So, when the Russian leader Stalin died, Shostakovich released these compositions and the world learnt what a great composer Shostakovich really was.

This transition was marked by his 10th Symphony which was written at some point in the early 1950s, and premiered on 17 December 1953, after Stalin had died. Shostakovich said himself of the piece ...

The text was altered to meet the chairman’s objections. Shostakovich’s final two symphonies passed the political quality test without controversy. His first wife died in 1954 (he remarried two years ...