Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov

(Paperback, Main)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

With the composer's consent, the manuscript was smuggled out of Soviet Russia - but Shostakovich, fearing reprisals, stipulated that the book should not appear until after his death. Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been the subject of controversy, some suggesting that Volkov invented parts of it, but most affirming that it revealed a profoundly ambivalent Shostakovich which the world had never seen before - his life at once triumphant and tragic. Either way, it remains indispensable to an understanding of Shostakovich's life and work. Testimony is intense and fiercely ironic, both plain-spoken and outspoken.

Reviews

"'I do not know of a musician who will not read it with compassion and admiration' Andre Previn"

Author Bio

Solomon Volkov is a musicologist and the author of St. Petersburg: A Cultural History