Dimitri Shostakovich

Dimitri Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No 2

https://youtu.be/1DFqVqApms8?si=8cG4tlJgn1QS_d2n

Take a moment out and listen to this; it never fails.

Shostakovich fell out of favour with Stalin. Some days after Stalin had attended a Shostakovich  concert in Moscow, from

Dimitri Shostakovich

which he walked out, Shostakovich was told to report to a state official. He was left waiting two/three hours when someone asked him why was he waiting. Shostakovich told him he was told to report to see a commissar. The passing man told him to go home as the commissar had earlier been executed on the orders of Stalin. Shostakovich’s life had been spared.

The composer wrote the famous music played at the Siege of Leningrad; it is his Symphony No. 7, also known as the "Leningrad Symphony". This powerful piece was dedicated to the city of Leningrad and its people's endurance during the long and brutal German siege of the city during World War II.  

Dimitri Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975