Here is the story about the outstanding Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. What was his most famous work? Fill in the gaps with the words from the box.
Вопрос от пользователя
Here is the story about the outstanding Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
What was his most famous work? Fill in the gaps with the words from the box.
Dmitri Shostakovich was born on 25 September, 1906 in St Petersburg. His father was an engineer and his mother was a (0) pianist and gave him his first piano lessons. When he was 13, he became a pupil of the famous (1) composter Alexander Glazunov at the Petrograd Conservatoire. Shostakovich was happy because he liked Glazunov’s music a lot. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his first (2) symphony in 1925 and it was performed all over the world. Every year until he died, Shostakovich celebrated its (3) first night as the moment when his life changed forever. Shostakovich’s Second Symphony (4) appeared in 1927. It was an experimental work with a (5) choral ending when the choir sang “To October” by Alexander Bezymensky. In the years of the Great Terror (in the late 1930s), his music was criticised, the critics said it was (6) tuneless and complicated. In December 1941, D. Shostakovich (who lived in besieged Leningrad) wrote his most famous “Leningrad Symphony”. It is a real (7) masterpiece. Its first night (8) took place in the besieged city in 1942.
Though Shostakovich’s works were a great success and played to (9) full house in Russia and in the West, he suffered from criticism of the official powers. Many specialists think that the conflict with the powers (10) influenced his music very much. D. Shostakovich died in 1975 in Moscow. His son Maxim, a well-known (11) conductor, helps to popularise his father’s music by working with the best world orchestras. Even now many orchestras (12) continue to perform Shostakovich’s music all over the world.
Ответ от эксперта
(1) composer
(2) symphony
(3) first night
(4) appeared
(5) choral
(6) tuneless and complicated
(7) masterpiece
(8) took place
(9) full houses
(10) influenced
(11) conductor
(12) continue.
