Shostakovich and Stalin : The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the BrutalDictator

Rating:
Summary: Shoot the piano player?
Review: The book seems somewhat padded with "backstory" and questionable Darwinianism, e.g., Shostakovich v. Stalin as ineluctable successor to Pushkin v. Tsar Nicholas I. Or it may be that the publishers simply opted for too narrow a title, creating an expectation of a closely focused account restricted as near as possible to the marqueed characters. Volkov does not so limit himself; Stalin's grip on all the arts is explicated, music being but one of his concentrations.

The simplistic view of Stalin as ignorant thug is certainly easier to live with than the lately emerging portrait of a man of no mean intelligence, taste, and aesthetics who was nonentheless a swine of an almost inconceivable murderousness.
This picture of authoritarian absolutism over all media is well worth the read, especially when we ourselves are never short of bombastic blusterers ready to impose their situational moralities on everyone else for the sake of a few votes back home.

Volkov, happily, is no discount Freudian, and leaves it to the reader to ponder what delights--outside of the strict demands of "socialist realism"--Stalin derived from the squirming and survival techniques of those he didn't summarily dispatch.

Rating:
Summary: Artistic sufferance under a totalitarian regime
Review: The scope of the book goes far beyond the relation between Shostakovich and Stalin; it's a dramatic view into artistic life while living in an authoritarian regime. There is an immense list of great artists who where deported, killed or psychologically terrorized in Stalins regime. Shostakovich is only one of them, and seemingly one of the lucky ones, since he outlived the dictator. But his sufferance under Stalins terror was as trying for him as it was for any other artist. I don't entirely agree with the comment that Stalin is depicted as an idiot, but he is portraited as having a very one-sided, utilitarian view on arts.The given inside in one of the most horrible regimes that ever existed, must be mind blowing for every one in the democratic world.

The book tells Shostakovich life only fragmentarilly, including discussing his major pieces. It gives real insight into his music, makes it more accessible. Even if only to enable you to understand this music better, this book is worthwile.