Dmitri Shostakovich, who was born on 25 September 1906 in St. Petersburg, may not have been a child prodigy, but was definitely a rising star – just 19 years old at the premiere of his first symphony, which would also immediately be performed abroad. The fact that people were talking about him and his works made him proud. But when Pravda criticised his opera “Lady Macbeth” in 1936, it drove him to thoughts of suicide. These were the years of great terror; falling from grace could mean death.

He escaped with his life, received the Stalin Prize for his Fifth Symphony, which the powers at be saw as a “genuflection”. His Seventh, the “Leningrad”, became a symbol of the Soviet Union fighting against Hitler’s fascism. Official functions were not long in coming. But the carrot was once again followed by the stick: in 1948, the “formalist”, who had mourned too much in his Eighth and cheered too little in his Ninth, was hounded away from all his teaching positions. Then more prizes; in America he was forced to play the ambassador of Soviet art.

When Stalin died, Shostakovich made his Tenth Symphony a great self-assertion. But the carrot soon tasted too sweet and threatened to choke him. The Party enclosed him in its arms – and he could only escape into his inner self and the world of sound.

Dmitri Shostakovich died in Moscow on 9 August 1975 a sick, broken man. He often hid behind words as if behind a mask. Of the madness of his time, of his own brokenness, of hope and disappointment, of love and hatred, of lies.

Dmitri Shostakovich, who was born on 25 September 1906 in St. Petersburg, may not have been a child prodigy, but was definitely a rising star – just 19 years old at the premiere of his first symphony, which would also immediately be performed abroad. The fact that people were talking about him and his works made him proud. But when Pravda criticised his opera “Lady Macbeth” in 1936, it drove him to thoughts of suicide. These were the years of great terror; falling from grace could mean death.

He escaped with his life, received the Stalin Prize for his Fifth Symphony, which the powers at be saw as a “genuflection”. His Seventh, the “Leningrad”, became a symbol of the Soviet Union fighting against Hitler’s fascism. Official functions were not long in coming. But the carrot was once again followed by the stick: in 1948, the “formalist”, who had mourned too much in his Eighth and cheered too little in his Ninth, was hounded away from all his teaching positions. Then more prizes; in America he was forced to play the ambassador of Soviet art.

When Stalin died, Shostakovich made his Tenth Symphony a great self-assertion. But the carrot soon tasted too sweet and threatened to choke him. The Party enclosed him in its arms – and he could only escape into his inner self and the world of sound.

Dmitri Shostakovich died in Moscow on 9 August 1975 a sick, broken man. He often hid behind words as if behind a mask. Of the madness of his time, of his own brokenness, of hope and disappointment, of love and hatred, of lies.v

Bernd Feuchtner, Präsident der Deutschen Schostakowitsch Gesellschaft, skizziert in fünf kurzen Texten dessen komplexes Künstlerleben im Spiegel der Werke der Hommage. 

„Schostakowitsch in der DNA“ – die Sanderling-Tradition

Schostakowitsch unter Chefdirigent Kurt Sanderling zu spielen, war etwas ganz Besonderes. Ehemalige Orchestermitglieder erinnern sich an Proben und die legendären Aufnahmen der 1970er Jahre.