How did Shostakovich (the greatest composer ever) manage to put so much incredible emotion and power into everything he wrote?
I doubt you’re going to find a “factual” answer to this question, and even if you could it’s probably better suited to Cafe Society.
That said, he did live in one of the more interesting times & places in recent history - World War I, Bolshevik Revolutions, World War II, Stalinist purges, and so forth. I would assume that such events would give one a wide range of emotional experiences to draw on…
As a young man he bought into the all the hype about the part the arts would play in the creation of the new Soviet Man. Later, as the ax fell on the creative spirits of the Revolution, he was able to channel his grief at this into his compositions as well. Since music is much more abstract than painting or writing, he was more able to avoid the censure that his fellow artists suffered, although he was still denounced as an enemy of the people. (I hate to be a snob, but I’d say that he suffered a lot more than Kurt Cobain, but if KC had had DS’s music education, who knows?)
The BBC 4 film Testimony, with Ben Kingsley, dramatizes this, as does the autobiography of the same name.
There’s also a story going around that DS was wounded in the siege of Lenningrad and spent the rest of his life with a large steel plate in his head, but a google search will pretty much debunk this.
Alleged autobiography - there’s a great deal of evidence that a lot of it was made up by Volkov, to whom Shostakovich supposedly related his memoirs.
Thank you for confirming that authorship controversy - I had it in the back of my head, but because there’s a similar controversy about Stravinsky’s autobiography, I thought I’d conflated the two.
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
I appreciate the responses, but I meant more on a technical/theoretical level–what is it about his compositions themselves that inspire such emotions in the listener?
Which compositions do you consider the world’s “greatest”? Where do you rank Mahler, Mozart, Brahms and Bach?
Really, almost anything written during the Romantic and early-20th century periods are unbelievable. Shostakovich takes the cake, but Khachaturian, Dvorak, Wagner, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Hindemith, Strauss, and Rimsky-Korsakov are up there with him.
Mahler was just insane, although his Seventh Symphony was amazing.
Mozart and Bach I can’t stand…too flowery.
Haven’t really listened to much Brahms.
My heart wrenches when I listen to Brahms.
Not everyone will be turned on by Shostakovich, although I admittedly am one who is. I think I’ve said before that (my opinion) what “reaches” a person has a lot to do with who they are, rather than what the composer or performer puts out.
Of course, it’s assumed that whatever it is needs to be well-executed to be appreciated.
I think many people would also say the the simplicity of (some) Bach and Mozart inspire deep emotion as well. I mean, wouldn’t you be kind of tortured if you had to wear those wigs? 
A post on a message board is not going to explain it. You need to get a musical education and study the works for yourself. Unfortunately, with remarks like this,
it’s apparent that you have quite a long way to go.
What, no Prokofiev?
Please explain what you mean by “unbelievable” and “takes the cake” and “Mahler was just insane”? I’m not quibbling, but neither am I getting your message.
Others may argue, but I wouldn’t automatically associate Dvorak and Wagner, or Strauss and Hindemith. What connections do you see?
I also don’t see how you can categorically dismiss Mozart and Bach as “too flowery.” Not sure which Strauss you’re referring to, but JS Strauss and Dvorak wrote a fair amount of what some might call “flowery” music. Rimsky-Korsakov, too. It’s also a bit unfair to compare Mozart with Shostakovich. Two entirely different periods. That said, I’m glad to hear you enjoy.
The Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps have included Shostakovich pieces in quite a few of their shows over the years.
Listen to some samples:
http://regiment.org/media/audio/1996-4thBallet.mp3
It took me a long long time to appreciate Mozart. I too found it flowery.
I wouldn’t agree that Mahler was insane - but he lived in insane times, with the societal status quo beginning its disintegration into WWI.
I’m sure Kurt M Weber is talking about Richard Strauss, which would make more sense in his comment. Mind you, I wonder if his ‘almost anything from the early C20’ includes Schoenberg, Ives, Varese, Webern… they’re the ones I’d choose 
Yup…in fact, the very first drum corps performance I ever saw live was PR '93, when I was eight years old. That was the show that hooked me on drum corps and Shostakovich.