One of my current favourite composers, Shostakovich would certainly lay claim to my Greatest of the 20th century crown. All of his music that I have heard is full of feeling, though the feeling expressed is often bitterness, sadness, or sardonic "humour".

Stravinsky apparently said of Shostakovich that he was one of the most frightened men he had ever met (this reported comment may in fact have been something similar made by Robert Craft), and this feeling of fear (terror, even) is something one can often hear in Shostakovich’s music. This is not to imply that all of his work is irredeemably grim. The second movement of the second string quartet is beautifully sad and sweet, for example. Significant works include his fifth and tenth symphonies, the eighth quartet, the two cello concerti and the 24 preludes and fugues.

Shostakovich had a strong musical education. He entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at a young age and was taught there by Glazunov, among others. His first symphony was his graduation piece (composed in 1925), and was well received. He supported himself and his mother in this period by playing the piano at silent movie screenings.

In later works, Shostakovich made frequent use of a D-Eflat-C-B theme. Written using the German notation this reads D-S-C-H, his “initials” (given another Romanization of his name; Dimitri SCHostakovich).

There are a large number of other music pages and resources on the Web devoted to Shostakovich.

On Wikipedia : Shostakovich, Dmitri

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