Free in music?

Dmitri Shostakovich lived through the Second World War and was threatened by Stalinist terror, yet he was made into the figurehead of Soviet music. In his article, Clemens Matuschek discusses how the artist remained true to himself despite these challenges.

A man stands in the stairwell, his coat on, with a packed suitcase next to him. He is waiting to be arrested, exiled to Siberia or shot. He has not committed a crime. But, according to those in power, his music is dangerous. His name is Dmitri Shostakovich. His career got off to a promising start – until dictator Josef Stalin denigrated his opera »Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk« in a newspaper review, calling it »chaos instead of music«. This was a death sentence in the era of the Great Stalinist Terror. From then on, he expected to be picked up by the secret police at any moment.

Can you imagine a more extreme, psychologically stressful situation? The famous composer remained in this state of mind for 20 years. Not to mention the fact that he witnessed first-hand the great civilisational catastrophes of the 20th century: the Russian Revolution, Stalin's reign of terror and the Second World War, including the siege of his home city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg). If any artist’s fate is »all ultra«, it is his. 

It is only fitting, then, that his music is the focal point of Beethovenfest 2025, with a number of pieces that encapsulate his eventful life. Performed with verve by dynamic artists, who confirm the tragedy and life-affirming power of his music, despite everything.

There is a particular focus on his fifteen string quartets. These pieces form a kind of musical diary, spanning almost four decades.

»Shostakovich’s quartets are among the most personal, profound, and emotionally intense works of the 20th century.«

This is the view of the Jerusalem Quartet, who are performing the complete cycle in Bonn and at the Cologne Philharmonie. Three of the musicians grew up in the Soviet Union and therefore have a deep understanding of the biographical background of the quartets: »They are part of Russian history – and therefore part of our lives.«

But how did it come to this? How did Shostakovich end up in such a precarious situation that he feared for his life? His career had begun extremely promisingly. He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory at the sensational age of 19 in 1926. His graduation piece, his First Symphony, was praised by his teacher as an »expression of the highest talent«. Even the conservative rector, Alexander Glazunov, had to admit, »The future doesn't belong to me, but to this boy.« He was a high-flyer.

With his next symphony, written in honour of the October Revolution, and his two exuberant operas, »The Nose« and »Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk«, he consolidated his international fame and prominent position in Russia. However, this came to an abrupt end in 1936. Stalin attended a performance of »Lady Macbeth« at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and stormed out during the performance. A few days later, Pravda published a scathing review under the headline »Chaos instead of music«, which was possibly written by Stalin himself. The article denigrated Shostakovich's music as »hysterical, degenerate cacophony« and, the worst accusation in the party vocabulary, »formalism«.

For the young composer, this criticism had devastating consequences. All performances of his pieces were cancelled, he lost his offices and commissions, and friends and colleagues turned away from him out of fear or opportunism. The »Great Terror« swept through the country, bringing a wave of arrests and executions. Shostakovich expected to be picked up by the secret police at any moment – a fate that would befall his sister and her husband shortly afterwards. And so he stood in the stairwell and waited.

It is possible that he only escaped arrest because the investigator assigned to his case was liquidated himself. However, it is more likely that Stalin needed high-profile figures for his propaganda. Shostakovich, who recognised that he was »not born to be a hero«, played the dangerous game of working for the regime while not denying himself artistically. At congresses, he mechanically reads out prescribed speeches and delivers absurdly pathetic film scores that conform to the narrow guidelines of socialist realism. However, in the works that mattered to him, he hid subversive messages between the notes that bypass the censors and reveal his true convictions.

A good example of this is his Fifth Symphony, which will be performed at the opening concert with the Aurora Orchestra. Shostakovich officially described it as a »Soviet artist's practical response to just criticism«, culminating in a striking triumphal march. However, his posthumously published memoirs provide a completely different interpretation:

»The jubilation is forced under threat. It’s as if we’re being beaten with a truncheon and ordered to cheer. The beaten man rises, barely able to stand on his feet. He walks, he marches, he mumbles to himself, ›We should cheer.‹ You’d have to be a complete fool not to hear that.«

Or his Ninth Symphony, performed at the Beethovenfest by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Composed after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War in 1945, one might expect this symphony to be a heroic victory piece, »Freude schöner Götterfunken« on steroids. Instead, however, it is a classicist work in the style of Joseph Haydn, culminating in a grotesque circus march.

However, Shostakovich’s multi-layered personality, inner struggles and artistic attitude are best heard in his string quartets. It is no coincidence that he always turned to this genre when under the most pressure from the Stalin regime. »The 15 quartets form an autobiographical journey,« explain the musicians from the Jerusalem Quartet.

»They reflect his struggle with Soviet censorship and oscillate between despair, defiance, sarcasm, coded resistance and unspeakable sadness. Like no other works, they convey a picture of the history and culture of the Soviet era.«

This is most unmistakably reflected in the Eighth String Quartet, which consists almost exclusively of the musical notation for his initials, D-E-flat (›Es‹ in German)-C-H, and contains musical references to Symphonies 1 and 5, as well as the First Cello Concerto, which will also be performed at the festival. Shostakovich succinctly explained: »I realised that no one would write a work in my memory after my death. So I decided to compose such a work myself.« The quartet later found its way onto the big stage as a Chamber Symphony and can also be heard in this form at the Beethovenfest.

Incidentally, Shostakovich’s style is closely modelled on that of Ludwig van Beethoven, particularly of the latter’s late string quartets. This is evident in the scope of his quartets, the use of small motifs throughout all parts and movements, the combination of formal logic and rhapsodic freedom, and the unusual number of movements, some of which merge seamlessly into one another. These are all areas in which the Russian composer can rival his role model.

For decades, Dmitri Shostakovich persevered in the Stalinist Soviet Union and in the psychological turmoil of his fear. The fact that his music still plays such a prominent role in the repertoire, 50 years after his death and worldwide, including at Beethovenfest, shows that he ultimately conquered his adversaries. If anything is ultra, it is that.