Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich
by Solomon Volkov
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Book Summary Information
Author: Solomon VolkovBrand: Limelight Editions
Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-07-01
ISBN: 087910998X
Number of pages: 292
Publisher: Limelight Editions
Product features:
- Published by Limelight Editions 292 Pages
- The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov
- Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich Arranger: Solomon Volkov
Book Reviews of Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich
Book Review: Memoirs centered around one main character (Stalin)
Summary: 5 Stars
Shostakovich's terrible memories brush a dark and desolate picture of the living conditions under Stalin's leadership in the Soviet Union, with memorable portraits of the dictator himself, of friends and enemies: `I thought of all my friends. And I saw only mountains of dead bodies. I am not exaggerating, just mountains.'
Stalin
Stalin was a spider. Anyone who was trapped in his web had to die. Some even didn't deserve a sparkle of mercy. They really wanted to be so close to him to get pats on their back. Defiling themselves with blood of innocent people was absolutely no problem.
Stalin had no ideology, no convictions, no ideas or principles. Stalin's only aim was to tyrannize people, to make them fearful and obedient in order to consolidate his power. People literally sh.t in their pants when they had to appear before him and they considered this to be an honor!
Stalin ruled by ukases. One day the leader and teacher said this and the next day something completely different. It was pure madness. He was a man full of black envy for those who had more fame than himself (Zhukov, Akhmatova).
Atmosphere in the USSR under Stalin
In those days everybody wrote denunciations. Composers wrote it on their scores and musicologists on plain paper. And not even one of them repented. Blind folk singers were executed, because they sang songs with a dubious content: one couldn't correct texts of blind people.
Why did Shostakovich survive unlike his friends Meyerhold or Tukhatchevski? Because he wrote good film music and Stalin considered movies as important propaganda tools.
Cynicism about artists and politicians
He is extremely harsh for Solzhenitsyn (the so-called humanist), Sakharov, Shaw, Malraux, Romain Rolland, Lion Feuchtwanger (he never really saw Moscow) or Mayakovsky (power was for him the great moral law).
His advice is: do not try to save mankind. Try to save one man; that's much harder. Saving the whole of mankind nearly always turns into genocides.
These memories contain excellent information on Russian musical life: Glazounov, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov.
The whole book bathes in blood, in innocent blood, in a Kafkaesque atmosphere full of terror and dead bodies. And what about music in these horrific times? It came also under attack ... for formalism.
This tragic work is a must read for all those interested in music and the history of mankind.
Summary of Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich
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 DictionaryHistory & Criticism Books
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