Biographer Alexander Uteshev has remarked that this marked the start of his most intense period of creative activity.
[2] Veniamin Basner, while still a student, met Dmitri Shostakovich, under whose advice his formation as a professional composer was furthered.
Basner’s musical output spanned a wide spectrum in terms of genre and emotional substance.
He drew particular inspiration from the events and pathos of the Second World War in works which, as Uteshev puts it, express simultaneously the “confession of a lonely soul as well as a voice of national grief.” The Fourth Quartet and Violin Sonata particularly evoke the pain of personal loss - as does, for example, the song On The Nameless Height (На безымянной высоте), based on a real event and is about three soldiers, fifteen of whose friends had died in battle.
The most important and impressive quality of Veniamin Basner's music, suggests Uteshev, is “an inspired lyricism [which] powerfully permeates all his art.” Recordings include: