Sought: One Reasonably Trustworthy Shostakovich Biography

[Guest]

I'm finally immersing myself in all things Shostakovich - well, most things - the symphonies, string quartets, cello concertos, piano works, etc., having had a Eureka! moment with some of the more challenging soundscapes of the 20th Century (I dare say last year's discovery, Mahler, paved the way in the bowels of the Thropplenoggin subconscious for this).

I have watched, and enjoyed, an engaging documentary c/o the U-tubes, Close Up, featuring an extraordinary amount of archive footage of the composer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRJdd7VMyUU

Some of my orders (all bar one made before my self-imposed January purchase embargo) have started arriving: individual symphonies, string quartets, etc., and I'm now keen to read something a bit more in depth to accompany this musical odyssey.

However, controversy seems to reign supreme in this area of biography.

Ian MacDonald's The New Shostakovich gets some positive reviews on Amazon, though is slated here seemingly for taking the infamous Testimony by Volkov as gospel. Those who've read MacDonald's book in its revised edition might be interested by this review, where the man who did the revising, Raymond Clarke, gets involved and sums up the work thus: "if you are a lay reader who wants to know more about Shostakovich and his life, read it. But if you are a specialist, give it a miss."

This leaves Laurel Fay's apparently "dry, academic" work and Elizabeth Wilson's reminiscence-based book, with the latter seeming to be the 'safest' bet.

What I'm after is a readable introduction the composer's life and works, not too musicological (alas, all the exegesis about a G minor dominant 7th in the Lydian mode in such books as Lewis Lockwood's Beethoven is lost on me).

Over to you.

[Parry1912]

Elizabeth Wilson's book is very good (how many other DSCH biographers actually met him). More about his life than his music, IIRC.

[Petrushka]

Shostakovich biography is so mired in controversy and factions I'm tempted to say read the lot or read none of them.

Having said that, though, I'd definitely recommend Elizabeth Wilson's book unreservedly. Personally, I think that there is more than a grain of truth in Testimony and with the likes of Maxim DSCH and Rostropovich among those who agree you just can't ignore it. Setting all doubts aside, it is a rattling good read anyway you look at it. I've read it numerous times.

Read Wilson, MacDonald and Testimony and make up your own mind.

And enjoy the music!

[Suffolkcoastal]

I have the Fay and I certainly would never call it 'dry & academic'. Its very readable and certainly isn't technical in anyway at all.

[umslopogaas]

Thropplenoggin, you've stepped into a minefield. It seems pretty much impossible to discuss Shostakovich from a non-political position. As it says on the back of Macdonald's book, "Party stalwart or secret dissenter?" The former if you are of the left, the latter if you are of the right.

For a readable introduction, try 'The Illustrated Lives Of The Great Composers: Shostakovich' by Eric Roseberry 1982, publ. Omnibus Books in paperback in 1986. The Volkov book may be infamous, but providing you approach it warily it is a very good read. Wilson's 'Shostakovich: A Life Remembered' is scholarly and detailed (and, at £25 for the hardback when I bought mine some years ago, quite pricey, but its a big book).

Two others on my shelves, which I have read and thought worth keeping, but now cant remember anything about the contents, are 'A Shostakovich Casebook' ed. Malcolm Hamrick Brown (Indiana 2005) and 'Shostakovich: The Man and His Music' ed. Christopher Norris (Lawrence and Wishart 1982).

Its just occurred to me that most of these are now quite old, but I'm afraid I havent been keeping up with current thinking. Do give the Volkov book a go, I enjoyed it.

I've just realised that Shostakovich has one thing in common with Wagner: for most composers, one book is sufficient for me, but for those two, there always seems to be a need for one more.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Thropplenoggin, you've stepped into a minefield. It seems pretty much impossible to discuss Shostakovich from a non-political position. As it says on the back of Macdonald's book, "Party stalwart or secret dissenter?" The former if you are of the left, the latter if you are of the right.

I think it's perfectly possible to be passionately keen to establish - as far as is possible - the truth about DSCH's political position, beliefs and musical motivation from anywhere on the political spectrum. It's about truth and evidence, not about own ideologies.

For a readable introduction, try 'The Illustrated Lives Of The Great Composers: Shostakovich' by Eric Roseberry 1982, publ. Omnibus Books in paperback in 1986. The Volkov book may be infamous, but providing you approach it warily it is a very good read. Wilson's 'Shostakovich: A Life Remembered' is scholarly and detailed (and, at £25 for the hardback when I bought mine some years ago, quite pricey, but its a big book).

Wilson's book is IMV essential, and if you compare its first-hand testimony from many friends of DSCH with Testimony it makes the latter very difficult to rubbish. In other words, IMV it's genuine.

Its just occurred to me that most of these are now quite old, but I'm afraid I havent been keeping up with current thinking. Do give the Volkov book a go, I enjoyed it.

If you want to tackle the issues around the status of Testimony full-on, this http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...econsidered%22 is brilliant. Even if it doesn't persuade you on that issue (and really I don't see how it can fail, unless your name is Fay or Taruskin), it will give you a huge amount of info about DSCH, his works, the musical establishment in general, life and politics in the USSR and much more. Heavy (nearly 800 pages) but a very good read. The reviews on Amazon both give it 5 stars, so no one's rushed to say it's unpersuasive, made up of yet more Volkovian faked evidence, blah blah.

I've just realised that Shostakovich has one thing in common with Wagner: for most composers, one book is sufficient for me, but for those two, there always seems to be a need for one more.

umslop, I don't have very many books on the 'life and thought' of Dick Carter or other composers, but with DSCH I do feel uniquely a need to understand all I can about where he was coming from, why he wrote what he did. I suppose it started when I fell in love with the 5th symphony in the early 70s and found a close friend utterly dismissive of it as a kow-tow to the Party. Whereas I always felt the finale had to be a deliberate OTT send-up of party conformity. For me the Festival Overture just has to be in the same vein, but cruder and funnier. It's important to know the background that DSCH was asked at the last minute to provide the opening work for some Party conference which some other composer had failed to deliver on time. What better opportunity for a completely comeback-free swipe at the leadership with massive blasts of empty rhetoric? If any official had smelled a rat, and AFAIK no one did, it was because "I had to do it in a hurry, didn't I? I tried to do something magnificent as the leaders of course deserve, but as usual I've failed abjectly,crawl, crawl."

[Ferretfancy]

I'd agree with others that the Elizabeth Wilson book is excellent, with a good list of sources which might be handy for internet research. The many references to the austerity under which Shostakovich laboured certainly chime in with the Mood of Testimony. The description of Britten and Pears visiting Moscow is a case in point. There are so many people appearing in this book that the biographical notes are also very useful.
Really recommended.

[verismissimo]

Volkov

[Thropplenoggin]

Thanks to all so far for your very informative and helpful replies.

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks to all so far for your very informative and helpful replies.

I'm interested in the answers too, as I bought Volkov years ago - other than that and this helpful little BBC guide to the Symphonies http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich.../dp/0563127724 , I don't have any of the books...

[johnb]

I also recommend the Elizabeth Wilson.

Interestingly, some years ago, when I went on a "Lifelong Learning" course on the Shostakovich symphonies at Bistol University the lecturer (the inspirational John Pickard, one of whose pieces was broadcast last week) recommended the Elizabeth Wilson as the best overall biography. Useful, as I already had the book.

I seem to remember that he thought the MacDonald book displayed the author's hobby horses and was too problematic to recommend. I also recall he mentioned that Raymond Clarke (also at Bristol University) was editing it and implied that the task was something of a poisoned chalice (though my memory might not be entirely accurate).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I seem to remember that he thought the MacDonald book displayed the author's hobby horses and was too problematic to recommend.

MacDonald's book is passionately written, but takes a very tunnel-visioned view of all DSCH's work - according to MacDonald, it's all about "it's grim in t'Soviet Union" so that by the time you reach half-way through, you begin to think "not again"! (In fact, he seems to apologize for this at one point.) MacDonald also readjusts the facts to make the Music fit in with the programme he invents for it: the top Horn note in the recap of the First Movement of the Fifth Symphony he describes as deliberately impossible to play as it's supposed to depict a craven Soviet citizen trying to agree with the Party line. I've never heard any performance of the work in which this top note is not played! He also basis his interpretations of the vocal works on English translations, which don't always match the meaning of the Russian originals.

Having said that, some of his programmes (the Fourth Symphony in particular) do fit the Music rather well. It's the overall hectoring tone of "THIS is what the Music means! What do you MEAN, 'How do I know?' LISTEN to it! It's obvious to anyone with any sense!" that galls.

[Thropplenoggin]

I seem to remember that he thought the MacDonald book displayed the author's hobby horses and was too problematic to recommend. I also recall he mentioned that Raymond Clarke (also at Bristol University) was editing it and implied that the task was something of a poisoned chalice (though my memory might not be entirely accurate).

Thanks, johnb.

As I mentioned in my original post, Raymond Clarke comments on his revision of MacDonald's book here.

[Petrushka]

Another book that you might like to investigate is Story of a Friendship the letters of Dmitri Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman (Faber & Faber 2001).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Friendship-Letters-Shostakovich-Glikman/dp/0571209823/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358101695&sr=1-1

I could also recommend some reading on Russian history, particularly of the Stalin years, that might be of interest as background but this may be straying a little far from the OP's requirements.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, johnb.

As I mentioned in my original post, Raymond Clarke comments on his revision of MacDonald's book here.

Oops; missed this! My comments above were based on the original edition from the 1990s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pql5mIqXfBM