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Product Description
Review
"'I do not know of a musician who will not read it with compassion and admiration' Andre Previn"
Product Description
'A terrifying and unhappy book...' The Guardian
This astounding self-portrait covering the whole of Shostakovich's life (1906-1975) was prepared in collaboration with the distinguished Soviet musicologist Solomon Volkov. With the composer's consent, the manuscript was smuggled out of Soviet Russia - but Shostakovich, fearing reprisals, stipulated that the book should not appear until after his death.
Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been the subject of controversy, some suggesting that Volkov invented parts of it, but most affirming that it revealed a profoundly ambivalent Shostakovich which the world had never seen before - his life at once triumphant and tragic.
Either way, it remains indispensible to an understanding of Shostakovich's life and work. Testimony is intense and fiercely ironic, both plain-spoken and outspoken.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a recent convert to the wonders of 20th century composers, I have an incredible hunger for knowledge about my new idols and their lives. This book, though heavy going at times, was extremely educational.
When I read it I knew nothing about the doubts of its authenticity.
If it is genuine, then it is a unique insight into the mind, the influences, the struggles and the friendships of Shostakovich that adds depth and context to his music. I found his opinions on his contemporaries particularly fascinating. It also works as a social history of 20th Century Russia and an examination of the position of an individual within the state. The personal conflict of patriotism versus desire for free expression, survival versus artistic integrity, popularity versus honesty, though more blantantly illustrated in Stalin's Russia, is something that touches all of our lives to a degree.
If it is a fake, then we can assume nothing about the personal views of Shostakovich. However, it is obviously written by someone with facts and insight on their side. The social and musical historic value remains, as do the critiques of other composers of the time.
Either way, it is an education.
When I read it I knew nothing about the doubts of its authenticity.
If it is genuine, then it is a unique insight into the mind, the influences, the struggles and the friendships of Shostakovich that adds depth and context to his music. I found his opinions on his contemporaries particularly fascinating. It also works as a social history of 20th Century Russia and an examination of the position of an individual within the state. The personal conflict of patriotism versus desire for free expression, survival versus artistic integrity, popularity versus honesty, though more blantantly illustrated in Stalin's Russia, is something that touches all of our lives to a degree.
If it is a fake, then we can assume nothing about the personal views of Shostakovich. However, it is obviously written by someone with facts and insight on their side. The social and musical historic value remains, as do the critiques of other composers of the time.
Either way, it is an education.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There has been a prolonged debate in the United States over the authenticity or otherwise of this text, claiming to be put together from interviews Shostakovich gave to Volkov, and with the first page of each chapter in the original typescript having been signed by Shostakovich as evidence that he had read and approved the text. It has transpired that every page Shostakovich signed was taken verbatim from one of his published writings, which means that he did not in fact authenticate any of the new material. Much of this new material consists of anecdotes about musical life in Soviet Russia. These anecdotes are wonderfully memorable and very well told: they have clearly gone the rounds and grown in the telling. The account of Glazunov's drunkenness contrasts with a strong protest Shostakovich once made against the publication of such scurrilities. The account of Stravinsky on a visit to the Union of Composers during his visit to Krushchev's Russia offering his hosts his stick rather than his hand to shake (repeated in this volume) is pure fiction, and would have been known to be fiction by Shostakovich, who was himself present. In all, this volume is bogus as a memoir by Shostakovich, and not to be used as an historical source, but it remains a marvellous record of the stories circulated among the disillusioned Russian intelligentsia in the last decades of Soviet power.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The fact that Volkov never answered to Laurel Fay, who suggested (in "Shostakovich vs. Volkov: whose Testimony", "The Russian Review", October 1980:484-493) that Volkov had "invented" this book seems to prove "Testimony" is not really the memories of Shostakovich, but something else. May be Shostakovich thought this way, but there is no evidence proving these are actually his thoughts. For the interested person "Shostakovich Studies," ed. by David Fanning (1995), and "Shostakovich: A life remembered" by E. Wilson (1994) are very good readings. "The New Shostakovich," by Ian MacDonald (1990), is largely speculative. "Shostakovich, the man and his music," ed. by C. Norris, though is already outdated (1982) includes very interesting contributions, some of them very biased. The biography of Shostakovich written by the Polish composser K. Meyer probably is vey interesting, but I did not heard it is available in English (it was published in German and perhaps French originally, I think). José A. Tapia
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
As it is not true why read it?
This book presents a compelling picture of Shostakovich but it is almost certainly a fake and even if it were true it would say more about the way he chose to remember (and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by enthusiast
"It's not enough to love Soviet power, it has to love you"
As bleak and mournful as any of his music, Shostakovich states at the start that he is not interested in apologies, or straightening the record on any of his own accounts. Read more
Published 16 months ago by John Ferngrove
Shostakovich: Testimony
This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in 20th century classical music, Shostakovich and/or the behaviour of Stalin's regime. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Tanyrallt
Memoirs centered around one main character (Stalin)
Shostakovich's terrible memories brush a dark and desolate picture of the living conditions under Stalin's leadership in the Soviet Union, with memorable portraits of the dictator... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Luc REYNAERT
Testimony Shstakovich
A fascinating book about a rather contraversial person. Translation is good and does not suffer from lack of continuity. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2009 by Mrs Enid M Holgate
Volkov's work of fiction, or is it?
If Shostakovich comes over in his late music as bitter and twisted, old, tired and humourless, then this 'memoir' may be beliveable. Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2008 by Cowboy Joe
Utterly gripping and a revelation
I know there has been much controversy over this book, but I found it superb.
The two major things I gained from it were an insight into the man and his personality, and more... Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2003 by Mr. F. L. Dunkin Wedd
Awesome
For an insight into an artists life under Stalinism this book is unsurpassed.Itis fullof the dark humour and irony that characterise Shostakovitchs music .Do plese read this.
Published on 22 Aug 1999
This book is no fake...The discrediting has been discredited
Although numerous assaults have taken place against testimony, as if Dmitri Shostakovich had offered his heart on a platter in his film scores but not in the 4th quartet,... Read more
Published on 16 May 1999
Testimony is authentic and accurate
From 1992 to 1998, Dmitry Feofanov and I thoroughly researched the authenticity and accuracy of Testimony, including conducting interviews with Solomon Volkov, Maxim and Galina... Read more
Published on 23 Mar 1998
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