Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, was written in three days.
The Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, is a five-movement composition for two violins, viola, cello, and piano by Dmitri Shostakovich. He composed it between July 13 and September 14, 1940. Sources conflict on where he began to compose it—the location is variously stated to be Shalovo, Kellomäki, or Moscow—but most agree that it was completed in Leningrad. It is the second of Shostakovich's two attempts at composing a piano quintet. His first dated from his student years, but was ultimately abandoned and repurposed in other compositions.
The Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141, composed between late 1970 and July 29, 1971, is the final symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was his first purely instrumental and non-programmatic symphony since the Tenth from 1953. Shostakovich began to plan and sketch the Fifteenth in late 1970, with the intention of composing for himself a cheerful work to mark his 65th birthday the next year. After completing the sketch score in April 1971, he wrote the orchestral score in June while receiving medical treatment in the town of Kurgan. The symphony was completed the following month at his summer dacha in Repino. This was followed by a prolonged period of creative inactivity which did not end until the composition of the Fourteenth Quartet in 1973.
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days. He premiered it on October 4, 1959, at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The first recording was made in two days following the premiere by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126, in 1966 in the Crimea. Like the first concerto, it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premiere in Moscow under Yevgeny Svetlanov on 25 September 1966 at the composer's 60th birthday concert. The concerto is sometimes listed as in the key of G, but the score gives no such indication.
The Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77, was originally composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1947–48. He was still working on the piece at the time of the Zhdanov Doctrine, and it could not be performed in the period following the composer's denunciation. In the time between the work's initial completion and the first performance, the composer, sometimes with the collaboration of its dedicatee, David Oistrakh, worked on several revisions. The concerto was finally premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 29 October 1955. It was well-received, Oistrakh remarking on the "depth of its artistic content" and describing the violin part as a "pithy 'Shakespearian' role."
Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin is a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist, winner of USSR State Prize (1972), the Lenin Prize (1984), and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1992), and is a former member of the Inter-regional Deputies Group (1989–1991). He is also a citizen of Lithuania and Spain.
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26, is a piano concerto by Sergei Prokofiev. It was completed in 1921 using sketches first started in 1913.
DSCH is a musical motif used by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich to represent himself. It is a musical cryptogram in the manner of the BACH motif, consisting of the notes D, E-flat, C, B natural, or in German musical notation D, Es, C, H, thus standing for the composer's initials in German transliteration: D. Sch..
Denis Leonidovich Matsuev is a Russian pianist. Primarily a classical pianist, he also performs jazz occasionally.
Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.
Children's Notebook, also known as A Child's Exercise Book, Op. 69 is a suite for piano composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. Although precise dating is uncertain, it is believed to have been composed over a period of twelve to eighteen months between 1944 and 1945. Shostakovich intended it for his daughter, Galina, who at the time was a young child beginning her piano studies. Originally envisioned as a cycle of twenty-four pieces in all keys arranged along a circle of fifths, the completed work ultimately contained only seven. Each piece included a corresponding illustration by Pyotr Williams.
The Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, Op. 35, was completed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1933.
Concerto DSCH is a ballet by Alexei Ratmansky choreographed for the New York City Ballet to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102 (1957). The premiere took place on Thursday, May 29, 2008, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. The ballet's title derives from the composer's use of DSCH, his musical monogram. Wendy Whelan, one of the creators of the ballet, performed the second movement of the ballet at her farewell performance.
Olli Mustonen is a Finnish pianist, conductor, and composer.
Vyacheslav Lavrent'yevich Nagovitsin was a Russian composer. He was a student of Dmitri Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory and he graduated in 1966. In 1963–1964 he worked in Ulan-Ude Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1966–1970 he was a lecturer at the Mussorgsky Music School in Leningrad. In 1968–1970 he also worked as the Music Director of the Leningrad Comedy Theatre. Since 1970 he became a professor at the Leningrad Conservatory. He orchestrated two unfinished operas of Modest Mussorgsky: Zhenitba and Salammbô. His orchestration of Salammbô was used by Valery Gergiev at the Mérida festival in 1991.
The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 by Dmitri Shostakovich, the last of his piano sonatas, was composed in early 1943. It was his first solo piano composition since 1933, as well as his second attempt at composing a piano sonata in the key of B minor.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 134 in the autumn of 1968 in Moscow, completing it on October 23. It is set in three movements and lasts approximately 31 minutes. It is dedicated to the violinist David Oistrakh, who premiered the work on May 3, 1969 in the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
October, Op. 131, is a symphonic poem composed by Dmitri Shostakovich to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967. He was spurred to compose the work after reencountering his score for the Vasilyev brothers' 1937 film Volochayev Days, reusing its "Partisan Song" in October. Although Shostakovich completed the work quickly, the process of writing it fatigued him physically because of his deteriorating motor functions.
