Top 7 Unsuccessful Composers

Dmitri Shostakovitch

Shostakovitch was largely unrecognized for his achievements as a composer. Specifically in 1948, he and many other composers were criticized for formalism in the Zhdanov decree. He was believed to have written inappropriate music which was “Western”. What many do not realize is that he was a mixture of everything we heard in the past from Bach to Beethoven to Mahhler to Berg. Many of his symphonies were musically conservative as well.