Shostakovich: A Life

Disclaimer: I skim read most of the later chapters, as I was mostly looking into the reception of Shostakovich's “War” symphonies (especially his Seventh, the Leningrad) and how the composer fell in and out of Party favour, particularly during the Stalinist years. Also, the biography itself is not actually too long, ending on p.287, with the rest of the book taken up with notes, the bibliography and a list of Shostakovich's work.

A straightforward and, above all, cautious bibliographical account of the famous Soviet composer's life, a narrative of his life rather than an analysis into his music. Fay is careful not to make any grand claims about Shostakovich's motivations or political leanings. As she states in her introduction:

Writing about Shostakovich remains laced with political and moral subtexts. At its most extreme, it simply replaces one orthodoxy with another, reversing the polarities of the old, shopworn Soviet cliches: the true-believing Communist citizen-composer is inverted into an equally unconvincing caricature of a lifelong closet dissident.

Testimony