To name a few, Gustav Mahler (Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and conductor), Igor Stravinsky (Russian composer and conductor), and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian composer and pianist) were all great influences on him. In 1927, he received an honorable mention in the Chopin International Pianists Competition in Warsaw, Poland, but made no future attempt to pursue a virtuoso career, limiting his public appearances as a pianist to performances of his own pieces.
In 1933, Shostakovich composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, Op. 35. This concerto is one of my favorites by Shostakovich because it displays his brilliant virtuosity and versatility. ‘’Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor is the musical equivalent of a smirking jokester. It is a rule-breaking, Neo-baroque (music written between 1600 and 1750) romp filled with sardonic humor, parody, and fleeting musical quotes’’ (Timothy Judd). This Concerto is written in four movements, similar to a symphony in this way, rather than the usual three. ‘’The first movement (Allegro moderato) opens with a colorful piano flourish and a brash “wrong note” in the trumpet. The piano’s dark, restless opening theme soon devolves into wild, zany fun. The second movement (Lento) is a haunting and introspective waltz. There are somber allusions to the dreamy second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, completed a few years earlier in 1931. In the final moments, the theme emerges as a lonely, plaintive statement in the muted trumpet. The icy final bars are reminiscent of the end of the second movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, which ends in the same melancholy key of G minor. The Moderato (third movement) which follows functions as an introduction to the final movement (Allegro con brio). The Concerto concludes with a furious virtuosic tour de force (feat of strength) in which practical jokes abound’’ (Timothy Judd). Timothy Judd: Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto
In my perspective (particularly in the second movement), the opening act of string instruments, along with the rest of the orchestra ruminating in the background, followed by the piano's rich notes and the somber trumpet solo near the end, grant Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 a mischievous and sensual sound; however, it also has the ability to shift into a comical and lighthearted tone.
Concerto: A three-movement musical composition for a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra.
Symphony: A four movement elaborate musical composition for a full orchestra.
In 1934, Shostakovich composed his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. At the time, Soviet Russia was ruled under Joseph Stalin (Soviet politician and political theorist). On January 26th, 1936, Stalin had come to see Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Moscow, which had been touring successfully for two years. Stalin described the opera as ‘’muddle instead of music… ugly flood of confusing sound... a pandemonium of creaking, shrieking, and crashes.’’ Shostakovich, who was only 30 at the time, and at the pinnacle of the Soviet avant-garde (‘‘a fluid and undefinable music genre’’), began to fear for his freedom and even his life after Stalin publicly condemned the opera. As a reaction to Stalin's attack, Shostakovich wrote his fourth symphony, which was a ‘’massive, volatile, dissonant work, and too risky to present as a sequel to Lady Macbeth after Stalin’s attack’’ (Ed Vulliamy).
As a result, it was withdrawn, and was not performed for another 25 years, until the post-Stalinist departure led by Nikita Khrushchev (The first Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). With the Fourth Symphony adjourned and the opera effectively prohibited, Shostakovich composed his remarkable Fifth Symphony. ‘’In a stroke of true genius and double entendre, (Shostakovich) crafted his Fifth Symphony, famously interpreted on two levels: one by the party apparatchiks, who heard in it a return to the classical fold after the aberration of Lady Macbeth, but by the audience at its premiere – who shed tears of emotion – as a requiem for the Terror’’ (Ed Vulliamy). Stalin enjoyed Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 because he mistakenly believed Shostakovich was celebrating him, not recognizing the composer's genuine intention. Ed Vulliamy: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
‘’When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.’’ - Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich was a family man! He has two children and had three marriages. In 1932, he married his first wife, Nina Varzar. Their marriage lasted only three years, but once Nina fell pregnant with their first child, Galina Shostakovich, who went on to become a well-known pianist and biologist, Shostakovich and Nina remarried. Maxim, the couple's second child, was born in 1938. Similarly, Maxim Shostakovich rose to prominence as a conductor and pianist. Shostakovich married his second wife, Margarita Kainova, in 1956, but they divorced five years later because they were unhappy together. And finally, in 1962, Shostakovich married for the third and final time, to Irina Supinskaya. This appears to have been a happy marriage. Shostakovich wrote to a friend, ‘‘her only defect is that she is 27 years old. In all other respects she is splendid: clever, cheerful, straightforward and very likable.’’ P.S both Galina and Maxim are still alive! They are 87 and 85 years old!
That’s all for now, Victorians. I hope you've fallen in love with Dmitri Shostakovich’s wit and brilliance, or at the very least learned something new! I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Thank you for reading, and remember to subscribe so you never miss a beat.
Musical Mondays, produced by a musician for people who are always on the go, is brought to you by Victorian Voices.
I also enjoy and share your passion about the great Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich.
Here is a little known fact: he was a certified soccer referee! Despite not being seen as a sports enthusiast, he loved soccer and would even referee matches. He often went to Zenit Leningrad with his son.
He also had other surprising traits. Shostakovich was obsessed with cleanliness, testing the postal service by sending cards to himself. He was a gifted pianist but stopped performing due to a hand injury.
Additionally, he was a keen photographer, publishing a book of his photographs.
His symphonies (except number 1) are magnificent, scary, beautiful and full of nerve! No-one has painted such a close self portrait with instruments as he did.
Thank you for sharing yet again another interesting classical composer! It’s always fun to read your writings!