DSCH 21 Book Review - Shostakovich and His World

Hardcover

Paperback

Shostakovich and His World
Edited by Laurel Fay
Princeton University Press; Princeton and Oxford 2004 ISBN 0-691-12068-4 / ISBN 0-691-12069-2, 397 pages

Nigel Papworth

I've already complained to our esteemed Editor - why didn't this tome appear in the bankrupt-rendering list (DSCH 20) of new books on Shostakovich poised to emerge in 2004? Prepare your credit facilities in any event - this is a recommended purchase whether you're looking for new information on Shostakovich, freshly and accessibly written, or simply aspiring to the furthering of your appreciation of the Master's life and works.

Shostakovich and His World is edited by the ever-present Laurel Fay and is published in conjunction with the US-based Bard Music Festival (see elsewhere in this Journal). The book comprises a collection of articles and of essays on all manner of themes, stitching together a wide range of threaded connections - from his early letters to his mother to twelve-tone techniques and the Fourteenth Symphony. Thus:

DOCUMENTS

Dmitrii Shostakovich: Letters to his Mother, 1923-1927 (Rosa Sadykhova)
Responses of Shostakovich to a "Questionnaire on the Psychology of the Creative Process" (Roman Ilich Gruber with additional notes by Malcolm Hamrick Brown)
Stalin and Shostakovich: Letters to a "Friend" (Leonid Maximenkov)
"The Phenomenon of the Seventh": a Documentary Essay on Shostakovich's "War" Symphony (Christopher Gibbs)

ESSAYS

Shostakovich as Industrial Saboteur: Observations on The Bolt (Simon Morrison)
The Nose and the Fourteenth Symphony: An Affinity of Opposites (Levon Hakobian)
Shostakovich and the Russian Literary Tradition (Caryl Emerson)
Fried Chicken in the Bird-Cherry Trees: (Gerard McBurney)
Shostakovich and his Pupils (David Fanning)
Shostakovich's "Twelve-tone" Compositions and the Politics and Practice of Soviet Serialism (Peter Schmelz)
Listening to Shostakovich (Leon Botstein)

I don't intend to dwell excessively, chapter by chapter, on this World - you will already have gleaned my overall opinion on the merits of this book. What I will stress is the absolute uniqueness of the first three chapters in which we are offered a first-hand view of life in the early and relatively buoyant days of the 'great Soviet experiment'. The letters from Mitya to Mama were conserved by Sofia Vasilievna until her death in 1955 after which Shostakovich's elder sister Maria took care of them, her own son now being their owner and protector. Follow Shostakovich's ups and downs in health, wealth and happiness, both from a professional and personal point of view. Be surprised (as I certainly was) to learn of the young composer's desperate plans, in the mid-1920s, to flee his beloved Leningrad in favour of the more liberal educational musical spirits of Moscow (his plans were of course thwarted at the very last hour). My only criticism here - that there aren't more examples of this fascinating correspondence in Fay's collection. We're certainly led to believe that considerably more of the same awaits translation / publication.

Shostakovich's responses to a pretty extraordinary psychoanalytical questionnaire prepared in 1927-8 by one Roman Ilich Gruber make for rather uncomfortable, albeit fascinating reading. Imagine the 21 year-old striving to reply to: "The impulse to create - does it originate outside yourself or inside, is it fortuitous or the result of preliminary mental effort" etc. etc. Read on

In the third chapter letters from Shostakovich to Stalin (yes, Stalin) are complemented by excellently researched documentary material, contextualised with fine precision by editor Maximenkov. Much eye-opening material here, confirming, if this be needed, Shostakovich's determination to help friends and colleagues in need of official 'favours' of, often, the most basic, yet vital kind.

The remainder of the book's offerings:

Gibbs' 54-page essay on the early life of the Seventh Symphony in the USA plots the subterfuge and euphoria that surrounded the arrival of the score on the American continent after which the consequent diary entries plot the rise and inevitable fall of the work. Fascinating and illuminating.

Morrison's substantial paper on the chequered world of the ballet The Bolt is quite sure to add a layer or twenty to your knowledge of this oft-quoted but ill-comprehended and controversial work. Through his minute research, peppered with a little spicy conjecture, Morrison looks at Shostakovich's own (hypothetical) role in The Bolt's ultimate downfall.

Even the sight of musical illustrations in Hakobian's densely argued essay on Shostakovich-Gogol alchemy and its continuation into the composer's late oeuvre shouldn't faze the reader - my strong beverage (tea, tea!) went unconsumed, entirely neglected in the wake of his fascinating study in musical aesthetics and traditions.

Gogol also figures (predictably enough) in Caryl Emerson's essay on the Russian literary tradition and Shostakovich, as do Dostoyevsky, Leskov, Zamyatin, Tsvetayeva and a host of other characters whose psyches are inextricably bound up with the necessarily broad definitions of the Russian artistic spirit. Prepare to feel inadequate in your reading habits

Passing any brand of judgement on a Gerard McBurney-Shostakovich offering is rather like asking a Frenchman to skip lunch - pointless! If you like Moscow, Cheryomushki, you'll appreciate here a veritable horde of new viewpoints in and around this unique travail; and even if you don't find yourself foot-tapping to the score's highly accessible melodies, the piece is so very much a child of its times that even you will learn more than you thought you needed to know!

David Fanning's study of Shostakovich and his pupils (a topic to my meagre knowledge never previously explored in any depth) holds a mirror to the inspirational processes conventionally traded in the master-to-student orientation. You'll hear a word from DJF on the subject elsewhere in this issue. Thought provoking and extremely minutely researched.

OK - confession - I exaggerated (lied?). Peter J. Schmelz's study on Shostakovich's "twelve-tone" (his quotes) compositions within what he terms 'Soviet Serialism' is light years away from being casual reading material and I'd advise a clear head, a large sheet of blank paper and a great deal of patience to work your way through the last full stop. Indeed, just how relevant is this aspect of his work to the overall view of the composer's modus operandum?

Finally, and although Leon Botstein argues, "Our subject is music and not philosophy" you'll find yourself pondering over a significant number of his musico-behavioural precepts. Much to glean, much to come back to - the overall message with which this book leaves me - one of rousing inexhaustibility.