Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets [Hardcover]

My review of this fine book is unavoidably influenced by the fact that I have been a huge fan of Shostakovich for many years, and not all Shostakovich either ... yep, it's his string quartets that speak to me so personally. Imagine my excitement when I learned about Music For Silenced Voices.

The title is aptly chosen; while his symphonies were often carefully written to avoid disfavor with the Communist regime, Shostakovich felt no such need to censor or disguise himself in the fifteen string quartets he composed during the last four decades of his life. Shostakovich's Russia was a country defined by its government - a gray, faceless world of ministries and bureaucrats. The brilliant composer suffered the indignity of having his work criticized and even suppressed by Stalin and his stooges, if the powers-that-be decided that the work failed to adequately promote nationalistic ideals.

Such a completely irrational set of rules and restrictions silenced some, but not all, of Shostakovich's voice. Of necessity in order to have his music heard at all, he made sometimes major concessions in his large-scale writing. But the composer's quartets allowed him to create music that was often darker, but somehow more personal, in my opinion, than most of his symphonic work.

How does a book like this manage to turn the exquisite sound of the fifteen quartets into a narrative? Again, I must claim a bias; I already love this music, so I am probably inclined to be generous here. I do believe that Wendy Lesser has done a superb job of collecting source material to tell a very specific story. The events (both personal and global) that took place during his life were always sure to leave their mark on the mood of Shostokovich's work. It is enlightening to trace the master's artistic achievements against the events of his lifetime.

I can't really say how engaging this book could be for someone who has never heard at least some of the music first, although it certainly paints a moving picture of a man tormented by fear, capable of weakness and strength, driven to create even in the most stifling conditions.

Wendy Lesser has done her homework! This 'biography' is obviously a work of love as the author informs us of her introductions to the brilliant quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich and how the immediacy of his pure music, music written out of the limelight (the positive and negative focus) of his endurance of Soviet condemnation, is more a sensitive to his reactions to his life and the people who surrounded his life. Her writing style approaches conversation and that is an aspect that makes this volume such a pleasure to read.

Lesser does indeed understand music and has found a manner in which to evaluate in words her perceptions of the various aspects of the compositions she address in a way that even novices will find understandable. But the really superb part of this book is the technique Lesser uses to offer up the life of one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, tracing his life from childhood to youth and his introduction to composition, through the period of Stalinism when he was condemned for his decadent Western music, his music from the 4th symphony and his operas were banned form performance, nearly losing his life at the Zhdanov Decree in 1948, how he had the courage to 'bow down' (very much with tongue in cheek) to the demands Stalin placed on him, falling from the stance of being the finest composer in Russia to being penniless until Stalin once again allowed his works to have performances in the USSR. With Stalin's death and with the eventual changes or softening of policy against the arts Shostakovich regained his status and has been influential in music since that time.

The author's choice of examining the fifteen quartets as the inner map to revealing the true character and life of Dmitri Shostakovich is a wise one. In the course of the book Lesser explains this choice: 'If the full orchestra can be seen as a mass society in which the performers risk losing their individuality, while the solo recital represents an essentially narcissistic arrange, then the string quartet might be viewed as an ideal society in which the musicians look to each other for guidance. By eliminating the massive and hierarchical orchestral structure, Shostakovich was attaining a measure of practical relief - from the need to rehearse in a large, public space, with intrusive questions flung at him by a conductor and with every move potentially watched by interfering officials... [he turned to the quartet].....well, so much the more reason for Shostakovich to seek it out in his private life and in his music.

This book is graceful, intelligent, and gives a fresh view of the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich and from the vantage of over a half century since his condemnation by a Communist government to to his present international acceptance of being one of the most performed composers in our halls Wendy Lesser gives a better picture of the man as well as the artist. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, April 11

The author clearly loves the string quartets of the great Dmitri Shostakovich and she has tried to pay hommage to the legacy that he has left us. She has also skillfully intermingled the composition and content of the quartets with what is known about DSCH's life, from existing sources as well as her interviews with people who knew him and loved him, not least several members of string quartets that pioneered his works. Unfortunately, it is incredibly difficult for a non-musicologist to write intelligently and informatively about music without resorting to cliches and platitudes, something that this author does quite a lot of. I think that the entire discourse of 'silent voices' is such a tired one and one that does not begin to capture the complexities of life for a creative genius in a tyranny. Many of the great Soviet artists, including composers like Shostakovich, performers like Richter and Oistrakh, dancers etc. enjoyed a relatively great lifestyle compared with many of their compatriots, provided that they adhered to certain routines and standards. Of course, many of them found them intolerable, though undoubtedly the unfreedom and oppression stimulated their creative imagination and disciplined delivery in remarkable ways (probably helping them rise to greater levels than their Western counterparts). But what price did they have to pay? The author does not really begin to cast any light into the psychological complexities of someone like Shostakivich beyond what is already known.

I am very reluctant to criticize a very honest effort, but as a psychologist, I find the author's venture into Shostakovich psyche simplistic and unenlightening. Her ability to articulate what she herself finds in the quartets and why, at times, they engulf her entire being is also very limited, frquently lapsing into tired and well-rehearsed generalizations. There are very few non-musicologists who can write intelligently about music and reveal some of the reasons why it has a particular effect on the listener. I am thinking of Thomas Mann towards the end of Magic Mountain and a few others. Wendy Lesser does not belong to those gifted few.