7 Dmitry Shostakovich 7much because of the quasi-romantic circumstances of its
composition as because of its musical quality. In 1943
Shostakovich settled in Moscow as a teacher of composi-
tion at the conservatory, and from 1945 he taught also at
the Leningrad Conservatory.
Later Life and Works
Shostakovich’s works written during the mid-1940s con-
tain some of his best music, especially the Symphony No. 8
(1943), the Piano Trio (1944), and the Violin Concerto No. 1
(1947–48). Their prevailing seriousness, even grimness,
was to contribute to Shostakovich’s second fall from
official grace. When the Cold War began, the Soviet
authorities sought to impose a firmer ideological control,
demanding a more accessible musical language than some
composers were currently using. In Moscow in 1948, at a
now notorious conference, the leading figures of Soviet
music—including Shostakovich—were attacked and dis-
graced. As a result, the quality of Soviet composition
slumped in the next few years, and his teaching activities
at both the Moscow and Leningrad conservatories were
terminated. Yet he was not completely intimidated, and,
in his String Quartet No. 4 (1949) and especially his Quartet
No. 5 (1951), he offered a splendid rejoinder to those who
would have had him renounce completely his style and
musical integrity. His Symphony No. 10, composed in 1953,
the year of Stalin’s death, flew in the face of his official
detractors, yet, like his Symphony No. 5, compelled accep-
tance by sheer quality and directness.
From that time on, Shostakovich’s biography is essen-
tially a catalog of his works. He was left to pursue his
creative career largely unhampered by official interfer-
ence. The composer had visited the United States in 1949,
and in 1958 he made an extended tour of western Europe,