SHOSTAKOVICH, DMITRI. (1906-1975). Soviet composer, considered by many the leading symphonist of the mid-20th century. Signed score in Cyrillic. (“D. Shostakovich). 60pp. 4to. N.p., N.d. (Moscow, 1973). Printed score for two piano sonatas, Op. 12: Sonata No. 1 (1926) and Op. 64 Piano Sonata No. 2 (1943), signed on the verso of the front cover.

Shostakovich, deeply loyal to his Russian homeland, “belonged to the first generation of Russian composers educated entirely under the Soviet system,” (The New Grove Dictionary). After the end of World War II, Stalin engaged Shostakovich to write a triumphant ninth symphony similar in magnitude to Beethoven’s last symphony. Instead, Shostakovich decided to compose a brief and somewhat whimsical piece (Opus 70), which received official state disapproval. Stalin’s death in March 1953 heralded a gradual political and cultural liberalization, “rehabilitating” Shostakovich who, in 1948, had been denounced in a Communist Party resolution for “‘formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies alien to the Soviet people,’” (quoted in ibid.). His musical output, influenced by Igor Stravinsky and Gustav Mahler, slowed in the late 1960s when his fragile health began to show increasing signs of stress. He continued to work, but never regained his health after a serious heart ailment in 1966.

In fine condition.