Until the publication of "Testimony", the memoirs he dictated to journalist Solomon Volkov, few doubted that Dmitri Shostakovich was a son of the Russian Revolution, whose music celebrated its triumphs, and who devoted his life to the ideals of socialist humanism and internationalism. This biography of Shostakovich repudiates reservations about the precise nature of Volkov's book, to reveal a "new Shostakovich" - a man who had no sympathy with Communism and was forced to build subtle or coded communication into his music to defy the artistic conventions of the Stalinist state. In addition to presenting this new view of the composer, the book also encourages a reappraisal of his music in the light of its new-found meaning and the manner of its creation.
- ISBN10 0192840266
- ISBN13 9780192840264
- Publish Date August 1991 (first published 26 April 1990)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 June 1993
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Oxford Paperbacks
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 351
- Language English