Dmitri Shostakovich
"Shostakovich" redirects here. For the conductor and son of Dmitri Shostakovich, see Maxim Shostakovich.
This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Dmitriyevich and the family name is Shostakovich. Shostakovich in 1950
Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich (Russian: Дми́трий Дми́триевич Шостако́вич (help·info), tr. Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich, pronounced [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ ʂəstɐˈkovʲɪtɕ]; 25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.[1]
Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death).
A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. His music is characterized
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He nevertheless won an "honorable mention" at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. He explained the disappointment at the competition to suffering from appendicitis and the jury being all-Polish. He later had his appendix removed in April 1927.[11] After the competition Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer's First Symphony that he conducted it at its Berlin premiere later that year. Leopold Stokowski was equally impressed and gave the work its U.S. premiere the following year in Philadelphia and also made the work's first
The musical talent of Frederic became apparent extremely early on, and it was compared with the childhood genius of Mozart. Already at the age of 7, Frederic was the author of two polonaises, the first being published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski. The prodigy was featured in the Warsaw newspapers, and little Chopin became the attraction and ornament of receptions given in the aristocratic salons of the capital. He also began giving public charity concerts. His first professional piano lessons lasted from 1816 to 1822, when his teacher was no longer able to give any more help to a pupil whose skills surpassed his own. Wilhelm Würfel, a renowned pianist and professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, supervised the further development of Frederic’s talent. Würfel would offer valuable, although irregular, advice as regards playing the piano and organ to young Chopin.
Khrushchev rose steadily up the party ladder, always combining his talents as an administrator with his technical training. After assignments in the Ukraine, he became head of the Moscow regional party committee, and in 1934 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist party. In these positions he directed the construction of the Moscow subway. Although increasingly influential, Khrushchev was never an intimate associate of Joseph Stalin; he concentrated on technical rather than political accomplishment. After World War II he was brought back to Moscow, where he became ¡¥one of stalin¡¦s top advisers¡¦. When Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev used his wit to thrust all his opponents for leadership, including Malenkov. He became both Party Secretary and controlled the government through his associate Marshal Bulganin, who he named Premier. He ruled from 1956 to 1964.
It was a freezing January day in the city of Archangelsk, Russia. A man by the name of Dmitri Shostakovich picked up the newest issue of Pravda from the newsstands, which were unusually busy today. “Wow, this is really harsh!” “Are Pravda’s expectations THAT high?” people whispered to one another. After reading it briefly, Shostakovich flew into a fit of frustration and rage. This paper called his music “degenerate and decadent” (Stevens)! There is no way that Pravda would trash his music as badly as this. In fact, the article was written under orders by an upset Josef Stalin. These two Russian titans impacted Russia’s culture between 1930 and 1950. They absolutely hated each other! The tension between the two radiated throughout Shostakovich’s music and Stalin’s iron-fisted attitude towards his symphonies. Stalin manipulated composers to the point of suicide for defying his wishes, and he was not afraid to do that to Shostakovich. Somehow, Shostakovich dared to resist Stalin’s evil ways and went on to become a “brilliant and internationally famous composer.
Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. He participated in the Chopin International Competition for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honorable mention, after which he decided to limit his public performances to his own works to separate himself from the virtuoso pianists.
Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer who reformed 20th-century music, and incited disturbances with The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky composed masterpieces in every genre. Russian-born American composer Igor Stravinsky is widely considered one of the great geniuses of modern music. His innovations in tone, rhythm, and harmony were revolutionary in their day, and his compositions have been universally acclaimed. Stravinsky's was known for his stylistic diversity. He changed the way composers thought about rhythmic structure. Stravinsky pushed the boundaries of musical design.
...ty-five, he began to compose symphonic poems which were new to him. Between this period and his death in 1904, Dvorak conducted and attended concerts of his own works as he did throughout his life. In 1901, Dvorak was unanimously elected successor to Ant. Bennewitz as director of the Prague Conservatory (2). His 60th birthday also in 1901 was celebrated all throughout Bohemia and Moravia along with performances of a cycle of his own operas.
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Born as Jan Václav Antonin Stamic and later Germanized as Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz, he was an influential composer and violinist. He was born on June 19, 1717 in Deutschbrod, Bohemia, now called Havlíčkův Brod, Czech Republic. Stamitz received a musical education from his father from a young age, and attended the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague for the academic year of 1734 – 1735, and shortly thereafter left the university to become a violin preformer. In 1741, he was employed as a string player in the court orchestra of Mannheim, Germany. Stamitz went on to marry Maria Antonia Luneborn on July 1, 1744, the couple had 5 children, two of which died in infancy. One of their children, named Carl Phillip Stamitz went on to have a successful musical career. By 1745, he was appointed as the concertmaster of the court orchestra at Mannheim, with a role as the conductor and lead violinist. In the years of 1754 – 1755, he travelled to France to conduct for the Concert Spirituel and the Concert Italien, which were the two most important concert series of 18th – century Paris. He returned to Mannheim in 1755, his health rapidly deteriorated and he died in Mannheim on March 27, 1757 at the age of 39. The entry of his death contains the following quote: “March 30, 1757. Buried, Jo'es Stainmiz, director of court music, so expert in his art that his equal will hardly be found “. Overall, he was an accomplished individual and died at a very young age.
Sergei Rachmaninoff is considered to be the final, magnificent composer of the Romantic era in Russian classical music, ushering forward its traditions into the twentieth century. His four concertos are a reflection of his development as a composer and pianist, with regard to maturity and compositional style. The evolution of music during the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century had no significant effect on Rachmaninoff; rather he continued to produce ingenious works reflective of his Russian upbringing and the Romantic era.
With humble beginnings, as Vladimir himself put it in his autobiography, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born October 7th, 1952, within St. Petersburg, Russia. Raised by his mother Maria, who was a factory worker, and his father Vladimir, who was a conscript. Putin was dead set on joining the KGB, the Committee for State Security. In his autobiography he says he was “a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.” But he also says that most of this “notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories” In short, he never knew what he was getting into. To follow...
Hurwitz, David, and Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Shostakovich symphonies and concertos: an owner's manual. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Amadeus ;, 2006. Print.
Throughout his life, he has been involved in politics. He was a Russian intelligence officer in the KGB, which he began doing back in 1975, but retired in 1991 with the rank of colonel after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He then ascended into the Russian political ranks until he became part of former President Boris Yeltsin’s administration. To quote the text, “The two most essential foundations for any state, whether it be old or new, or both old and new, are sound laws and sound military forces.”
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