It was 100 years ago that Dmitri Shostakovich, as a young music student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, completed his First Symphony. He finished the work in April 1925, and did not turn 19 years ...

Many years ago, a relative of mine used the term "music-intense" in conversation to describe a musician we both knew. I think it's also an apt descriptor for BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson. His ...

After composing an operatic adaptation of “Macbeth” that displeased Stalin, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich told a friend: “Even if they cut off both my hands, I shall continue to write music ...

When there’s a final reckoning of Andris Nelsons’ tenure as artistic head of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, his performances and recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich's music will certainly ride high on ...

Evgeny Kissin, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Rysanov, Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė and Alexander Roslavets collaborated in a thoughtful and powerful programme of Shostakovich’s chamber music In the 50 years since his ...

Is there any evidence that Shostakovich really was a Soviet dissident? During Shostakovich’s lifetime (1906–1975) the idea of his being a dissident was never really seriously mooted; passing ...

Stephen Johnson visits Wootton Upper School in Bedfordshire for an exploration of Shostakovich's two very different trios for piano and strings. The first was written in 1923 when the 17-year old ...

When guns speak, the muses keep silent, says an old Russian proverb. Last winter, as he listened to the roar of German artillery and watched the sputtering of German incendiaries from the roof of ...

Roll up, roll up for a circus of musical meaning, a surreal carnival where nothing is quite as it seems, where strange musical machines and even a glittering musical toyshop become an existential ...

A revelatory dance evening merits an encore, and that is what Alexei Ratmansky’s compelling “Shostakovich Trilogy” received Wednesday at the War Memorial Opera House, courtesy of the San Francisco ...

Presenter Stephen Johnson was diagnosed with serious clinical depression and this is his story. That depression almost proved fatal, and it's the music of Shostakovich which he says has helped him ...

Many years ago, a relative of mine used the term "music-intense" in conversation to describe a musician we both knew. I think it's also an apt descriptor for BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson. His ...