The New Shostakovich

Description

Party stalwart or secret dissenter? A major reassessment of the life, works, and politics of the Soviet Union's greatest composer by one of our best music critics. Who was Dmitri Shostakovich? The USSR's official figurehead composer and son of the revolution that brought the Soviet state into being, or a secret dissident whose contempt for the totalitarian regime was scathing? Perhaps both? Since the posthumous publication in 1979 of alleged memoirs by Shostakovich, the controversy about the composer and his music has escalated into the most rancorous debate the world of classical music has ever known. Ian MacDonald's The New Shostakovich presents the case for the dissident view, arguing passionately that the meaning of the composer's music cannot be fully appreciated without a knowledge of the terrible times he and his fellow artists lived through under Soviet Communism. A widely read and critically acclaimed book in the 1990s, this new edition has been comprehensively revised, extensively corrected, and updated with much new material. Whichever side of the debate readers support, The New Shostakovich presents them with a viewpoint which cannot be ignored.

Ian MacDonald was born in 1948. A writer of many interests, he was Assistant Editor of the New Musical Express during 1972-5. He also worked as a songwriter and record producer, and is the author of Revolution in the Head (1994;1997; 2005), The People's Music (2003) and The Beatles at No. 1 (2003). He died in 2003.

"One of the best biographies of Dmitri Shostakovich I have read" -- Maxim Shostakovich "Compelling ... a portrait of a creative artist tormented and harried by the random assaults of Stalinism" Financial Times "Persuasively argued and forceful ... A valid, politically driven reconsideration of the composer's works" New York Times Review of Books "With passionate integrity, MacDonald fastidiously builds a case to rival the most compellingly labyrinthine detective investigation. Now the great music of Shostakovich will be heard anew" Q "Much-needed - a very fascinating insight" -- Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys)