Maxim Shostakovich
Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich (Russian: Макси́м Дми́триевич Шостако́вич; born 10 May 1938 in Leningrad) is a Russian conductor and pianist. He is the second child of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich and Nina Varzar.
Since 1975, he has conducted and popularised many of his father's lesser-known works.
He was educated at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories where he studied with Igor Markevitch and Otto-Werner Mueller [1] before becoming chief conductor of the Union Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra. While he was principal conductor of the Moscow Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, he conducted the premiere of his father's 15th Symphony. On 12 April 1981, he defected to West Germany, and then later settled in the United States.[2][3] After spells conducting the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra he returned to St. Petersburg. In 1992, he made an acclaimed recording of the Myaskovsky Cello Concerto with Julian Lloyd Webber and the London Symphony Orchestra for Philips Classics.
Maxim is the dedicatee and first performer of his father's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major (Op. 102).
He has a son, Dmitri Maximovich Shostakovich (or Dmitri Shostakovich Jr.), who is a pianist.
Maxim Shostakovich has recorded a cycle of his father's 15 symphonies with the Prague Symphony Orchestra for the Czech label, Supraphon.
See also
References
- ^ http://ottowernermueller.com/
- ^ Burns, Cherie. (16 November 1981) Maxim Shostakovich Champions His Famous Father's Music in the U.S.. People.com. Retrieved on 1 April 2014.
- ^ "Shostakovich's Son Says Moves Against Artists Led to Defection", article, The New York Times, 14 May 1981, retrieved 24 January 2010
External links
- Interview with Maxim Shostakovich, 10 July 1992
- 1938 births
- Living people
- Russian people of Polish descent
- Russian conductors (music)
- Russian classical pianists
- Soviet emigrants to the United States
- People from Saint Petersburg
- People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
- Soviet defectors
- Moscow Conservatory alumni
- Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Russian classical pianist stubs