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Dmitri Shostakovich never suffered blindness or deafness. However, he suffered from a number of diseases which impacted his musical life. Chief among those was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), which caused weakness and paralysis most significantly in Shostakovich's right hand and arm. By 1958 (when Shostakovich was 52), the disease became noticeable especially when he played piano. In Shostakovich's later life, composing and performing grew extremely difficult.

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14y ago

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