SHOSTAKOVICH, DMITRY

born Sept. 12 [Sept. 25, New Style], 1906, St. Petersburg, Russia died Aug. 9, 1975, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R. in full Dmitry Dmitriyevich Shostakovich Russian composer, renowned particularly for his 15 symphonies, numerous chamber works, and concerti, many of them written under the pressures of government-imposed standards of Soviet art. Additional reading Dmitrii Shostakovich, Testimony, trans. from Russian, ed. by Solomon Volkov (1979, reissued 1999), is the memoirs of Shostakovich, of uncertain authenticity. A useful study of the music is contained in Norman Kay, Shostakovich (1971). Alexander Werth, Musical Uproar in Moscow (1949, reprinted 1973), is an account of the upheaval surrounding the Zhdanov conference of 1948 and yields valuable insight into the pressures under which Shostakovich had to work. Elizabeth Wilson, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (1994), is an invaluable compilation of interviews. The most factually reliable short biography in any language is Laurel E. Fay, Shostakovich: A Life (2000). Ian MacDonald, The New Shostakovich (1990), and Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov (eds.), Shostakovich Reconsidered (1998), are tendentious political interpretations. Richard Taruskin