After Stalin's denunciation, Shostakovich learned to 'write between the lines,' especially in the intimate genre of song, to convey personal or political significance ambiguously.
Composition History
The album concludes with Shostakovich's Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145, published in 1974, which reflects on immortality and was his final song composition.
Composition History
The 6 Romances by Japanese Poets, Op. 21a, were composed during a carefree period when Shostakovich was working on his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and are dedicated to his future wife, Nina Varzar.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Shostakovich used folk song texts from Southern Europe to convey subtle messages about oppression and expulsion in Stalin's 'workers' and peasants' paradise'.
Composer Biography
Shostakovich studied Jewish folk music extensively, influenced by his friend Mieczysław Weinberg, his student Benjamin Fleischmann, and a Moscow Conservatory dissertation on the subject.
Composer Biography
Dmitry Shostakovich's career was marked by tragic political events, including a denunciation by Stalin in the mid-1930s.
Critical Reception
Despite being written in 1948, Shostakovich's From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79, could not be premiered until 1955 and was first published in Germany due to antisemitism in the Soviet Union.
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