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 Carnegie Hall Sound Insights - The Music of Shostakovich
TIMELINE EXPAND ALL | COLLAPSE ALL NEXT: Symphony No. 5
Bold, Red Text Represents Events in Shostakovich’s Life
 Black Text Represents Events Happening Throughout the World During Shostakovich’s Life
 Click on the + or - Signs to Expand or Collapse the Timeline
1906 • Born September 25 in St. Petersburg
1915 • Sees his first opera, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Tale of Tsar Saltan • Begins piano lessons
1919 • Enters Petrograd Conservatory; studies composition with Rimsky-Korsakov’s son-in-law and pupil, Maximilian Steinberg. Composes Op.1, a Scherzo in F-sharp Minor
1925 • Completes First Symphony as a graduation piece
1927 • Meets Prokofiev and plays his own recently completed First Piano Sonata
1928 • Begins Six Romances on Texts of Japanese Poets, Op. 21
1929 • Receives first commission for a ballet score, Zolotoy vek (“The Golden Age”)
1930 • Satirical opera The Nose opens to poor reviews
1931 • Begins the Incidental Music to Hamlet, Op. 32
1932 • Marries Nina Varzar
1934 • The opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District meets with immediate success
1936 • Pravda condemns Lady Macbeth as “formalist”
• The composer’s first child, Galina, is born
• Begins work on the Four Romances on Texts by A. Pushkin, Op. 46, completed the following year
1937 • Fifth Symphony premieres on November 21 to great acclaim; Evgeny Mravinsky, who will premiere several other major works by the composer, conducts
• Shostakovich is invited to join teaching staff at Leningrad Conservatory
1938 • Son Maxim born
1941 • Composes Incidental Music for King Lear, Op. 58a • Shostakovich moves to Kuybichev, where he finishes work on Seventh Symphony
1942 • Composes Six Romances on Texts by English Poets, Op. 62
• Appears on the July 20 cover of Time Magazine
1943 • Meets Stalin for the first time at a competition for a new national anthem
1948 • Denounced for formalism; many of his works are banned • Composes From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79, shortly before Stalin begins “anti-cosmopolitan” campaign
1949 • Writes Song of the Forests, which praises Stalin
1950 • Composes Two Romances on Texts of M. Lermontov, Op. 84 • Begins Four Songs on Texts by Dolmatovsky, Op. 86, completed in 1951
1952 • Composes Four Monologues on Texts by A. Pushkin, Op. 91
1953 • Completes Tenth Symphony, widely regarded as his orchestral masterpiece
1954 • Composes Five Romances on Texts by Dolmatovsky, Op. 98 • Wife Nina dies of cancer
1956 • Married second wife, Margarita Kainova
• Composes Spanish Songs, Op. 100
1958 • Begins to experience symptoms of what is eventually diagnosed as a form of polio
1959 • Divorces Margarita Kainova • First Cello Concerto premiered in Leningrad, October 4, with Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist
1960 • Joins communist Party • Composes Eighth String Quartet, as well as Satires: Pictures of the Past, Op. 109 • Meets Benjamin Britten during a visit to England
1962 • Composes Symphony No. 13, “Babi Yar,” openly critical of anti-Semitism • Marries Irina Supinskaya