Dmitri Shostakovich vs Gustav Mahler
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Dmitri Shostakovich | Gustav Mahler | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Composer | Composer |
| Born | 1906 | 1860 |
| Died | 1975 | 1911 |
| Country of birth | Russia | Austria |
| Star sign | Libra | Cancer |
Who they are
Dmitri Shostakovich
In January 1936, Josef Stalin attended a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Bolshoi Theatre and left before the final act. Two days later, Pravda published an unsigned editorial — almost certainly authorized at the highest level — titled "Muddle Instead of Music." The article attacked the opera as "formalist" and "bourgeois," its dissonances described as deliberate assaults on Soviet socialist culture. Shostakovich was twenty-nine years old, the most celebrated composer in the Soviet Union, and now suddenly in danger. He had a new symphony nearly finished —…
Full biography of Dmitri Shostakovich →
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler described the symphony as a world that must contain everything. He was not speaking metaphorically. His nine completed symphonies range in duration from forty-five minutes to nearly two hours, deploy orchestras of up to one hundred and forty players, incorporate vocal soloists, choirs, offstage bands, and in the case of the Eighth Symphony — known as the Symphony of a Thousand — require a performing force so large that the piece can barely be staged. This was not grandiosity for its own sake. It was Mahler's attempt to make music coextensive with human…
Full biography of Gustav Mahler →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Same sub-field: Composer.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: Russia and Austria.
- 46 years separate their births (1906 and 1860).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Dmitri Shostakovich or Gustav Mahler?
- Gustav Mahler. Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906, Gustav Mahler in 1860.
- What field is each of them in?
- Dmitri Shostakovich is filed under Music (Composer). Gustav Mahler is filed under Music (Composer).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.