FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

Died: 9th August, 1975 in Moscow (at 7PM according to newspaper reports)

Wives:

Nina Vasilievna (Varzar) (from 1934 until she died on December 5th, 1954)
There was a temporary divorce during the summer of 1934. (Both parties had affairs, but couldn't keep apart from each other)

Margarita (Kainova) (1956-1960) - he proposed to her on the spot - it was a failed marriage - he left her in November 1960

Irina Antonova (Supinskaya) (December 1962) (much younger but terribly caring and devoted to caring for the sick composer)

All Children came during the marriage to Nina

Son:

Maxim Shostakovich, born in 1937, currently lives in the USA and works as a conductor of many orchestras worldwide. Maxim's son, Dmitri jnr is also a recorded pianist and can be heard performing Dmitri snr's 2 piano concertos under the baton of his father on 2 Chandos CD's (CHAN 8357/8443)

Daughter:

Galya - Current status: Unknown??? but was also a pianist

DSCH: DSCH is a short form that many posters use for Shostakovich's name. This comes from his own use of these notes (in German Notation) to mean his own name. The most spectacular (and first major) use of the DSCH motif is in the 10th Symphony. In case you want to play it, it is:

D Eb C B

Prizes and honours awarded:

• 1940: Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
• 1942: Honoured Artist of the RSFSR.
• 1946: Order of Lenin
• 1948: People's Artist of the RSFSR.
• 1954: People's Artist of the USSR.
• 1954: International Peace Prize.
• 1956: Order of Lenin
• 1958: International Jean Sibelius Prize
• 1959: Silver Medal, World Peace Council
• 1962-75: Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
• 1965: Honoury Doctorate in Music
• 1966: Order of Lenin
• 1966: Hero of Socialist Labour
• 1966: Gold Medal of the British Royal Philharmonic Society
• 1967: Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria
• 1969: Mozart Memoial Medal of the Mozart Society, Vienna
• 1971: Order of the October Revolution
• 1972: 'Great Star of trhe Friendship Among Peoples' in gold
• 1973: The Sonning Prize, Denmark

• First Grade for Scores for film trilogy (Maxim's Youth, Maxim's Return & The Vyborg Side - Opp.41,45,50) in 1941.
• First Grade for Score of "The Great Citizen" in 1941.
• First Grade for Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" in 1942.
• First Grade for Score of "Zoya" in 1946.
• Second Grade for Piano Trio (Op.67) in 1946.
• Second Grade for Score of the film "Pirogov" in 1948.
• First Grade for Score of film "The Young Guards" in 1949.
• Second Grade for Score of film "Minchurin" in 1949.
• First Grade for Score of film "Meeting at Elba" in 1950.
• First Grade for Song of the Forests (Op.81) in 1949.
• Second Grade for Ten Choral Poems by Revolutionary Poets (Op.88) in 1952

2. Recomendations for Newcomers to Shostakovich

There is also the excellent (and mid-price) "Composers in Person" CD on EMI containing Shostakovich playing both Piano Concertos, 3 Fantastic Dances (Op. 5), and a selection of the Preludes and Fuges, Op. 87 all on one CD. Good sound and good mixture. (EMI CDC 7 54606 2)

A CD for the more adventurous: "The Shostakovich CD" on Olympia (OCD 008) - if you can get it (I ordered mine direct from Olympia) contains 'samples' from just about every part of Shostakovich's output (with the notable exception of chamber music, unless you include the 14th Symphony extract). A bargain disk at around 5 pounds in the UK (So I am told).

3. Major Works and Recommended Recordings

Symphonies:

(#2 and #3 are widely considered to be politicially motivated works and also very unlike the 'normal' DSCH. It is rumoured that he made his son Maxim promise to never conduct these works. However, recordings by both Haitink on Decca/London and Rozhdestvensky (Olympia) are available)

Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43 :

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 :

Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54 :

Symphony No. 7 in C major, 'Leningrad', Op. 60 :

Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 :

Symphony No. 9 in E flat, Op. 70 :

Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 :

Symphony No. 11 in G minor, 'The Year 1905', Op. 103 :

Symphony No. 12 in D minor, 'The Year 1917', Op. 112 :

Symphony No. 13 in D minor, 'Babi-Yar', Op. 113 :

Symphony No. 14, Op. 135 :

Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141 :

Concertos:

Violin Concertos 1 & 2:

Cello Concerto No. 1:

Cello Concerto No. 2:

String Quartets:

The Borodin Quartet are recording a new series on the Virgin Label with approx. 3 CD's released so far.

Preludes and Fuges, Op. 87:

Other 'chamber' works:

Piano Quintet. Op.57:

Film Music:

Suite from "The Gadfly"

Suites from "Minchurin", "Fall of Berlin" & "Golden Mountains"

Suites from "The New Babylon"(first film score) & "Five Days - Five Nights"

Full film score to "King Lear"

Other Works:

Jazz Suites 1 & 2:

Ballet Suites 1,2,3:

Funeral and Triumphal Prelude, Op.130 & Novorossiisk Chimes:

Suite on Verses of Michelangelo, Op.145a & Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin,Op.146:

"Song of the Forests"(Op.81) and "The Sun shines over our Motherland"(Op.90):

The Bolt - Complete Recording:

CD's of interest to Shostakovich Devotees:

I have listed this as a small section because I believe that there are some CD's that only true devotees of Shostakovich would be interested in. I list these CD's as having works of interest, or CD's that are hard to find or are of a historic nature.

"Manuscripts of Different Years" - Including: Scherzo, Op.1 and Op.7, Theme and Variations, Op.3, Spanish Songs Op.100, Suite from "Alone" Op.26, "Adventures of Korzinskina" Op.59 & "La Comedie Humaine" Op.37.

Suite on Verses of Michelangeleo Buyonarroti, Op.145a & Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin, Op.146

Violin Sonata, Op.134:

Viola Sonata, Op.147 (His last work):

Arrangement of String Quartets 3&4 for Strings and Woodwinds (Op. 73a) and Chamber Orchestra (Op.83a) Orch. Barshai

"Hypothetically Murdered" (Op.31) Suite & 4 Romances on Poems of Pushkin(Op.46)

"The Orchestral Songs" - Vol 1: Two Fables of Krylov (Op.4), Three Romances on Poems by Pushkin(Op.46a), Six Romances on Verses by Raleigh, Burns and Shakespeare(Op.62/140) and From Jewish Folk Poetry (Op.79a):

"Moscow, Cheryomuski" - musical comedy. This was released, in a new orchestration by Gerard McBurney and with new libretto in English with the BBC Music Magazine, April 1994.

4. "Testimony" - The Story

In 1979 the book "Testimony - The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich - As related to and edited by Solomon Volkov" was published. This book, according to Volkov, contains the words of Shostakovich as related to him in the last years of his life. Shostakovich insisted the book be published after his death with good reason considering the material in it paints him in a light that the Soviet authorities of the day wouldn't have exactly been thrilled with. However for the last 10 years or so there has been some criticism of this book with comments from friends of Shostakovich saying that Volkov must have made a lot of it up. Maxim Shostakovich remained silent for years on the subject but finaly agreed that the book has the ring of truth about it. Ian McDonald's excellent book "The New Shostakovich" (ISBN 0-19-284026-6) goes into some detail claiming the book to be fiction based on truth. Citing that the 'signed' pages that Volkov claims Shostakovich signed as proof of the book's validity are in fact from other sources, and are only produced as the first pages of chapters. McDonald's book also delves into fascinating analysis of the times, both personally and politicaly and bases an analysis of the works of DSCH into this.

Personally, I own both books and find each of them interesting. I owned Testimony first, and it is an excellent read if just for the stories and ideas within. McDonald's book goes into much more detail on everything and provides a thoughtful, yet harrowing account of the life and times of Shostakovich. I recommend McDonald's book for anyone interested in a good analysis of the major works as well as the times they were written in.

Here are some opening and closing lines from the filmed version, which are supplied by: znmeb@teleport.com

From the start of the film:

The comments at the end of the film:

5. Shostakovich's music in films and TV

The "Romance" From The Gadfly (Op.97/97a) is used as the theme to the Television Series "Reilly, Ace of Spies." Chris Hillman writes:

The TV series was based on a (dreadful) book by the same title about a historical personage, one Sidney Reilly, who was apparently born in Russia late in the last century and who worked for the British secret service (and possibly others, as a double agent) in the early years of this century. He died under mysterious circumstances, as I recall, in the late twenties (in the TV series, he is show by a close associate of Felix Derzhinsky inside the USSR). The series and book were presented as historical fact but were in fact heavily fictionalized. Now in his excellent book The Codebreakers, David Kahn discusses the Voynich manuscript, which was owned at one time by a publisher named Voynich. Kahn mentions that his widow, Mrs. Voynich, wrote a novel called "The Gadfly" which was based on the life of a historical character in revolutionary Italy. In one of the books I read on Reilly it was mentioned that Mrs. Voynich knew Reilly personally and based her novel in part on his experiences. Surely this is the same novel which is the source of Shostakovich's Gadfly? Kahn mentions that Mrs. Voynich was one of the very few American authors ever awarded a royalty by the Soviet government--- apparently the revolutionary sentiments in the novel were felt to be politically correct.

Chris is, as I have found from my EMI classics for pleasure recording of the Gadfly, correct. DSCH's "Gadfly" music (and the film) is based on the book by E. L. Voynich.

Symphony No. 11 in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" program

Symphony No. 5 (slow movement+finale) & Sym. 8 in "Rollerball"

Shostakovich's 12th Symphony (I think) was MENTIONED but not played in "Peggy Sue got Married"

The 3rd mvt. of the 8th was used in the movie "Fandango".

2nd mvt. of the Ninth Symphony in the Finnish film "Ariel" by Aki Kaurismaki.

1st mvt. of the Sixth Symphony in the Finnish film version of "Crime and Punishment" (Dostoyevsky) by Mika Kaurismaki.

Apparently the 8th Symphony and perhaps other bits of DSCH's music are used quite a lot in the UK TV Series "The Onedin Line"

What sounds very much like a small section of the 3rd movement of the 5th symphony appears in James Horner's ripped off soundtrack for"Clear and Present Danger" however it isn't DSCH but a copy ofthe great man. (this track also has copies of Horner's own "Aliens"music as well as a sister to some music from "Star Trek III" *sigh*)

Apparently in the mini-series "Traffik" (about drugs) the chamber symphonies (Opp.110a/118a) are used. This comes from Falstaff.

This is from Daniel Gowans

The movie "The Shining" uses the first movement of his Symphony 11 in the opening scenes. It isn't purely symphonic, it had been adaped a little to different instruments, but it was unmistakaeable...

This is from Michael Norish

I'm pretty sure that the theme used in the (dire) Richard Briers sit-com "Ever-decreasing circles" is prelude #15 from Opus 34.

(This has been confirmed by Classic CD editor, Rob Aimsley, who states:

according to Derek Hulme's book, the theme tune to the BBC TV comedy "Ever Decreasing Circles" was indeed the Prelude Op. 34 No. 15, played by one Ronnie Lane.)

6. Books of interest to Shostakovich Fans

Testimony: The Memiors of Shostakovich - as related to and edited by S. Volkov

The New Shostakovich

Shostakovich: A Life Remembered

Galina-A Russian Story

Shostakovich Symphonies

Shostakovich, The Man and his Music

Shostakovich: A Catalog, Bibliography and Discography

Pages from the life of Dmitri Shostakovich

Simfonii D.D. Shostakovicha

7. The "DSCH Journal" - a newsletter!

Apparently there is a DSCH newsletter out there, called the DSCH Journal. Here is the address to write to for more information:

This information comes from LUISI@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU.

8. DSCH Reference on the World Wide Web (WWW)

Rob Hudson has is also in the process of creating a good looking web page for Shostakovich. Here is the URL:

9. The "DSCH Smiley"

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10. Contributors to This FAQ

Richard A. Muirden, Sys. Admin |Fan of Shostakovich, "Star Trek" and the Boeing
Mailto: richard@rmit.EDU.AU    |777 (hand over: May 15, 1995 - United Airlines). 
Phone: (+61 3) 660 3814        |I created alt.fan.shostakovich! Fly: UA,AN,WN
http://www.rmit.edu.au/richard |Can *YOU* beat my 110 Shost CD's? :-)
* Boeing 777 First passenger flight: June 7, United Airlines! See you there! *
   * 1995: Remembering 20 years since the death of Shostakovich (1906-75) *

Met dank aan Rob Hudson...