13 years of the late happiness of the brilliant composer: Dmitry Shostakovich and Irina Supinskaya

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The great composer was an amazing person. He lived in his own world, but at the same time he could not stand loneliness at all and was not adapted to casual relationships. The composer's first marriage was quite successful, but Nina Varzar, his wife, died suddenly in 1954. He lived with his second wife for a very short time, and his third marriage was perceived by his contemporaries very ambiguously. But Dmitry Shostakovich himself did not hide his happiness.

Changeable happiness

For the first time, Dmitry Shostakovich fell in love in his youth, but he did not dare to propose to his beloved Tatyana Glivenko for a very long time. He did not want to tie the knot and was sincerely surprised that those around him did not understand that vows limit freedom and trust. As a result, Tatiana got tired of waiting for an offer from her lover and married another.

And even when Tatyana informed the young composer about the upcoming wedding, he did not dissuade her and try to return her beloved girl. He wrote letters to her for a long time, declared his love, and only after the news of Tatyana's pregnancy did he propose to her. But it was already too late, the girl did not want to change anything in her life.

Soon after breaking up with Tatyana, Dmitry Shostakovich married Nina Varzar, with whom he lived together for more than 20 years. She was an astrophysicist, but for the sake of her husband and children, she gave up dreams of a brilliant career, trying to devote her time to her family as much as possible.

Dmitry Shostakovich felt very protected next to his wife. Nina created all the conditions for the creativity of her brilliant husband, protected him from everyday problems and tirelessly took care of his health and well-being. She even stopped playing music, as she played the piano unprofessionally, and Dmitry Dmitrievich, who had perfect pitch, did not like amateurism.

They had a truly happy and prosperous family, and therefore in 1954, when Nina Vasilievna suddenly died, Dmitry Shostakovich felt completely alone and confused. He did not know how to live without her at all.

And two years after the departure of Nina Vasilievna, he unexpectedly made an offer to the employee of the Central Committee of the Komsomol Margarita Kayonova. Dmitry Dmitrievich hoped that she would become a good mother to his adult children and a faithful companion.

But this marriage did not last long. The couple did not have mutual understanding, nor that warmth and comfort that the composer was used to in his marriage with Nina Varzar.

Late love

The acquaintance of Dmitry Shostakovich and Irina Supinskaya lasted six years. When she accepted the composer's proposal, the girl was 27, and her future husband was 56. Their first meeting took place at a time when Irina, after graduating from the philological faculty of the Pedagogical Institute, worked as an editor at the publishing house "Soviet Composer". She edited the libretto of Shostakovich's operetta Moscow. Cheryomushki”, but their real acquaintance took place at a concert of the plenum of the Union of Composers, where the girl was supposed to go with the musicologist Lev Lebedinsky. On the eve of the concert, he announced that he would not be able to go, and asked Dmitry Shostakovich to take Irina to the concert.

They sat completely alone in a row, and everyone around them looked with curiosity at the composer's companion. After the concert Shostakovich took Irina home and that was where their acquaintance seemed to end. But after a while, Irina Supinskaya learned that Dmitry Shostakovich was hospitalized with a broken leg. Recovering was very difficult, Irina became unusually sorry for the composer, and she began to visit him in the hospital.

Irina Supinskaya recalled how, after being discharged, the composer invited her to his place, and during the second visit, he unexpectedly made the girl an offer, which she instantly rejected. She was already married, and besides, Irina was embarrassed by the fact that Shostakovich had two children about her age. And most of all she was afraid of condemning looks, she did not want to be considered a predator who married a fairly wealthy and very famous composer.

They did not see each other for a whole year, and after a chance meeting they again reached out to each other. The moment came when the girl could no longer refuse to meet with Dmitry Dmitrievich. The composer realized that Irina really loved him. He gave her an ultimatum: either she leaves her husband and moves in with him, or they part. Irina returned home, explained herself with her husband, packed her simple belongings in a small suitcase and came to Dmitry Shostakovich.

In 1962, Dmitry Shostakovich and Irina Supinskaya became husband and wife. Dmitry Dmitrievich introduced Irina to all his family and friends. He invariably called his wife "a girl with a past," referring to the trials that befell her. Her mother died when her daughter was five years old, her father fell under the wheel of Stalinist repressions. Irina herself was brought up by a relative from her mother's side, survived the blockade and visited an orphanage.

Their meeting was as if planned by someone from above, for Irina appeared next to the composer at the very moment when he desperately needed love and care. In doing so, they both found their happiness. Irina Antonovna recalled later that in the presence of Dmitry Shostakovich she always breathed easily.

Even before the official registration of marriage, Dmitry Shostakovich went to the hospital for routine support. The composer's children were never able to explain to her what her father was sick with, and Irina decided to talk to the doctor, from whom she learned that they themselves were in the dark about the disease that struck Dmitry Dmitrievich. They just support him, trying to prevent development, but the disease progressed anyway. His right arm was not working well, but doctors predicted that the paralysis would gradually affect other parts of the body.

By the time the marriage was registered, Irina already knew about Shostakovich's illness, but she did not frighten her. She loved and was ready to devote her life to her brilliant husband. At first, those around them looked at the spouses with condemnation. But everyone to whom Dmitry Shostakovich introduced his wife noted the incredible modesty of Irina Antonovna and soon became imbued with respect for the young woman. Until the end of her days, she touchingly took care of him, supported, helped, protected. She instantly accepted all the rules of life of Shostakovich. His life was subject to a strict schedule and he demanded organization and punctuality from household members.

Irina Antonovna at the beginning of her life together tried to advise her spouse, but he always acted in his own way. Then she simply began to follow him, like a thread following a needle. When she began to think that next to him she had completely lost her individuality and complained that she even spoke in his words, Dmitry Shostakovich suddenly complained: he often catches himself repeating his wife's thoughts.

In 1973, Dmitry Shostakovich, accompanied by his wife, went to the United States for examination. And there, doctors could not help him cope with paralysis. For him, the inability to record music was akin to a sentence. He tried to fight, but even supporting his diseased right hand with his healthy left hand, he could work for a very short time. And in December of the same year, Dmitry Shostakovich was diagnosed with cancer of the left lung.

In early July 1975, Dmitry Dmitrievich was hospitalized, and then he asked to go home, he certainly had to finish the Sonata for viola and piano. He managed to finish it and returned to the hospital. On August 9, Dmitry Shostakovich died.

Irina Antonovna is still engaged, as she herself says, in Dmitry Shostakovich's “service to music”. She founded the Shostakovich International Association in Paris and opened a music publishing house in Moscow. And for many years now he has been studying only the creative legacy of Dmitry Shostakovich.

Dmitry Shostakovich wrote Lyric Waltz in 1938 of the last century. In 1987 Mstislav Rostropovich performed this magnificent waltz, but it passed unnoticed. And only in 1994, the then unknown conductor and violinist André Rieux glorified our waltz and himself on all five continents.