Leningrad : siege and symphony / Brian Moynahan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moynahan, Brian, 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shostakovich, Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich, 1906-1975. Symphonies--no. 7, op. 60--C major.

Shostakovich, Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich.

Symphonies--Soviet Union--History.

Symphonies.

Music and war--Soviet Union--History.

Music and war.

Music and state--Soviet Union.

Music and state.

Music--Political aspects--Soviet Union.

Music.

Music--Political aspects.

History.

Saint Petersburg (Russia)--History--Siege, 1941-1944.

Saint Petersburg (Russia).

Saint Petersburg (Russia)--Social conditions--20th century.

Soviet Union.

Physical Description:

xii, 542 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013.

Summary:

Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was first played in the city of its birth on 9 August, 1942. There has never been a first performance to match it. Pray God, there never will be again. Almost a year earlier, the Germans had begun their blockade of the city. Already many thousands had died of their wounds, the cold, and most of all, starvation. The assembled musicians--scrounged from frontline units and military bands, for only twenty of the orchestra's 100 players had survived--were so hungry, many feared they'd be too weak to play the score right through. In these, the darkest days of the Second World War, the music and the defiance it inspired provided a rare beacon of light for the watching world. In Leningrad: Siege and Symphony, Brian Moynahan sets the composition of Shostakovich's most famous work against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it. In vivid and compelling detail he tells the story of the cruelties heaped by the twin monsters of the twentieth century on a city of exquisite beauty and fine minds, and of its no less remarkable survival. Weaving Shostakovich's own story and that of many others into the context of the maelstrom of Stalin's purges and the brutal Nazi invasion of Russia, Leningrad: Siege and Symphony is a magisterial and moving account of one of the most tragic periods in history.

Contents:

Ouvertyura = Overture

Repressii = Terror

Voyna = War

Do serediny sentyabr' = To mid-September 1941

Do serediny oktyabr' = To mid-October 1941

Oktyabr' = October 1941

Noyabr' = November 1941

Dekabr' = December 1941

Noviy god = New Year

Yanvar' = January 1942

Fevral' = February 1942

Mart = March 1942

Aprel'-Maj = April-May 1942

Iyun' = June 1942

Iyul' = July 1942

Simfonya Nr. 7 = Symphony no. 7

Do svidaniya = Farewell.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [494]-520) and index.

ISBN:

0802123163

9780802123169 :

OCLC:

881822572