Shostakovich was a perfectionist not just in music but also in his personal life: he was “obsessed with cleanliness,” according to his daughter; he synced the clocks in his flat, or he would frequently mail cards to himself to evaluate how well the postal service worked.¹⁾

Shostakovich enjoyed soccer and was a licensed referee. He also enjoyed card games. Zenit Leningrad was his favorite team.²⁾

Shostakovich was only 26 years old when he finished Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. The opera launched to critical and popular acclaim, with a racy storyline matched to avant-garde music. Three other performances were running in Moscow two years later. ³⁾

Stalin then attended a concert. The next morning, the state daily Pravda denounced the art, claiming that it harmed the Soviet spirit. The opera vanished suddenly, and every newspaper and political group in the country launched personal assaults on its composer. Shostakovich lived in terror, sleeping in the stairway outside his apartment to protect his family from the prospect of his arrest.⁴⁾

His Eighth String Quartet, Op. 110, was written in three days from start to finish.⁵⁾

Shostakovich is equally well-known as a cinema composer. Shostakovich composed music for 36 films in all. However, most of Shostakovich's cinema music has been lost or is only available in pieces.