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Maximilian Steinberg, Teacher of Dmitri Shostakovich
by Leonidas Melnikas
Among the people who surrounded Dmitri Shostakovich during his formative years, Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946) exerted an especially strong influence on his art. A favourite student of Rimsky-Korsakov and the keeper of the latter’s artistic heritage, for almost four decades Steinberg was one of the leading pedagogues of the St. Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad Conservatory. Dmitri Shostakovich studied in his composition class from 1919 to 1925 and for some time also attended his classes in polyphony, musical form and instrumentation. Shostakovich later wrote: “I can consider myself fully a pupil of M.O. Steinberg.”[1]
SHOSTAKOVICH’S CONTROVERSIAL TEACHER
Although the artistic interaction between Shostakovich and Steinberg is well established, the nature of the interaction itself can nevertheless be assessed in various fashions. Many questions arise regarding Steinberg‘s true character and the role he played in forming his pupil. The answers to such questions, as a rule, reflect a fairly broad range of opinions. On the one hand, Steinberg is often described as very knowledgeable and erudite; on the other – based on these very same qualities – he is deemed to be a conservative, a traditionalist, a musician although “far from talentless,” is nevertheless “hopelessly academic.”[2]
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