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The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich

As the Soviet Union’s foremost composer, Shostakovich’s status in

the West has always been problematic. Regarded by some as a
collaborator, and by others as a symbol of moral resistance, both
he and his music met with approval and condemnation in equal
measure. The demise of the Communist State has, if anything,
been accompanied by a bolstering of his reputation, but critical
engagement with his multi-faceted achievements has been patchy.
This Companion offers a new starting point and a guide for readers
who seek a fuller understanding of Shostakovich’s place in the
history of music. Bringing together an international team of
scholars, the book brings up-to-date research to bear on the full
range of Shostakovich’s musical output, addressing scholars,
students and all those interested in this complex, iconic figure.

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The Cambridge Companion to

SHOSTAKOVICH
............................

EDITED BY

Pauline Fairclough
and
David Fanning

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
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First published 2008

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Cambridge companion to Shostakovich / edited by Pauline Fairclough and David
Fanning.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-60315-7
1. Shostakovich, Dmitrii Dmitrievich, 1906–1975–Criticism and
interpretation. I. Fairclough, Pauline, 1970– II. Fanning, David (David J.)
ML410.S53C36 2008
780.92–dc22
2007050142

ISBN 978-0-521-84220-4 hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-60315-7 paperback

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the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such
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Contents

Notes on the contributors page vii

Chronology ix
Abbreviations xv

Introduction 1
Pauline Fairclough and David Fanning

PART I. Instrumental works 7

1 Personal integrity and public service: the voice of the
symphonist 9
Eric Roseberry
2 The string quartets: in dialogue with form and tradition 38
Judith Kuhn
3 Paths to the First Symphony 70
David Fanning
4 Shostakovich’s Second Piano Sonata: a composition recital
in three styles 95
David Haas
5 ‘I took a simple little theme and developed it’: Shostakovich’s
string concertos and sonatas 115
Malcolm MacDonald

PART II. Music for stage and screen 145

6 Shostakovich and the theatre 147
Gerard McBurney
7 Shostakovich as opera composer 179
Rosamund Bartlett
8 Shostakovich’s ballets 198
Marina Ilichova
9 Screen dramas: Shostakovich’s cinema career 213
John Riley

PART III. Vocal and choral works 229

10 Between reality and transcendence: Shostakovich’s songs 231
Francis Maes
11 Slava! The ‘official compositions’ 259
Pauline Fairclough
[v]

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vi Contents

PART IV. Performance, theory, reception 285

12 A political football: Shostakovich reception in Germany 287
Erik Levi
13 The rough guide to Shostakovich’s harmonic language 298
David Haas
14 Shostakovich on record 325
David Fanning
15 Jewish existential irony as musical ethos in the music
of Shostakovich 350
Esti Sheinberg

Notes 368
Select bibliography 387
Index 390

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Notes on the contributors

Rosamund Bartlett’s publications include Wagner and Russia (Cambridge, 1995),

Shostakovich in Context (Oxford, 2000) and Chekhov: Scenes from a Life
(New York, 2004). She has contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians and The Cambridge History of Russia, and is editor of the
forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Russian Music.
Pauline Fairclough is Lecturer in Music at the University of Bristol. She has pub-
lished on Shostakovich and Soviet culture in The Musical Quarterly and Music
and Letters; her book A Soviet Credo: Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony was
published by Ashgate in 2006.
David Fanning is Professor of Music at the University of Manchester and has a
varied career as scholar, pianist and critic. Author of several books and articles
on Nielsen and Shostakovich, his most recent publications include a study of
Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet for Ashgate Press (2004) and a five-volume
performing edition of Russian Opera Arias for Peters Edition.
David Haas is Professor of Music at the University of Georgia. His book Leningrad’s
Modernists (New York, 1998) was concerned with the new music and musical
thought of Leningrad in the 1920s. His edition of Symphonic Etudes by Boris
Asafyev (Lanham, Md., 2007) is a translation with commentary of a classic of
twentieth-century Russian operatic criticism. He is currently at work on a study
of the nineteenth-century Russian symphony and a novel about an American
symphonist.
Marina Alexandrovna Ilichova danced with the Mariinsky Theatre before working
as a ballet historian and critic. She has taught at the Vaganova Russian Ballet
Academy in St Petersburg and since 2003 she has worked at the Russian Institute
of the History of Arts. She is the author of many books and articles on ballet,
including Irina Kolpakova (Leningrad, 1979; 2nd edn, Leningrad, 1986) and Oleg
Vinogradov (Hamburg, 1994 (in English and German)).
Judith Kuhn teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has published
articles in Music Analysis and in Ernst Kuhn et al., eds., Dmitri Schostakowitsch
und das jüdische musikalische Erbe (Berlin, 2001). Her book, Shostakovich in
Dialogue: Form, Imagery and Ideas in Quartets 1–7 is forthcoming from Ashgate.
Erik Levi is Reader in Music at Royal Holloway University of London. Author of the
book Music in the Third Reich (London, 1994) and numerous chapters and
articles on German music from the 1920s to the 1950s, he is also an experienced
performer and writes regularly for BBC Music Magazine. He is currently writing a
book about Mozart and the Nazis for Yale University Press.
Gerard McBurney is a composer, arranger and broadcaster. He has made performing
versions of many Shostakovich works including a chamber ensemble score of
the musical comedy Moscow Cheryomushki and an orchestral suite from the

[vii]

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viii Notes on the contributors

music-hall show Uslovno Ubitïy. Since 2006 he has been creative director of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Beyond the Score series.
Malcolm MacDonald is the editor of a short catalogue of Shostakovich’s works
(London, 1977; two subsequent editions). His books include the Dent Master
Musicians volumes on Brahms and Schoenberg, monographs on Ronald Stevenson
and John Foulds and a three-volume study of the symphonies of Havergal Brian.
His most recent book is Varèse, Astronomer in Sound (London, 2003), and the
new enlarged edition of his Schoenberg is imminent in 2008.
Francis Maes was artistic director of the Flanders Festival and currently teaches
musicology at Ghent University (Belgium). He is the author of A History of
Russian Music, from Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar, published by the University of
California Press (2002).
John Riley is a lecturer, writer, broadcaster and curator. His publications include
Dmitri Shostakovich: A Life in Film (London and New York, 2005). As a curator
he works with various cinemas and produced the first BBC Film Promenade
Concert. He wrote, produced and directed Shostakovich – My Life at the Movies,
which was premiered by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with
narrator Simon Russell Beale. It was then produced at the Komische Oper, Berlin.
Eric Roseberry is a freelance musician and writer who has specialized in the music
of Benjamin Britten and Dmitry Shostakovich. His publications include his
PhD, Ideology, Style, Content and Thematic Process in the Symphonies, Cello
Concertos and String Quartets of Shostakovich (New York and London, 1989). He
has contributed essays to the Cambridge Opera Handbook series to Britten’s
Death in Venice (1987), Aldeburgh Studies in Music On Mahler and Britten
(1995), Shostakovich Studies (1995) and The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin
Britten (1999).
Esti Sheinberg teaches Music Theory and Music Literature at Virginia Tech, Virginia,
USA. Her publications include Irony, Satire, Parody and The Grotesque in the
Music of Shostakovich (Aldershot, 2000) and ‘Shostakovich’s “Jewish Music” as an
Existential Statement’ in Dmitri Schostakowitsch und das jüdische musikalische
Erbe (Berlin, 2001).

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Chronology

Shostakovich’s life and career (works listed under

Year year of completion) Contemporary political events

1906 (25 September) Shostakovich born

1909 (24 August) Sister Zoya born
1914 (August) First World War begins
1915 Begins piano lessons with his mother and almost
immediately composes first piano pieces; first
visit to opera (Rimsky-Korsakov, The Tale of
Tsar Saltan); (autumn) begins piano lessons
with Olga Glyasser
1916 Transfers to piano class of Ignaty Glyasser Murder of Rasputin
1917 ‘Funeral March in Memory of Victims of the (February) Revolution – overthrow of Tsar
Revolution’ (March) Formation of Provisional Government;
abdication of Tsar
(October) Revolution – Bolshevik seizure of
power
Formation of People’s Commissariats (NKs, i.e.
Ministries), including People’s Commissariat
for Enlightenment (Narkompros) subsuming
the arts under education and propaganda, and
NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal
Affairs)
(December) creation of Cheka (Extraordinary
Commission for the Suppression of
Counter-revolution and Sabotage)
1918 Begins piano lessons with Alexandra Rozanova (March) Treaty of Brest-Litovsk takes Russia out
of War
(April) Civil War begins
(September) Red Terror begins in aftermath of
attempt on Lenin’s life
1919 (Autumn) Enrols at Petrograd Conservatoire – (March) Campaign against churches
piano under Rozanova, composition under Comintern established
Maximilian Steinberg
1920 (Autumn) Transfers to piano class of Lev War with Poland
Nikolayev (November) Civil War effectively ends, with Red
Op. 2 Eight Preludes for Piano (begun in 1919) Army victorious. Hostilities continue until
October 1922
1921 Op. 1 Scherzo in F sharp minor (March) Kronstadt and Tambov rebellions
crushed; New Economic Policy (NEP)
introduced at 10th Party Congress; famine in
Volga regions (until 1922) kills millions
1922 (24 February) Father dies (February) Cheka reorganized as GPU (State
Op. 3 Theme and Variations for Orchestra Political Administration) within NKVD
Op. 4 Two Fables of Krïlov (3 April) Stalin elected General Secretary of Party
Op. 5 Three Fantastic Dances (piano) (May and December) Lenin suffers strokes
Op. 6 Suite for Two Pianos (December) Founding of USSR (Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics)
1923 (Spring) Operation for tuberculosis of lymphatic Formation of ACM (Association of
system; graduates as pianist Contemporary Music) and RAPM (Russian
(July) Meets and falls in love with Tatyana Association of Proletarian Musicians)
Glivenko at sanatorium in Crimea
(October) Begins works as silent film
accompanist
[ix] Op. 8 Piano Trio no. 1

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x Chronology

Shostakovich’s life and career (works listed under

Year year of completion) Contemporary political events

1924 Op. 7 Scherzo in E flat (21 January) Death of Lenin; Petrograd renamed
Op. 9 Three Pieces for Cello and Piano (lost) Leningrad
(Autumn) Begins works on First Symphony GPU renamed OGPU and removed from NKVD
(Republic level) to SovNarKom (USSR level)
(December) Stalin announces policy of ‘Socialism
in One Country’ (as opposed to priority of
International Revolution)
1925 (March) Meets Marshal Tukhachevsky, who
becomes his sponsor and patron
Op. 10 Symphony no. 1 (completed 1 July)
Op. 11 Two Pieces for String Octet
1926 (April) Accepted for postgraduate study at (April) ‘United opposition’ (opposed to NEP and
Leningrad Conservatoire Socialism in One Country) of Trotsky,
(12 May) Triumphant premiere of First Zinoviev and Kamenev formed, but largely
Symphony defeated by October
Op. 12 Piano Sonata no. 1
1927 (January) Awarded diploma of honour at first (November–December) Expulsions of Trotsky,
Chopin Piano Competition (Warsaw) Zinoviev and Kamenev from Party
(February) Returns via Berlin; meets Prokofiev in
Leningrad
(May) Beginning of friendship with Ivan
Sollertinsky
(June) Attends performance of Wozzeck and
meets Berg
(Summer) Meets Nina Varzar (future first wife)
(Autumn) Meets Vsevolod Meyerhold
Op. 13 Aphorisms (piano)
Op. 14 Symphony no. 2, Dedication to October
Op. 16 Tahiti Trot (orchestration of Vincent
Youmans’ ‘Tea for Two’)
1928 (January) Works as pianist and musical director (January) Trotsky exiled to Alma-Ata
at Meyerhold Theatre in Moscow (May–July) Wreckers’ Trial
Op. 15 The Nose (opera, after Gogol) (October) Beginning of First Five-Year Plan
1929 (May) First published article ‘On the Ills of Music (November) Defeat of ‘Right opposition’;
Criticism’ Bukharin expelled from Politburo
Op. 18 The New Babylon (film score) (December) Stalin’s fiftieth birthday marks
Op. 19 The Bedbug (incidental music) beginning of ‘cult of personality’; he calls for
Op. 20 Symphony no. 3, The First of May mass collectivization of agriculture and
(December) Beginning of collaborations with ‘dekulakization’ (elimination of resistance
Leningrad TRAM (Theatre of Working amongst supposedly wealthy peasantry)
Youth)
1930 Op. 22 The Golden Age (ballet) (April) Suicide of Mayakovsky; height of cultural
domination by Proletarian organizations
1931 Op. 27 The Bolt (ballet)
1932 (13 May) Marries Nina Varzar (23 April) Central Committee resolution ‘On the
(August) Joins directorate of Leningrad branch of restructuring of literary-artistic organizations’
Union of Soviet Composers disbands factions and establishes cultural
Op. 21 Six Romances on Texts by Japanese Poets Unions
Op. 29 The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (Until 1934) Famine in Ukraine and elsewhere
(opera, after Leskov, begun October 1930) kills millions
Op. 32 Hamlet (incidental music)
1933 (November) Elected as deputy to the October (1933–7) Second Five-Year Plan
district Soviet of Leningrad
Op. 34 24 Preludes (piano)
Op. 35 Piano Concerto no. 1
1934 (January) Premieres of Lady Macbeth in (July) OGPU reorganized under NKVD
Leningrad and Moscow (August) First congress of Union of Soviet
Suite for Jazz Orchestra no. 1 Writers proclaims Socialist Realism
(May) Meets and falls in love with translator (December) Assassination of Kirov gives pretext
Elena Konstantinovskaya (affair lasts until for coming Terror
mid-1935)
Op. 40 Cello Sonata

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xi Chronology

Shostakovich’s life and career (works listed under

Year year of completion) Contemporary political events

1935 Divorce from Nina Varzar; remarriage following (4–6 February) ‘Discussion about Soviet
her pregnancy Symphonism’ at Moscow Composers’ Union
Premieres of Lady Macbeth in New York, (Shostakovich takes part)
Czechoslovakia, Stockholm etc. Stalin declares ‘Life has improved, life has become
Op. 39 The Limpid Stream (ballet) more joyous’
(September) Beginning of Stakhanovite
movement (encouraging exceptional feats of
industrial production)
1936 (26 January) Stalin attends Lady Macbeth (17 January) Establishment of ‘All-Union
production Committee for Artistic Affairs’ (later to
(28 January) Pravda editorial article ‘Muddle become USSR Ministry of Culture); cultural
instead of Music’ (on Lady Macbeth) attacks extended to architecture, literature,
(6 February) Pravda editorial article ‘Balletic film and fine arts
Travesty’ (on The Bright Stream) (August) Political show trials (Zinoviev,
(30 May) Birth of daughter Galina (Galya) Kamenev and others)
Op. 43 Symphony no. 4 (September) Yezhov appointed head of NKVD in
(December) Scheduled premiere of Fourth succession to Yagoda
Symphony withdrawn (eventually premiered (December) Stalin constitution promulgated
in 1961)
1937 Spring: Joins staff of Leningrad Conservatoire; Height of Great Terror (until late 1938), millions
begins teaching in September deported, hundreds of thousands executed
Op. 46 Four Romances on Texts of Pushkin (June) Marshal Tukhachevsky (Shostakovich’s
Op. 47 Symphony no. 5 (triumphant premiere on patron) executed
21 November)
1938 (10 May) Birth of son, Maxim Terror continues
Op. 49 String Quartet no. 1 (1938–June 1941) Third Five-Year Plan
(December) Beria succeeds Yezhov as head of
NKVD
1939 (23 May) Confirmed as professor at Leningrad (March) 18th Party Congress effectively brings
Conservatoire Terror to an end
Op. 54 Symphony no. 6 (August) Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact
(September) Nazi invasion of Poland brings UK
into War
(November) USSR invades Finland
1940 Op. 57 Piano Quintet (March 1941 awarded (March) Peace treaty with Finland
Stalin Prize, first class) (April) Katyn massacre – NKVD shoots 15,000
Op. 58 Boris Godunov (orchestration of Polish prisoners of war
Musorgsky’s opera) (June) USSR annexes Baltic states
(August) Assassination of Trotsky in Mexico
1941 (June–July) Volunteers for army service, joins (22 June) Nazi invasion of USSR
Home Guard, arranges popular songs and (July) Beginning of siege of Leningrad
opera arias for performance at the battlefront (From October) Partial evacuation of Moscow
(August) Refuses offer of evacuation (December) Red Army counter-attacks and
(1 October) Evacuated with family to Moscow, drives Nazis back from Moscow
then Kuybyshev (arrives 22 October)
Op. 60 Symphony no. 7 ‘Dedicated to the City of
Leningrad’ (premiere in Kuybyshev, 5 March
1942)
1942 (9 August) Performance of Symphony no. 7 in (May) Anglo-Soviet alliance
blockaded Leningrad (August 1942–January 1943) Battle of Stalingrad
Op. 62 Six Romances on Texts of Raleigh, Burns
and Shakespeare
Abandons incomplete opera The Gamblers (after
Gogol)
1943 (April) Resettles in Moscow, begins teaching at NKGB (People’s Commissariat for State Security)
Conservatoire split from NKVD
Op. 61 Piano Sonata no. 2 (July) Nazis defeated at tank battle of Kursk
Op. 65 Symphony no. 8

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xii Chronology

Shostakovich’s life and career (works listed under

Year year of completion) Contemporary political events

1944 (11 February) Death of Sollertinsky (January) Siege of Leningrad lifted

Op. 67 Piano Trio no. 2 (August) Warsaw uprising
Op. 68 String Quartet no. 2
Completes and orchestrates Rothschild’s Violin
(opera by Shostakovich’s pupil, Veniamin
Fleyshman, after Chekhov)
1945 Op. 69 A Children’s Notebook (seven pieces for (February) Yalta conference discusses shape of
piano) Europe after War
Op. 70 Symphony no. 9 (April) Soviet and US forces meet at River Elbe
(9 May) Surrender of Germany
1946 Op. 73 String Quartet no. 3 (1946–50) Fourth Five-Year Plan
NKGB becomes MGB (Ministry for State
Security); NKVD becomes MVD (Ministry for
Internal Affairs)
(March) Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech;
effective beginning of Cold War
(August) Beginning of Andrey Zhdanov’s anti-
formalism campaign in the arts
(Zhdanovshchina – the Zhdanov business).
Central Committee decree attacks writers
Akhmatova and Zoshchenko for ‘reactionary
individualism’
1947 (February) Reappointed professor at Leningrad Famine in Ukraine
Conservatoire, though continues to live in (September) Cominform created (official forum
Moscow. Moves to apartment on of international communist movement)
Mozhayskoye Shosse
Op. 74 Poem of the Motherland (patriotic cantata)
1948 (February) Shostakovich condemned in anti- (January) Murder of Solomon Mikhoels signals
formalism campaign beginning of anti-Semitic campaign
(14 February) Various works included on Main (10 February) Resolution ‘On the opera The
Repertoire Commission list of banned Great Friendship by Vano Muradeli’
compositions (February) Communist coup in Czechoslovakia
(August) Loses teaching posts (November) Dissolution of Jewish Anti-fascist
Op. 77 Violin Concerto no. 1 Committee
Op. 79 From Jewish Folk Poetry (song cycle)
1949 (March) Visits USA as part of Soviet delegation to Closure of Jewish State Theatre in Moscow
Peace Congress (first of several such duties) (April) Formation of NATO
(16 March) Ban on ‘formalist’ works lifted (August) Soviet atomic bomb test
Op. 81 Song of the Forests (oratorio; awarded
Stalin Prize, first class in December 1950)
Op. 83 String Quartet no. 4
1950 (July) Attends Bach bicentenary festival in (June) Korean war
Leipzig
Op. 84 Two Romances on Texts of Lermontov
1951 (February) Re-elected Deputy to Supreme Soviet (1951–5) Fifth Five-Year Plan
of the Russian SFSR. Many initiatives to help
victims of Stalin’s purges
Op. 86 Four Songs on Texts of Dolmatovsky
Op. 87 Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues (piano)
Op. 88 Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary
Poets (for unaccompanied mixed chorus)
1952 Op. 90 The Sun Shines over our Motherland Stalin prepares for another purge
(patriotic cantata)
Op. 91 Four Monologues on Texts of Pushkin
Op. 92 String Quartet no. 5
1953 Op. 93 Symphony no. 10 (January) Discovery of (fabricated) ‘Doctors’ Plot’
(5 March) Deaths of Stalin and Prokofiev;
Malenkov becomes prime minister, Beria head
of NKVD, Molotov foreign minister
MGB and NKVD fused into new MVD
(July) Arrest of Beria
(September) Khrushchev appointed first
secretary of Party

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xiii Chronology

Shostakovich’s life and career (works listed under

Year year of completion) Contemporary political events

1954 (March–April) Moscow discussion of Tenth Ilya Ehrenburg The Thaw (novella) published,
Symphony lends name to post-Stalin era
(4 December) Death of Nina (first wife) (May) Rehabilitation commission established
Op. 94 Concertino for two pianos Responsibility for security transferred to KGB
Op. 96 Festive Overture (Commission for State Security)
Op. 98 Five Romances on Texts by Dolmatovsky
1955 (9 November) Death of mother (May) Warsaw pact established
Bulganin replaces Malenkov as prime minister
1956 (July) Marries Margarita Kaynova (Komsomol (February) Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ to 20th
activist) Party Congress denounces Stalin’s excesses
(September) Awarded Order of Lenin (June) Central Committee resolution ‘On
Op. 100 Spanish Songs overcoming the Cult of Personality and its
Consequences’
(November) Invasion of Hungary crushes
uprising
1957 Op. 101 String Quartet no. 6 (July) Khrushchev crushes ‘opposition’ and gains
Op. 102 Piano Concerto no. 2 supreme power
Op. 103 Symphony no. 11, The Year 1905 (October) First sputnik launched
1958 (March–April) President of first Tchaikovsky (February) Khrushchev replaces Bulganin as
International Competition prime minister
(May) Records Piano Concertos in Paris. Feels (28 May) Central Committee resolution partially
first symptoms of muscular condition, later rescinds 1948 anti-formalism resolution
diagnosed as form of polio or motor neuron (October) Pasternak awarded Nobel Prize for
disease Literature for Doctor Zhivago
Op. 105 Moscow, Cheryomushki (operetta)
Op. 106 Khovanshchina (orchestration of
Musorgsky’s opera)
1959 (August) Separates from second wife (1959–65) Seven-Year Plan to regenerate
(November) Visits USA agriculture
(December) Buys dacha at Zhukovka, near
Moscow
Op. 107 Cello Concerto no. 1
1960 (9 April) Elected First Secretary of Russian SFSR Beginning of incarceration of dissidents in
Composers’ Union psychiatric hospitals
(September) Accedes to candidature for Party (May) American spy plane shot down over Soviet
membership (ratified 14 September 1961) air space
(September) Meets Britten in London, beginning
of friendship
Op. 108 String Quartet no. 7
Op. 109 Satires (song cycle)
Op. 110 String Quartet no. 8
1961 (30 December) Symphony no. 4 premiered (April) First manned Soviet space flight (Yury
Op. 112 Symphony no. 12, The Year 1917 Gagarin)
(August) Berlin Wall erected
1962 (18 March) Elected deputy to Supreme Soviet for (October) Cuban missile crisis
Leningrad (November) Publication of Solzhenitsyn’s A Day
(April) Moves to apartment on Nezhdanova in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Street
(June) Marries Irina Supinskaya (literary editor)
(August–September) Attends Edinburgh Festival
as featured composer
(1 and 10 October) Meets Stravinsky in Moscow
(12 November) Conducts Cello Concerto no. 1
and Festive Overture at festival of his music in
Gorky
Op. 113 Symphony no. 13, Babiy Yar (premiere
18 December)
Op. 114 Katerina Izmaylova (revision of Lady
Macbeth; unofficial premiere on 26 December)

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xiv Chronology

Shostakovich’s life and career (works listed under

Year year of completion) Contemporary political events

1963 Attends preparations for various new

productions of Katerina Izmaylova, including
Covent Garden in November
1964 Op. 117 String Quartet no. 9 (14 October) Brezhnev replaces Khrushchev as
Op. 118 String Quartet no. 10 first secretary of Party
Op. 119 The Execution of Stepan Razin (vocal-
symphonic poem; awarded USSR State Prize
November 1968)
1965 Op. 121 Five Romances on Texts from Krokodil
Magazine
1966 (30 May) First heart attack, followed by two (1966–70) Eighth Five-Year Plan
months in hospital (February) trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel
Op. 122 String Quartet no. 11 (dissident writers)
Op. 123 Preface to the Complete Edition of My
Works and a Brief Reflection apropos this
Preface (song)
Op. 126 Cello Concerto no. 2
1967 (September) Breaks leg in fall Stagnation (zastoy) begins
Op. 127 Seven Verses of Blok
Op. 128 Spring, spring (romance to words by
Pushkin)
Op. 129 Violin Concerto no. 2
Op. 131 October (symphonic poem)
1968 (April) Resigns as first secretary of RSFSR (April) Chronicle of Current Events launched
Composers’ Union (dissident samizdat, i.e. self-publishing,
Op. 133 String Quartet no. 12 journal, lasts until 1983)
Op. 134 Violin Sonata (August) Invasion of Czechoslovakia, crushing
Antiformalist Gallery (satirical scena, assembled attempts at liberal reform
intermittently since ?1948)
1969 Op. 135 Symphony no. 14
1970 Op. 136 Loyalty (eight ballads for Soviet Human Rights Committee founded by
unaccompanied male chorus) Sakharov et al.
Op. 138 String Quartet no. 13
1971 (17 September) Second heart attack 1971–5: Ninth Five-Year Plan
Op. 141 Symphony no. 15 (February) Beginning of large-scale Jewish
emigration
1972 (July) Visits Britten in Aldeburgh Strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) begin
(December) Hospitalized for treatment for lung
cancer
1973 (June) Visits USA, consults American doctors (3 September) Letter condemning nuclear
Op. 142 String Quartet no. 14 physicist Andrey Sakharov appears in Pravda,
Op. 143 Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva signatories including Shostakovich
1974 Op. 144 String Quartet no. 15 (February) Expulsion of Solzhenitsyn from USSR
Op. 145 Suite on Texts of Michelangelo
Buonarroti
Op. 146 Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin
1975 (9 August) Dies of lung cancer (1 August) Helsinki Accord on human rights
(14 August) Funeral at Novodevichy cemetery, (October) Sakharov awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Moscow
Op. 147 Viola Sonata

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978-0-521-60315-7 - The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich
Edited by Pauline Fairclough and David Fanning
Frontmatter
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Abbreviations

ASM [Assotsiatsiya sovremennoy muzïki] Association of

Contemporary Music
DDR [Deutsche Demokratische Republik] German Democratic
Republic
FEKS [Fabrika ekstentricheskogo aktyora] Factory of the
Eccentric Actor
GDR German Democratic Republic
GTsMMK [Godsudarstvennïy tsentral’nïy muzey muzïkal’noy kul’turï
imeni M. I. Glinki] Glinka State Central Museum of
Musical Culture, Moscow
ISCM International Society for Contemporary Music
LASM [Leningradskaya assotsiatsiya sovremennoy muzïki]
Leningrad Association of Contemporary Music
NEP New Economic Policy
NKVD [Narodnïy komissariat vnutrennïkh del] People’s
Commissariat of Internal Affairs
OBERIU [Ob’’edineniye real’nogo iskusstva] Society for Real Art
RIAS Radio in the American Sector (main radio station in Berlin,
1946–89)
RAPM [Rossiyskaya assotsiatsiya proletarskikh muzïkantov]
Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians
RAPP [Rossiyskaya assotsiatsiya proletarskikh pisateley] Russian
Association of Proletarian Writers
RGALI [Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennïy arkhiv literaturï i iskusstva]
Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, Moscow
RSFSR [Rossiyskaya sovetskaya federatsiya sovetskikh respublik]
Russian Soviet Federation of Soviet Republics
TRAM [Teatr rabochey molodyozhi] Theatre of Working Youth
TsGALI [Tsentral’nïy gosudarstvennïy arkhiv literaturï i iskusstva]
Central State Archive of Literature and Art, St Petersburg

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