Book Description
For this authoritative post-cold-war biography of Shostakovich's illustrious but turbulent career under Soviet rule, Laurel E. Fay has gone back to primary documents: Shostakovich's many letters, concert programs and reviews, newspaper articles, and diaries of his contemporaries. An indefatigable worker, he wrote his arresting music despite deprivations during the Nazi invasion and constant surveillance under Stalin's regime. Shostakovich's life is a fascinating example of the paradoxes of living as an artist under totalitarian rule. In August 1942, his Seventh Symphony, written as a protest against fascism, was performed in Nazi-besieged Leningrad by the city's surviving musicians, and was triumphantly broadcast to the German troops, who had been bombarded beforehand to silence them. Alone among his artistic peers, he survived successive Stalinist cultural purges and won the Stalin Prize five times, yet in 1948 he was dismissed from his conservatory teaching positions, and many of his works were banned from performance. He prudently censored himself, in one case putting aside a work based on Jewish folk poems. Under later regimes he balanced a career as a model Soviet, holding government positions and acting as an international ambassador with his unflagging artistic ambitions. In the years since his death in 1975, many have embraced a view of Shostakovich as a lifelong dissident who encoded anti-Communist messages in his music. This lucid and fascinating biography demonstrates that the reality was much more complex. Laurel Fay's book includes a detailed list of works, a glossary of names, and an extensive bibliography, making it an indispensable resource for future studies of Shostakovich.
Customer Reviews:
Will There Ever Be A Definitive Shostakovich Biography?.......2007-03-13
I have read 'Testimony' by Volkov, and followed much of the controversy about it. It is a fascinating read to be sure, but does it truly reflect Shostakovich the man? While this book by Fay does have it's limitations, I found it a valuable counter weight to 'Testimony'.
Shostakovich was a great composer, no doubt. His complacency within the Soviet system of the time can be looked at in different ways. What I have gotten out of both of these books is that Shostakovich was a man that in many ways was beaten by a repressive system. For those who did not directly experience those times, it is easy to criticize the man for some of the things he did. We must remember that it was literally a matter of life and death. Not just for him, but for his family too. It is no wonder that he became so secretive.
And it is that secretive nature that makes me wonder if there ever will be a definitive biography. We also must not lose sight of the fact that it is his music first and foremost that has attracted music lovers to him. Shostakovich wrote much music, with much of it of the highest quality. That he was all too human like the rest of us doesn't detract from that. That he could write so much music that touches the humanity of others while suffering under a repressive regime is remarkable.
I have been a Shostakovich 'fan' for a long time, and he has carved out a place in musical history as a great composer. As such, scholarship about his life and work will continue to provide more insights on both. I enjoyed this book, despite any shortcomings. There is much information and value within it. That is why I gave it 5 stars, and would recommend anyone interested in the man and his music to read it.
Ease up a bit please!.......2005-04-25
This is a fine book--well researched and well written. I had a great time with it as a casual on-the-sofa read and learned much from it about a composer I like. I recommend it. I'm a little stunned by the viciousness of some of the revues--failing to deify the composer is no crime; having opinions--even controversial ones--about what motivated the composer is just a biographer's job. Some of the really negative comments about the book, and more disturbingly, the author make me wonder if she's being brutally victimized a bit here--ironically, in an almost Stalinist way. I'm having difficulty imagining why the venom. Is there a Shostakovich cult?
If you are interested in learning about the man and his music the number of books available on the topic is surprisingly small--you might as well read them all. In contrast the controversies surrounding Shostakovich's life are absurdly large. The definitive book on Shostakovich won't be written until everyone who had anything to do with him is long gone and emotional involvement has settled a bit. Even then, well, no great composer, nobody in fact, ever gets consistent appraisals from biographers.
No, sorry, I don't think DS was the "greatest" composer of the last century, I'm not even sure he was the bravest. I'm not sure those words really apply at all to evaluating the creators of art music during that bizarre time. I think we lacked a single stand-out genius on the order or Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach but I'd argue the 20th Century had numerically more genuinely inspired and original composers than any other era. Mull over Bach, Telemann, Handel, Vivaldi and lesser lights of the first half of the 18th Century--then mull over Bartok, Stravinsky, Nielsen, Shostakovich, Strauss, Janacek, Puccini, Mahler, Elgar, Prokofiev and the long list that follows--up to mid-century when real problems start to show. No mediocities in their ranks but no Beethovens either. Something unprecedented was going on back then, maybe Western art music's Indian Summer. There's a good book in this I'm sure.
Irony is that during a time when so much compositional genius was floating around, the interest in art music began to decline--rapidly. This may in fact account for the diversity of the music of that time and, more importantly, the inconsistency of it. You can actually trace the careers of various composers as they create and then respond to the lack of response or to extramusical pressures that make a hash of their individual geniuses.
I'd say Shostakovich, then, was not the greatest 20th Century composer but he is the greatest example of the dilemma of the 20th Century composer.
"Scholarship" of this sort ----.......2005-03-21
-- reminds me of a line from "Apocalypse Now"
"You are an errand boy, sent by clerks to collect a bill."
To write 'from the library' as it were, and not interview those living who new the man and his work and the times first hand, is to perpetrate a fraud.
An Injustice To A Great Man.......2004-08-26
aDmitri Shostakovich (DDS) was probably the gretest composer of the 20th century. Unfortunately, a burning controversy has unjustly erupted around the perceptions of his personality and actions during his illustrious career regarding the question of whether he was a principled opponent of the totalitarian
Communist and Stalinist regime of the USSR, or whether he was a passive opportunist who used his talents to ensure a comfortable life for himself at the expense of his moral integrity. In 1979 Solomon Volkov published DDS's memoirs in the West. This showed DDS to be a bitter opponent of the regime, writing music that reflected this, while at the same time, castigating himself for the public face he had to show ostensibly in support of the system (just as everyone else had to do in order to survive especially during Stalin's terror, but also during other, more supposedly "relaxed" periods). The author of this book being reviewed, Laurel Fay, has devoted the last 25 years to a crusade trying to discredit Volkov and the image of DDS he presented to the world, saying that while DDS was a great composer, his music doesn't reflect any protest against the system which he willingly accomodated himself to. This biography is another contribution to this argument.
Unfortunately for her position, the fall of the Communist regime in the USSR has allowed many friends and relatives of DDS to speak openly for the first time and their view of him overwhelmingly strengthens the view of DDS provided by Volkov's book "Testimony" and rebuts Fay's point of view.
Fay seems to be oblivious to the terrible dilemmas that people faced living in the totalitarian regime that was the USSR and there was terrible pressure on everyone to conform. This book contains many quotations of what people call "source material" consisting of quotations from articles in Pravda (the USSR's official newspaper) and other "official sources". Fay accepts these basically uncritically, apparently unaware that these organs of communication did not exist in order to provide information to their readers, but rather to propagandize in favor the the regime, regardless of the truth. She does acknowledge in the book that articles that had DDS's name on them, supposedly indicating that he had written them, often were written by others and submitted to him for his signature, which he provided without even looking at the manuscript, but she then goes on to say that this doesn't necessarily mean that he DIDN'T
agree with what was written there. Fay does not bring any proof for this statement, and so the reader has no way of knowing which viewpoints expressed in the articles DDS supposedly agreed with. Perceptive people in the USSR ignored the propaganda entirely and didn't take what was written in these "official" organs seriously at all.
Fay also claims that DDS's composing his famous "From Jewish Folk Poetry" in 1948 which was rejected by the establishment musical authorities because of the the gathering "anti-Cosmopolitan" (i.e. anti-Jewish) campaign was the result of a pathetic attempt to please the authorities by writing music based on traditional folk music of the various nationalities of the USSR and it was just his "rotten luck" to choose a group that would soon be under attack. This claim of Fay's is nonsense because the the anti-Jewish attitude of the regime started already in 1942 and was accelerating in 1948. DDS had many Jewish friends and contacts with people in high places and was quite aware of what was going on. He wrote this piece as a protest against the regime's anti-Semitism! Fay is again oblivious to this.
Finally, Fay views DDS's joining the Communist Party in 1960 as another attempt to promote his personal interests, yet Fay has fallen for the prevailing myth that after Stalin died and the "Thaw" began under Khruschev, the regime stopped terrorizing the intelligentsia. In reality, there was still coercion, but it was done in a more subtle manner. Instead of threatening arrest and deportation to the Gulag, people could be threatened instead by refusing to allow one's children into good schools and jobs, or possibly, in DDS's case, refusal to allow decent medical care since his health was deteriorating. DDS castigated himself because he felt he had capitulated to the system, but it is probable that he had no other choice. As one gets older, it is harder and harder to keep up the frontal struggle.
In summary, a reader interested in the life of DDS would be better served by reading "Testimony", Elizbeth Wilson's "Shostakovich-A Life Remembered", Ho and Feofanov's "Shostakovich Reconsidered" and by looking at thewritings of the late Ian MacDonald on his "Music Under Soviet Rule" website.
Flat Earthers and deep denial.......2004-06-17
This is one of the small numbers of books on Shostakovitch which is almost completely unreliable. There is a type of intellectual (mercifully rare now that the Berlin Wall is history) who delighted in telling us how wonderful in every wayb the Soviet Union was, how much delight, life and freedom could be found there. Evidence - such as the experienmces of those who had the misfortine to live there - were dismissed as looney tunes or fascist propaganda or some such. Somehow these flat earthers would never dream of living there themselves.
This book is one such. Don't touch it with a barge pole.
But do get Semyon Volkov's Testimony instead
I am amazed that fifteen years after the end of communism in Europe this intellectually bankrupt book is actually still available. It should be in the Black Humour section. It is certainly not scholarship.
Book Description
The fall of the Soviet empire has not diminished the popularity of Dmitri Shostakovich's great symphonies and concertos one bit, despite the fact that most literature on him neglects any substantive discussion of the music itself in favor of biographical speculation on the relationship between the composer and the political climate of the day. This is the first book to provide a detailed, descriptive analysis of the 21 symphonies and concertos, work by work, explaining not just why they are significant documents of their time and place, but why they are great music in general. This offers readers an understanding of why Shostakovich's music enjoys the enduring support of performers and listeners alike, and how it fits into the great tradition of Western classical music generally.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent introduction to Shostakovich's major orchestral works.......2007-01-11
I believe that as his work becomes better-known, Shostakovich will be universally regarded as the composer who in the post World War I era of the 20th century has contibuted than any other to the expansion of the standard classical music repertory. Hurwitz'z book is an excellent, jargon-free introduction to his 15 symphonies and 6 concertos. Written with the general reader, it has interesting insights on virtually all the works covered, even on those few symphonies, such as the 12th, which are usually dismissed as substandard hackwork. He is well aware of the already massive Shostakovich literature, including the controversial "Testimony" by Solomon Volkov, but he is not afraid to form his own opinions which may or may not be contrary to received knowledge. Heartily recommended to all classical music lovers.
'Popular' treatment.......2006-11-12
Boy, do I ever hate being the ant at the picnic. But somebody has to say something. This is both useful and of little use simultaneously. That is, it is a well-written, conversational excursion through the repertoire that will be illuminating to many music-lovers. But at the same time it will teach them almost nothing.
Here is the problem: this book, like so many books on music written recently, takes the position that it would be the kiss of death to actually include a single musical example. To which many might say, yahoo! But if you resolutely avoid any use of musical notation, or even musical terms, in talking about music in a detailed fashion, then you find yourself having to say things like "and now the bippity-boop theme returns, this time on the flute." And I'm only slightly exaggerating. Imagine several pages about a work that uses a characteristic rhythm throughout in which the only way the author can refer to this rhythm is as 'The Rhythm'. Imagine if we have two themes and instead of describing one as being repeated eighth notes on D and the other as being rising fourths he has to refer to them as "the droney theme" and "the leapy theme". (These names are made up.) This is to reduce discussion of music to baby talk. And when the subject is large symphonic works, that seems particularly incongruous.
But I suspect that the author is not as much to blame as might be thought. He is after all, not starting a trend, but merely extending it. Apparently no-one, not even music-lovers, actually learns to read music any more. And also, apparently, if you want to actually, y'know, sell your book on music it must not contain any actual music.
But it's still baby-talk.
Music review.......2006-07-09
I found this most interesting and easy to read. Hurwitz has whimsical style that makes it easy to be informed and entertained. His works should make good textbooks for music students of the current generation.
Especially recommended for music students and classical music lovers everywhere.......2006-07-04
David Hurwitz, founder and editor of respected daily classical music magazine Classicstoday.com, presents Shostakovich Symphonies And Concertos: An Owner's Manual, an in-depth discussion of Shostakovich's grand musical creations. Offering much more than a technical analysis, Shostakovich Symphonies And Concertos also discusses at length what the music sounds like and how it works expressively. Featuring scrutiny of fifteen symphonies and six concertos in chronological order, Shostakovich Symphonies And Concertos provides a marvelous guided tour of the unfolding melodies as well as an overview of how Shostakovich's works fit into Western classical musical tradition. An accompanying full-length music CD contains a performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, which accurately showcases his style. Especially recommended for music students and classical music lovers everywhere.
A Guide to Listening to Shostakovich.......2006-06-19
Born in 1906 Shostakovich lived through the communist years in the Soviet Union. This book covers Shostakovich from his first symphony, completed when he was 19 through his next 14 symphonies and six concertos. It has relatively little in the way of biography, but instead is about his music.
Each major work is given a chapter of its own, and like the Owner's Manual of an automobile it describes the feelings generated by that work.
Mr. Hurwitz is perhaps the foremost writer working today in the field of classical music. He founded and is the executive editor of ClassicsToday.com a daily clasical music magazine, and is the chairman and founder of the Clkasical Internet Awards. He is the author of similar books on Wagner, Mozart, Mahler, Dvorak, and Haydn. The book includes an audio CD of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, easily his most famous.
Book Description
“Music illuminates a person and provides him with his last hope; even Stalin, a butcher, knew that.” So said the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, whose first compositions in the 1920s identified him as an avant-garde wunderkind. But that same singularity became a liability a decade later under the totalitarian rule of Stalin, with his unpredictable grounds for the persecution of artists. Solomon Volkov—who cowrote Shostakovich’s controversial 1979 memoir, Testimony—describes how this lethal uncertainty affected the composer’s life and work.
Volkov, an authority on Soviet Russian culture, shows us the “holy fool” in Shostakovich: the truth speaker who dared to challenge the supreme powers. We see how Shostakovich struggled to remain faithful to himself in his music and how Stalin fueled that struggle: one minute banning his work, the next encouraging it. We see how some of Shostakovich’s contemporaries—Mandelstam, Bulgakov, and Pasternak among them—fell victim to Stalin’s manipulations and how Shostakovich barely avoided the same fate. And we see the psychological price he paid for what some perceived as self-serving aloofness and others saw as rightfully defended individuality.
This is a revelatory account of the relationship between one of the twentieth century’s greatest composers and one of its most infamous tyrants.
Customer Reviews:
Extraordinary Is Right.......2007-07-01
Utterly fascinating tale of an extraordinary moment in history. I can't think of another place in modern times when a political leader took such an interest in the arts, albeit, for political reasons. How fascinating it is that a dictator - it isn't conceivable in a democracy - would become obsessed with the things said and done by cultural figures such as Shostakovich, Mayakovsky, and Pasternak. Stalin was a brute, but the picture drawn here of him and his relationship with the great Russian composer makes for the sort of suspense one associates with murder-mysteries. The entire Soviet aesthetic is on display here, an odd and finally ruthlessly destructive dance between art and politics. Stalin comes over as a ghoulish monster, while Shostokovich is depicted as wholly sympathetic. Artistically it is as rich a milieu as Elizabethan England or Periclean Athens. The Kremlin comes over as a house of horrors on the order of Idi Amin's slaughter house. The book is beautifully written, well-researched, and told from an artist's point of view, not an academic political scientist's. No other regime in the 20th century is as horrifying; no artists were ever as creative and brave.
The long awaited supplement to "Testimony".......2005-04-28
When Dmitri Shostakovich's memoirs appeared in print under the title "Testimony" its compiler, Solomon Volkov, was widely excoriated and the authenticity of the text challenged. As a composer, being intimately familiar with how composers think and express themselves, the book rang true to me through and through. Some of the attempts to debunk it seemed to me then calculated to challenge every statement. Some things, however, can not be faked - and, as Shostakovich himself often said, "music illuminates a man through and through," a composer's way of expressing himself is instantly recognizable to another composer. There are simply far too many clues buried in the text - too many buzz words and conceptual descriptions of the type typical of the composer's perception of things.
Having said that, then, Volkov's new text provides much of the historical filler that the earlier text could not purely by virtue of its purpose and content. By illustrating, even if somewhat broadly, the cultural and political issues during Stalin's reign, much of what Volkov reported as having been said by Shostakovich is further substantiated. It is fascinating reading - but not, as others have pointed out, for those without at least a fundamental understanding of Russian history.
Those who choose, even at this late date, to challenge Volkov's original text will have more to carp about here. The truth about Shostakovich's music has long since escaped the myth makers and political hacks and into the open arena of ideas. The man's music speaks louder than any words, however, even his own. But for me, the two together can only have come from one person - Dmitri Shostakovich. Relying on old Soviet mythology and documentation to disprove a work that challenges that mythology is hardly reliable. And Volkov's most recent work is an easy, fascinating and ultimately confirming discourse on the background issues which, in the end, resulted in the music long since validated on its own terms.
to the heart of things.......2005-04-06
This book is as much a penetrating portrait of Stalin's Russia as it is a fierce look at surviving as an artist in Stalin's hands. Apart from the rich legacy of his music, Shostakovich is a fine example precisely because he survived. Those of us who find Volkov's 'Testimony' a harrowing, revealing book will dive into these pages with gusto and fly through to the end. Those who suspect 'Testimony' to be a fraud might not bother with this book, and that's too bad because it provides a genuine fleshing out of Stalin and his closest henchmen (Zhdanov, especially, is afforded thorough treatment), some beautiful pages on Shostakovich's inner life, and not a few engaging views of a number of other important artists who lived and worked in a crucible of terror day after day. Volkov courteously dispenses with the ridiculous "holy fool" controversy in his prologue. The author is strongest when he composes life from inside the experience of survival in Soviet Russia. It's one thing to admire Shostakovich's genius, quite another to reach the underpinnings of a man who was more a gentleman fixed on physical (and therefore emotional and artistic) survival than he was a musical prophet. At that point, we're experiencing something well beyond biography. That is Volkov's unique gift. The focus is indeed Shostakovich, but the lessons reach farther. There are some fine photographs included - pen and inks of Akhmatova and Pasternak by Annenkov, the spiky, not often seen 1933 portrait of Shostakovich by Akimov, and an unforgettable photograph of a very young Shostakovich looking directly and defiantly at the camera, in which he seems to foretell all the pain and glory to come. If you're looking for a searing rehearsal of the meaning of freedom, I suggest this book.
Artistic sufferance under a totalitarian regime.......2004-07-10
The scope of the book goes far beyond the relation between Shostakovich and Stalin; it's a dramatic view into artistic life while living in an authoritarian regime. There is an immense list of great artists who where deported, killed or psychologically terrorized in Stalins regime. Shostakovich is only one of them, and seemingly one of the lucky ones, since he outlived the dictator. But his sufferance under Stalins terror was as trying for him as it was for any other artist. I don't entirely agree with the comment that Stalin is depicted as an idiot, but he is portraited as having a very one-sided, utilitarian view on arts.The given inside in one of the most horrible regimes that ever existed, must be mind blowing for every one in the democratic world.
The book tells Shostakovich life only fragmentarilly, including discussing his major pieces. It gives real insight into his music, makes it more accessible. Even if only to enable you to understand this music better, this book is worthwile.
Shoot the piano player?.......2004-04-30
The book seems somewhat padded with "backstory" and questionable Darwinianism, e.g., Shostakovich v. Stalin as ineluctable successor to Pushkin v. Tsar Nicholas I. Or it may be that the publishers simply opted for too narrow a title, creating an expectation of a closely focused account restricted as near as possible to the marqueed characters. Volkov does not so limit himself; Stalin's grip on all the arts is explicated, music being but one of his concentrations.
The simplistic view of Stalin as ignorant thug is certainly easier to live with than the lately emerging portrait of a man of no mean intelligence, taste, and aesthetics who was nonentheless a swine of an almost inconceivable murderousness.
This picture of authoritarian absolutism over all media is well worth the read, especially when we ourselves are never short of bombastic blusterers ready to impose their situational moralities on everyone else for the sake of a few votes back home.
Volkov, happily, is no discount Freudian, and leaves it to the reader to ponder what delights--outside of the strict demands of "socialist realism"--Stalin derived from the squirming and survival techniques of those he didn't summarily dispatch.
Book Description
This is the powerful memoirs which an ailing Dmitri Shostakovich dictated to a young Russian musicologist, Solomon Volkov. When it was first published in 1979, it became an international bestseller. This 25th anniversary edition includes a new foreword by Vladimir Ashkenazy, as well as black-and-white photos. "Testimony changed the perception of Shostakovich's life and work dramatically, and influenced innumerable performances of his music." - New Grove Dictionary
Customer Reviews:
Stop buying this book.......2007-07-23
Regardless of this book being a "good read," I think its existence is harmful to the name of Shostakovich. Much research has been done by Laurel Fay in regards to this--check out The Shostakovich Casebook for more information regarding this, as well as a good read about Soviet culture and Shostakovich's life. But this book is not for those interested in Shostakovich, and the fact that it is so popular is disturbing since so much of it is so false.
An important view into the composer's musical life.......2006-10-01
I bought this used from an Amazon vendor for the Shostakovich year about the same time I bought the new set of symphonies by Kitaenko and the Cologne Gurzenich Orchestra. I didn't expect I would listen to all the symphonies before finishing the book, which I expected -- from everything I'd read about it for 20 years -- to be a riveting engagement.
Sad to say, it was not. The book is a set of professional memoirs from the author at the end of his life, presented through the voice of Solomon Volkov, who knew the composer as editor of a Soviet musical publication.
Since the book covers Shostakovich at the end of his life -- he told Volkov not to publish it while he was alive -- it is a tome of his bitterness built up over the decades. Shostakovich goes on for pages about other musicians, people lost to the Stalin purges, his teacher Glazunov and others in the Soviet artistic intelligentsia. The book covers virtually no personal ground for the composer; there is nothing in it about his children other than a few photos.
Many of the famous quotes attributed to Shostakovich, including "my symphonies are tombstones" are included in the text. You have to get about halfway through the thing before it goes into any detail in the important matters about Shostakovich's music, its hidden messages only legible to those who knew him at the time, and what he had to do to publish these works during the era of Stalin's Soviet realism.
Shostakovich's famous wit and cynicism appear much earlier in these pages. His distaste for Toscanini is recited in the first 25 pages. He's onto a split view of Stravinsky 5 or 6 pages later. Not much later, he says Prokofiev had the soul of a goose and a chip on his shoulder. A few pages later he called Russian conductor Alexander Gauk "a rare specimen of stupidity." He has even harsher words for other composers and artists.
I was a little disappointed by all this, to be honest. I expected more of a polemic on Soviet society and less of a laissez faire view of the composer's artistic life and friends. The book spends more time on Shostakovich's trip to New York in 1947 and his disdain of American reporters than it does on any aspect of his childhood, marriages, or life with his children. And that wasn't much, either.
Still, this is an important perspective on the 20th century's most important and accomplished symphonist, whose music has been celebrated this year. Through its discussion of Shostakovich fulfilling the Russina "yurodivy" role, we intrinsically understand the finale of his great 5th Symphony is the joy of forced labor. We have an idea the noisy and cacaphonous sections of his 4th Symphony are his fear of the secret police taking him away. We know his 8th symphony is more about ther rigors of totalitarianism than Russia's Great Patriotic War.
For this, the book is an enduring view into the mind and artistic life of the composer that probably best illuminated life in Soviet Russia. There is no mirror of the composer that was considered a faithful communist and wunderkind after composing the wonderful and joyous 1st Symphony. That person does not exist in this book and his memoirs are not included.
Conversations With Shostakovich.......2006-09-15
Testimony: The Memories of Dmitri Shostakovich has undergone a lot of scrutiny since it was published in 1979. It was accepted as authentic by many at the time, was treated as a fraud and by others and with skepticism by people like Maxim Shostakovich. Seventeen years later, I think that we can accept this book as memories related to Solomon Volkov by the composer; this year a new edition of the book will appear in Russia with a foreword by Shostakovich's daughter Galya and Maxim. Their acceptance of the book has helped to convince me that it is authentic.
However, this is hardly a comprehensive book of memories. The book covers Shostakovich's professional life rather than his personal life; there is little mentioned about the composer's family. His wife Nina is mentioned only once in noting that Lady Macbeth was dedicated to her. The important people in Dmitri Shostakovich's professional life, like Glazunov, Tukhachesvsky and Meyerhold are much more fully portrayed, and there are some interesting anecdotes about them and many of Shostakovich's colleagues. But perhaps what is most fascinating parts of the book deal with the frustration and horror with which Shostakovich describes life under Stalin. I found this part of the book chilling and reading it gave me a fuller understanding of what life is like not only without freedom but to live with fear.
The book reads like an interview but without the questions that are being asked of the composer. It is as if a series on anecdotes were collected together to form each chapter. But what has always convinced me that the majority of Testimony reflected the composer's thought is that these anecdotes square with encounters with the composer that were recorded by his friends and colleagues. Compare the information from Elizabeth Wilson's book on Dmitri Shostakovich to Testimony and similarities can easily be found. Mstislav Rostropovich considered this book to be a collection of anecdotes made by the composer.
I find that the text flows nicely and the informal tone makes for fast reading. Although Testimony may not be the perfect book of memories it does represent an important source of Shostakovich's thoughts on his career and many of the people he worked with.
Be Careful.......2006-01-16
How can one really rate this book? It has obviously created a camp of "scholars" (known as the "revisionists") who would like to change the biography of Shostakovich, and provide concrete (anti-Soviet) meaning for his music. While this makes for interesting reading, the truth is the authenticity of this book is questionable. One should (at least) be aware of its criticisms before taking this book as truth!
Of course, Shostakovich is one of the most profound composers in the history of music, and we should interpret his works. But to ascribe a certain meaning to his music based on words that cannot be authenticated would only impoverish his music. Great art is meant to be contemplated for a lifetime, not easily understood. There are some who, after reading this book, have tried to over-simplify Shostakovich's art.
If you are reading this book for academic purposes, be careful. Ensure you explore all the debate over "Testimony." I suggest reading "A Shostakovich Casebook" edited by Malcolm Hamrick Brown immediately after reading "Testimony." Good luck.
Undoubtedly a fraud.............2005-12-23
Althought a fascinating read, the evidence overwhelmingly proves that 'Testimony' is a fraud. Laurel E. Fay's two studies of the subject, 'Shostakovich vs. Volkov: Whose Testimony?' (1980) and 'Volkov's Testimony Reconsidered' (2002) completely destroy the evidence for the validity of this work. Basically, the only pages of 'Testimony' that Shostakovich signed are completely stolen from earlier published words of the composer, absolutely word to word, maintaining even the pagination of the original articles. This, despite the fact that Volkov (who worked for the paper that published these) denies any knowledge of them.
'Testimony' should definitely be read alongside 'A Shostakovich Casebook' (edited by Malcom Brown, 2004) if fellow readers wish to gain a more complete understanding not only of these 'memoirs', but of Shostakovich himself.
Book Description
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered is a unique study of the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich, based on reminiscences from his contemporaries. Elizabeth Wilson covers the composer's life from his early successes to his struggles under the Stalinist regime, and his international recognition as one of the leading composers of the twentieth century. She builds up a detailed picture of Shostakovich's creative processes, how he was perceived by contemporaries, and of the increased contrast between his private life and public image as his fame increased.
This new edition, produced to coincide with the centenary of Shostakovich's birth, draws on many new writings on the composer. In doing so, it provides both a more detailed and focused image of Shostakovich's life and a wider view of his cultural background. In particular, Shostakovich's sardonic and witty sense of humor reveals itself in many of his letters to close friends. Shostakovich offers fascinating insight into the complex personality and musical life of this great composer, and examines his position as one of the major figures in the cultural life of twentieth-century Russia.
Customer Reviews:
perfect timing.......2007-09-14
Book arrived as quickly as advertised, which was great because I needed it to write my New York Times antiques column (published today). THanks!
Wendy Moonan
Astounding, intimately clear.......2007-03-10
Although not as thorough on the music of the great composer itself, this book is a must read for anyone interested in Shostakovich, or music and Soviet history in general.
Wilson lucidly supports her interviews and articles from colleagues, friends, and family of the composer with a curious detachment that serves to clarify rather than alienate the subject matter. The articles and interviews themselves are priceless artifacts, and presented here in an intelligent fashion.
Shostakovich's life is portrayed here with startling intimacy. The reader will find him or herself able to visualize the genius composer and his quirks, and those who listen to the relevant works of music will find their messages so much more meaningful.
Book Description
Between 1929 and 1970, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote almost 40 film scores of Soviet films, from Stalinist cult epics to classical literary adaptations. His long and distinguished cinema career has hitherto been overlooked. Combining analysis and anecdote, John Riley provides this first account to examine the scores and their contexts in the films for which they were written, the ways in which contemporary events shaped both films and scores, and how he thought about, developed and applied his film music.
Book Description
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) has a reputation as one of the leading composers of the twentieth century. But the story of his controversial role in history is still being told, and his full measure as a musician still being taken. This collection of essays goes far in expanding the traditional purview of Shostakovich's world, exploring the composer's creativity and art in terms of the expectations--historical, cultural, and political--that forged them.
The collection contains documents that appear for the first time in English. Letters that young "Miti" wrote to his mother offer a glimpse into his dreams and ambitions at the outset of his career. Shostakovich's answers to a 1927 questionnaire reveal much about his formative tastes in the arts and the way he experienced the creative process. His previously unknown letters to Stalin shed new light on Shostakovich's position within the Soviet artistic elite.
The essays delve into neglected aspects of Shostakovich's formidable legacy. Simon Morrison provides an in-depth examination of the choreography, costumes, décor, and music of his ballet The Bolt and Gerard McBurney of the musical references, parodies, and quotations in his operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki. David Fanning looks at Shostakovich's activities as a pedagogue and the mark they left on his students' and his own music. Peter J. Schmelz explores the composer's late-period adoption of twelve-tone writing in the context of the distinctively "Soviet" practice of serialism. Other contributors include Caryl Emerson, Christopher H. Gibbs, Levon Hakobian, Leonid Maximenkov, and Rosa Sadykhova. In a provocative concluding essay, Leon Botstein reflects on the different ways listeners approach the music of Shostakovich.
Book Description
These volumes are the first releases of an ambitious new series started in 1999 by DSCH, the exclusive publisher of the works of Dmitri Shostakovich. Each volume contains new engravings; articles regarding the history of the compositions; facsimile pages of Shostakovich's manuscripts, outlines, and rough drafts; as well as interpretations of the mauscripts. In total, 150 volumes are planned for publication.
Amazon.com
This book offers a unique perspective on one of our century's most complex, enigmatic, and controversial geniuses, set in the musical and political context of his time. The author is well equipped for the task: she is a cellist who studied with Mstislav Rostropovich in Moscow from 1964 to 1971, when her father was British ambassador there. Her book is a compendium of official documents, private letters, diaries, and interviews with Shostakovich's family, friends, and enemies (in Russia and elsewhere), as well as articles written especially for the book. The result is a fascinating, first-hand portrait of Shostakovich the man as husband, widower, father, and friend, and Shostakovich the composer, who--by turns officially reviled and extolled--became a symbol for the suffering of his people. Indomitably creative despite constant fear, repression, bereavement, and debilitating illnesses, his ultimate tragedy was that the political "thaw" came too late for his failing health. Naturally, many of Wilson's respondents are musicians who knew that Shostakovich encoded his music with hidden subtexts to express his secret thoughts. On the other hand, his political statements, written and spoken under duress, were often ambiguous and contradictory, and she quotes both conciliatory and hostile reactions to them. She also cites many testimonials of his spontaneous generosity to friends and colleagues in need. Among the most delightful episodes are visits by the composer Benjamin Britten and the tenor Peter Pears. The latter gives a loving description in his diary of a splendid Christmas and New Year's celebration with the Rostropovich and Shostakovich families, never even mentioning differences of language, culture, or politics. --Edith Eisler
Book Description
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered is a unique study of the great composer Dimitri Shostakovich drawn from the reminiscences and reflections of his contemporaries. Using much material never previously published in English, as well as personal accounts from interviews and specially commissioned articles, Elizabeth Wilson has built a fascinating chronicle of Shostakovich's life.
Customer Reviews:
A Revealing Look at the Composer.......2006-05-12
If I were asked to name a book that would give a complete portrait of Dmitri Shostakovich this would be the book that I would name. Elizabeth Wilson's Shostakovich: A Life Remembered is a collection of remembrances of the composer by many people: family, friends, colleagues, admirers and some who simply observed the composer from a distance. There is a wide variety of people who relate an event of Shostakovich's life, provide background on events in the composer's life or simple relate a personal story about him. The number of sources that Ms. Wilson consulted is vast and she also had the opportunity to interview many of the people who know Shostakovich who died since this book was published.
Ms. Wilson (who met the composer when she accompanied Benjamin Britten on a visit) has nicely divided the book into sections dealing with major events, such as the "War Years" and then deals with specific events that occurred like the "Seventh Symphony" and the "Teacher and Master" concerning Shostakovich's students during the period. One of my favorite sections is an interview with Mstislav Rostropovich where he relates a story just after he had won the All-Russia competition. He bought a suit to wear for his concert performances and to celebrate Shostakovich bought a bottle of moonshine vodka that turned out to the worst drink of their lives. Such anecdotes may not be highly important to Shostakovich's professional career but say volumes about him as a human being. The book gives as complete a life of Shostakovich as one would want, and we get a complete perspective. We get insight into why some friends cut themselves off from Shostakovich late in his life from what seemed to be his support of the Communist Party but, probably more important, we get the composer's reactions from his friends and colleagues in an unvarnished way.
The book is illustrated with some interesting photographs from various periods in Shostakovich's life. I have also used this book as a reference when I wanted to know something about one of his compositions. It is a very rewarding book that should not be missed if you have an interest in Dmitri Shostakovich.
Excellent reference, too........2005-09-29
Not only is the book a compelling narrative, it is an excellent reference. The index and biographical notes have been quite useful over time when exploring Shostakovich's works and other Russian music of the period.
The REAL Testimony.......2004-09-04
Since my teen years I have been an avid Shostakovich fan. Soon after consuming as much of his music as I could, I also began to read about Shostakovich, one of my favorite composers. I started with "Testimony" by Solomon Volkov. Initially I was very intrigued and impressed with what I thought were the man's candid thoughts on his and his colleagues' lives and careers. Then I came across the now old violent debate about the authenticity of Testimony. It appears that the Testimony's credibility is dubious at best. I felt cheated. Then I bought Elizabeth Wilson's book. Here I found credible and probably much more accurate testimony on the man's life and career than what had been purported by Volkov. The stories and anecdotes that reside in Wilson's book are informative, fascinating, varied in narrative, and responsibly laid out and supplemented. One comes to feel empathy for Shostakovich and all of the horror he went through, but also in awe of the bravery and ingenuity of the composer as well as his friends, his family, and his colleagues. Much can be gleaned from the wealth of reminisces presented in the book. For anyone seeking a genuine glimpse into the life and personality of Shostakovich, as well as the circumstances surrounding him, this book is the best on the market.
A Life Understood Through the Eyes of Others.......2002-10-21
We have too easily forgotten that sport, art, music, science and dance were all sites where Cold War battles were fought. The deprivations of post-Revolution Leningrad combined with the Stalinist years worked to drive the naturally introverted, intense and secretive Shostakovich even more into himself.
This has made Shostakovich a fascinating topic for biographers, speculators and ideologues of all kinds. In addition, we also overlook the fact that musicians will by nature reveal themselves most fully in their art. So if we wish to understand the "real" Shostakovich, we need to turn to his music.
Given these reflections, I found this to be an informative, insightful and moving book. The technique of breathing life into the man through the eyes of others - from his Godmother to neighbours, conductors and family - built a unique multi-level picture of the man underneath the many myths. Will we ever know him fully? Probably no more than we know Shakespeare or Rembrandt both of whose art rises above their particular context.
Finally, I am greatful to Wilson because her book acted to drive me back to the music. I have since returned to Shostakovich's symphonies, chamber music and even the jazz suites with new love and energy. Well worth reading.
An enthralling journey through the life of Shostakovich.......2001-06-29
Elizabeth Wilson has compiled a series of wonderful reminiscences about Shostakovich, which paint a rounded and sometimes thrilling picture of the composer's life. The most wonderful thing of all is being able to purchase the music, and to experience (often in original recording) what is being described. Some of these recordings are available on amazon.com
Elizabeth Wilson has so much original material in this book, and one feels that one is on this voyage of discovery with her.
For anyone who loves Russian music, or is interested in 20th century Russia, this is a superb insight.
Paul Foulkes-Arellano, London, March 2000
Book Description
These volumes are the first releases of an ambitious new series by DSCH, the exclusive publisher of the works of Shostakovich. Each volume contains: new engravings; articles regarding the history of the compositions; facsimile pages of Shostakovich's manuscripts, outlines and rough drafts; plus interpretations of the manuscripts. In total, 150 volumes are planned for publication.
Customer Reviews:
DSCH Edition of Symphony No. 5.......2007-05-13
Overall, I am completely satisfied with the new DSCH edition of Shostakovich 5. Print is clear, the layout is the same as the last edition but it seems to be completely computer-re-engraved. Until now I've found only one mistake in one viola passage in first movement (don't have the score with me at the moment, so ask for bar number later :)). Just for you to know, the 9th symphony of the same DSCH edition has quite aqward bar numbering system, counting upbeat bar as bar 1 and prima volta & seconda volta as different bars. So be careful when using DSCH score of 9th with western orchestra material! The edition of 5th is though highly recommended, it is a masterpiece of great Soviet composer!
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Shostakovich, Dmitrii
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Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, Second Edition
Shostakovich Symphonies and Concertos - An Owner's Manual: Unlocking the Masters Series (Unlocking the Masters)
Shostakovich and His World (The Bard Music Festival)
Shostakovich
