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Book Review
Mar. 4th, 2013 04:58 pmSofia Gubaidulina
by Michael Kurtz
I have long found Sofia Gubaidulina's music fascinating, so I was glad that the music library has this book, which is the only major one on her that I could find in English. It's a fairly straightforward biography, covering Gubaidulina's life from her birth in 1931 up through about 2004. Kurtz draws primarily on his own interviews with the composer as well as interviews and communications with many of her friends and colleagues, and this emphasis on primary sources makes for an authoritative and detailed narrative with many great moments of insight and intimacy. Gubaidulina's life is very interesting in its combination of suffering and triumph, and also for the way it illuminates artistic, intellectual, and musical life under the Soviet regime.
The only real drawback to the book is that it very much lacks discussion of Gubaidulina's music. There is minimal coverage of her development as a composer, only brief descriptions of pieces, and no analysis. Kurtz clearly chose to concentrate on biography, but I think the reader's understanding of Gubaidulina and her life would have been significantly enhanced by even brief analysis of one or two representative works. Some discussion of recordings in addition to the coverage of performances would also have been nice.
by Michael Kurtz
I have long found Sofia Gubaidulina's music fascinating, so I was glad that the music library has this book, which is the only major one on her that I could find in English. It's a fairly straightforward biography, covering Gubaidulina's life from her birth in 1931 up through about 2004. Kurtz draws primarily on his own interviews with the composer as well as interviews and communications with many of her friends and colleagues, and this emphasis on primary sources makes for an authoritative and detailed narrative with many great moments of insight and intimacy. Gubaidulina's life is very interesting in its combination of suffering and triumph, and also for the way it illuminates artistic, intellectual, and musical life under the Soviet regime.
The only real drawback to the book is that it very much lacks discussion of Gubaidulina's music. There is minimal coverage of her development as a composer, only brief descriptions of pieces, and no analysis. Kurtz clearly chose to concentrate on biography, but I think the reader's understanding of Gubaidulina and her life would have been significantly enhanced by even brief analysis of one or two representative works. Some discussion of recordings in addition to the coverage of performances would also have been nice.
