7 Dmitry Shostakovich 7numerous chamber works, and concerti, many of them
written under the pressures of government-imposed
standards of Soviet art.
Early Life and Works
Shostakovich was the son of an engineer. He entered the
Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, subsequently Leningrad)
Conservatory in 1919, where he studied piano with Leonid
Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with
Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. Even
before his keyboard success in Warsaw, he had had a far
greater success as a composer with the Symphony No. 1
(1924–25), which quickly achieved worldwide currency. The
symphony’s stylistic roots were numerous; the influence
of composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky and Paul Hindemith
is clearly discernible. In the music Shostakovich wrote in
the next few years he submitted to an even wider range of
influences, and Shostakovich openly experimented with
avant-garde trends. His satiric opera The Nose (composed
1927–28), based on Nikolay Gogol’s story Nos, displayed a
comprehensive awareness of what was new in Western
music, although already it seems as if the satire is extended
to the styles themselves, for the avant-garde sounds are con-
torted with wry humour. Not surprisingly, Shostakovich’s
finer second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
(composed 1930–32; revised and retitled Katerina Izmaylova),
marked a stylistic retreat. Yet even this more accessible
musical language was too radical for the Soviet authorities.
From 1928, when Joseph Stalin inaugurated his First
Five-Year Plan, a direct and popular style was demanded in
music. Avant-garde music and jazz were officially banned
in 1932. Shostakovich did not experience immediate offi-
cial displeasure, but when it came it was devastating. A
performance of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 1936