Shostakovich: where to start with his music

In the eye of Russia’s revolutionary storm, he wrote some of the most powerful – and cryptic – music of the 20th century. Whether he is judged a Soviet lackey or heroic dissident, the wealth of his musical legacy is beyond doubt

Right from the start there were arguments about the music of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75). Even now, some of them still continue. Was he a radical or a conservative composer? An original or a derivative? A communist or a dissident? One thing, though, has become much clearer. The music of Shostakovich has never been more widely played or more consistently popular than it is today.

Winston Churchill’s remark that Russia was a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma' could apply to Shostakovich

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