Dmitri Shostakovich was the most important composer in the history of the Soviet Union, and is recognized as the outstanding genius of new Russian music. Along with composition, he studied piano - with his mother from the age of nine and from 1919 at the Petrograd Conservatory - and became an outstanding performer. He first earned his living in cinemas, accompanying silent films; later he composed film scores as well as numerous suites of incidental music for the theatre. But he is known above all for the operas, 15 symphonies, concertos, songs, piano and chamber music (including 15 string quartets and a cycle of preludes and fugues modelled on Bach's Well-tempered Clavier). In contrast to those composers who emigrated after the Russian Revolution (Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff) or left the country for many years (Prokofiev), he remained in Russia but repeatedly fell foul of authority, and his music aroused both praise and vehement disapproval.

Professional successes and honours (1937 professor of composition at the Leningrad Conservatory, 1941 and 1950 Stalin Prize, several times a deputy of the Supreme Soviet) were counterbalanced by attacks and humiliation (in 1935 Stalin walked out of a performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow; in 1936 and 1948, following severe criticism from the Communist Party, he was temporarily relieved of his teaching posts). Shostakovich's is an outstanding example of the life of an artist under a totalitarian system. The Pravda onslaught on him in 1936 (which described Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk as "chaos, not music", "fidgety, screaming, neurotic") threw him into a severe crisis. Everything he wrote after that can be interpreted as the attempt to avoid further public attacks while at the same time satisfying his own standards and artistic conscience. He had to exercise constant self-criticism to protect himself. Works like The Song of the Forests (an oratorio praising Stalin's forestation plan, 1949) gained official approval, but his String Quartet No. 4, composed in the same year, could not be performed. Even later, certain works were not allowed to be heard, or not reported in the press after their premiere. A concert planned in Philadelphia in 1949 and sold out in advance was cancelled for political reasons, and Shostakovich was rushed out of the USA.

In spite of numerous honours from foreign academic institutions, he was long regarded as an orthodox Communist, content to toe the party line. Not until after his death were his memoirs published in the West, shedding light on his perilous situation. He was the embodiment of the enlightened Russian intellectual in his work and way of life: rational, disciplined, self-critical. His constitution was not strong and he was often forced to spend time in sanatoriums. In 1959 an incurable myelitis was diagnosed, but he died of a heart attack (his third). Shostakovich's music unites powerful emotional expression with formal mastery, tragedy and humour, pugnacious vitality and resignation. A wide range of stylistic influences, from Bach to revolutionary song, from Russian folk music to 20th-century atonality, combine and merge in a synthesis forged by his genius. Harvey Sachs Biographical notes (c) 1996, reprinted by permission of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg A selection of major works:

Orchestral: 15 Symphonies (including: No. 2 "To October", the famous No. 5, No.7 "Leningrad", No. 11 "The Year 1905", No. 12 "The Year 1917", No. 13 "Babiy Yar"), Ballet Suites, Festive Overture, Jazz Suites, 2 Piano Concertos, 2 Violin Concertos, 2 Cello Concertos.

Chamber: Piano Quintet, 15 String Quartets, 2 Piano Trios, Suite for 2 Pianos, Violin Sonata, Viola Sonata, Cello Sonata.

Instrumental solo: 2 Piano Sonatas, 24 Preludes, 24 Preludes and Fugues

Vocal: From Jewish Folk Poetry, 6 Marina Tsvetaeva Poems, 7 Romances on Verses by Alexander Blok, Spanish Songs.

Choral: The Execution of Stepan Razin, The Song of the Forests, The Sun Shines on Our Motherland.

Stage works: The Bolt (ballet), The Gadfly (film score), The Golden Age (ballet), Katerina Izmaylova (opera), King Lear (film score), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera).