Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets,Used

Product DescriptionA new biography of Shostakovich that views him through the intimate music of his string quartetsMost previous books about Dmitri Shostakovich have focused on either his symphonies and operas, or his relationship to the regime under which he lived, or both, since these largescale works were the ones that attracted the interest and sometimes the condemnation of the Soviet authorities. Music for Silenced Voices looks at Shostakovich through the back door, as it were, of his fifteen quartets, the works which his widow characterized as a 'diary, the story of his soul.' The silences and the voices were of many kinds, including the political silencing of adventurous writers, artists, and musicians during the Stalin era; the lost voices of Shostakovich's operas (a form he abandoned just before turning to string quartets); and the deathsilenced voices of his close friends, to whom he dedicated many of these chamber works.Wendy Lesser has constructed a fascinating narrative in which the fifteen quartets, considered one at a time in chronological order, lead the reader through the personal, political, and professional events that shaped Shostakovich's singular, emblematic twentiethcentury life. Weaving together interviews with the composer's friends, family, and colleagues, as well as conversations with presentday musicians who have played the quartets, Lesser sheds new light on the man and the musician. One of the very few books about Shostakovich that is aimed at a general rather than an academic audience, Music for Silenced Voices is a pleasure to read; at the same time, it is rigorously faithful to the known facts in this notoriously complicated life. It will fill readers with the desire to hear the quartets, which are among the most compelling and emotionally powerful monuments of the past century's music.ReviewMusic for Silenced Voices is a sensitive and enlightening meditation. . . . Lesser, in other words, is giving Shostakovich back to his listeners.Paul Mitchinson, Washington Post Paul Mitchinson The Washington PostRiveting.Laurence Vittes, The Huffington Post Laurence Vittes The Huffington PostThis book is a paean to Shostakovichs quartets and their significance. In her listening, Lesseris literate, sensitive, and imaginative.Edward Rothstein, The New York Times Book Review Edward Rothstein The New York Times Book Review'An essential companion for anyone planning to hear the quartets.'Ed Vuillamy, Guardian Ed Vuillamy Guardian'We need to find new approaches in order to bring music into the mainstream of general culture, where it belongs. Music for Silenced Voices helps to show that this can be done, and done well.'Jessica Duchen, Standpoint Jessica Duchen Standpoint'An elegant, thoughtprovoking synthesis of the current state of knowledge and ideas about one of the most celebrated and controversial composers of the twentieth century. It is a delight to read, and reread.'Laurel E. Fay Laurel E. Fay'Lesser moves between looking at the life as a way of understanding the quartets, and using the music of the quartets as a way of comprehending the complexities of Shostakovich and the manner in which he both negotiated and was pushed through the history of Stalins Soviet Union. The always imprecise links between a life and the work that comes out of it are beautifully elucidated. The idea of the quartets as songs for not singing resonates with many other elements of Shostakovichs contradictory life.'William Kentridge William KentridgeWendy Lesser has written a fantastic book that is as exciting as a detective story. Music for Silenced Voices is a book for those who love Shostakovich and also for those who are going to love Shostakovich after they read it. A must read.Menahem Pressler Menahem PresslerThoughtful and appealing[Lessers] commitment to Shostakovich is so intense that she achieves what every critic must hope for: Lesser