Bunin's father, Samuil Markovich, was a bolshevik, a member of the Communist Party from before the 1917 revolution and worked as a professor of social economics at one of the Moscow Institutes.
In his article "With great appreciation", published posthumously in the magazine Soviet Music in September 1976, Bunin wrote "... We were more and more conquered by Shostakovich's works.
Finally, this happy day came on 7 June 1943, in classroom number 31... At the piano a friendly man, dressed in a gray-colored modest suit, wearing horn-rimmed spectacles.
He asked me in detail how old I was, when I had started to compose, who were my teachers, whether I had studied polyphony and so on; he subjected me to a small exam – I had to read a Haydn symphony score, tell him what was the difference between a passacaglia and a chaconne, give examples, known to me, of a mirror reprise in symphonic allegro, and give examples for the use of French horns and trumpets in a rare formation (H, Fis).
After a government decree set stringent regulations on music and art in the Soviet Union, Shostakovich was dismissed from his post of Professor at the Conservatory.
He left 45 major compositions, including nine symphonies, numerous sonatas, quartets, trios, an opera, romances, and several concertos for both piano and violin.
His Viola Concerto was composed in 1953 and dedicated to his close friend, violist Rudolf Barshai, who would later found and direct the Moscow Chamber Orchestra.