Book Review
Dec. 26th, 2010 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariShostakovich: A Life
by Laurel E. Fay
This is the standard current biography of Dmitry Shostakovich, and it's a good read, too. It's straightforward and concentrates mostly on biography instead of musical analysis. I found Shostakovich and his life very interesting, if rather saddening. He didn't have a very happy life - I think he never was able to escape from the long shadow of his experiences under Stalin's regime, especially during the Terror and its purges. It seemed as if Stalin and his regime were very much against Shostakovich, but, because of his stature as a composer, instead of arresting him, they sought to control him by subjecting him to series of minor persecutions while holding the threat of a larger one over his head. I doubt he ever really got over the fear and anxiety of those years.
Now that I've read this book, I think I shall embark on a more thorough investigation of Shostakovich's music.
by Laurel E. Fay
This is the standard current biography of Dmitry Shostakovich, and it's a good read, too. It's straightforward and concentrates mostly on biography instead of musical analysis. I found Shostakovich and his life very interesting, if rather saddening. He didn't have a very happy life - I think he never was able to escape from the long shadow of his experiences under Stalin's regime, especially during the Terror and its purges. It seemed as if Stalin and his regime were very much against Shostakovich, but, because of his stature as a composer, instead of arresting him, they sought to control him by subjecting him to series of minor persecutions while holding the threat of a larger one over his head. I doubt he ever really got over the fear and anxiety of those years.
Now that I've read this book, I think I shall embark on a more thorough investigation of Shostakovich's music.
