The composer
Shostakovich was in his late thirties when he composed his Pianohad been denounced by Stalin and friends and associates had disappeared during the Soviet leaderâs Great Purge, life remained difficult. For the first three years of World War II, he continued to live in Leningrad where, during the siege of the city by German forces, he served as a firefighter. As Soviet fortunes began to improve, in the spring of 1943 he and his family moved to Moscow.
