Maxim Shostakovich

Maxim Shostakovich
For the composer and father of Maxim Shostakovich, see Dmitri Shostakovich.

Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich (born Leningrad on May 10, 1938) is a Russian conductor and pianist. He was the second child of 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 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. In 1979 he defected in West Germany later moving to the United States.[1]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 recently completed a cycle of his father's 15 symphonies with the Prague Symphony Orchestra for the Czech label, Supraphon.

Preceded by
Yuri Ahronovich		 Principal Conductors, State Symphony Capella of Russia
1971–1981		 Succeeded by
Gennady Rozhdestvensky

See also

  • List of Eastern Bloc defectors

References

  1. ^ "Shostakovich's Son Says Moves Against Artists Led to Defection", article, The New York Times, May 14, 1981, retrieved January 24, 2010

External Links


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