Tune in Today: Shostakovich’s Joyful ‘Festive Overture’

The Russian composer produces an effervescent work that contrasts with his profession’s circumstances.

Russian pianist and composer Dmitri Shostakovich, at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, in Moscow, Soviet Union, 1961. James McAnally/Graphic House/Archive Photos/Getty Images

In the book “Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich,” author Solomon Volkov recorded the following words from the composer:

“It didn’t matter how the audience reacted to your work or if the critics liked it. All that had no meaning in the final analysis. There was only one question of life or death: how did the leader like your opus. I stress: life or death, because we are talking about life or death here, literally, not figuratively.”