From Turkey
(Ayhan KESER)
I'm new in this group. I'm from Turkey. I want to learn more about
Shostakovich. There is only a book about Shostakovich in Turkish.
"Dimitry Shostakovich: life and works" is a digest of Shostakovich's
articles on some soviet newspapers. Indeed, it's better than second
hand sources like Testimony.
Sandy
(Ayhan KESER) <keser...@gmail.com> wrote
But have you actually read "Testimony" then? Given that lurking in
practically everything today is lies and death, I can't think of a more
honest portrait of Shostakovich than Volkov's publication of his
conversations with him.
There is, alas, no traffic in this Usenet newsgroup nowadays. There
is however a "DSCH" 'mailing list' (group emails!) you can join, hosted
by the University of Houston:
http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/dsch-l.html
With kind regards,
Sandy
--
Alexander Anderson
"Les choses, comme elles sont, dureront autant que moi."
Things, as they are, will last through my time.
(Louis XV)
(Ayhan Keser)
Sandy yazdi:
I haven't read Testimony before but i have read somethings that create
from Testimony. So, i dislike Testimony because of Volkov's
interpretation. Is there any proof other than Testimony? No...
I have read some interpretations about Shostakovich's life that he was
a anti-communist. I'm searching some web pages about him. But most
important of them i have read shostakovich's articles. And this book
said that Testimony was wrong. By the way, if i find Testimony in
Turkish i will read it, or any web page that including Testimony.
Regards,
Ayhan
Sandy
(Ayhan Keser) <keser...@gmail.com> wrote
>I haven't read Testimony before but i have read somethings that create
>from Testimony. So, i dislike Testimony because of Volkov's
>interpretation. Is there any proof other than Testimony? No...
>
>I have read some interpretations about Shostakovich's life that he was
>a anti-communist. I'm searching some web pages about him. But most
>important of them i have read shostakovich's articles. And this book
>said that Testimony was wrong. By the way, if i find Testimony in
>Turkish i will read it, or any web page that including Testimony.
It's very ironic, the present day reaction to "Testimony".
I was lucky enough to read it, almost by accident, when it first
came out in Britain, in 1981. Back then, as a young clueless twit of
21, living in London, it was quite simply an electrifying picture of the
life of a national artist under Stalin's Soviet Union. The intensity of
the struggle to survive was both shocking and life-giving, to me. It
was a *wonderful* tonic to read, in the atmosphere of stagnating
Britain, at the very start of what was to become the "yuppie" eighties.
Back then, the book was accepted, welcomed and ignored as yet another
bit of propaganda in the "Cold War" against Russia.
Some twenty years later -- having gone through the Margaret Thatcher
and Reagan years, and then the even more dreary, satanic nineties, and
then the new "Cold War" started with 9-11 -- the times had changed so
much since my childhood in the sixties and seventies that my thoughts
oftimes felt vaguely drawn to the half-forgotten Shostakovich book. I
had started to sense in the Zeitgeist, affinities with his times; the
feeling running through "Testimony", his predicament.
After the invasion of Iraq, I found myself definitely wanting to re-
read "Testimony". I tracked down a second hand copy. And I was not
wrong: How the times have changed since I first read it!
Shostakovich himself comes through on every page as a quietly
loveable soul, kind and courageous, privately and publicly living
through so much hidden mental torture and suffering. Guarded and
prickly -- acerbic! -- with his wry delightful impish humour, his
devotion to truth and integrity in Art, his faith in Life, enduring even
Stalin and entire decades of the Terror. A good man.
For those that have eyes to see, and ears to hear, it is
*absolutely* the true picture of his experience and his times. You just
cannot fake it. And since then, I have discovered more of
Shostakovich's music, the symphonies, the preludes and fugues, the
quintets (or are they quartets maybe?). It's recognizably the same
spirit. And he has immense *miraculous* rollicking humour bubbling up
through his turbulent works! Every time a Stalin theme appears, it's
hilarious. Every time?!! An absurd thick-headed troll with a club.
The only humour I can think of that is comparable, is Parker and Stone's
'South Park' animation.
But now, today, because of it's honesty and integrity, it's blunt
and it's pointed directness, people are threatened by the very same
"Testimony"! The same little cowering lackey souls of Stalin's time --
but now corporate corrupt lackey souls of "the West" -- they
instinctively don't want the mirror held up to nature. (OK, I can
understand that in Russia, there are more involved reasons for disliking
it.)
I very strongly recommend reading it. Also, if you cannot find a
Turkish translation, or another language, I actually think that your
English reading and writing is perfectly good to be able to read through
the English-language copy: believe me, it's much too absorbing to stop
reading. And after that -- you would be able to read books in English.
(Ayhan Keser)
Sandy yazdi:
Dear Sandy,
First of all i have to thank you for your story of Testimony.
I'll read Perface of Testimony that was added by you. Indeed, i wish
to read Testimony and other books about the case. My english is
improving but it's not enough to read fastmoving.
But i dont think that reaction to Testimony is ironic. Because in
my country, all concert shedules have arguments from Testimony. And i
dislike discourse againist Soviet Russia and Stalin.
By the way, i recommend you Shostakovich's own book. It was
published by Progressive Publishers, 1981.
H. Markus Lang
(Ayhan Keser) wrote:
> By the way, i recommend you Shostakovich's own book. It was
> published by Progressive Publishers, 1981.
That particular book was a hasty counter-reaction by the Soviet
officials to "Testimony". I'm sure that most of the articles in that
book were actually written by the Communist party officials and
Shostakovich simply had to sign and to read them.
I find it very odd and sad that someone finds the critique of a
dictatorship and tyranny disagreeable. Iosif Stalin was responsible for
the deaths of tens of millions of people.
-----------------------------
ml...@elisanet.fi "Vähän kuin Kokoomusta äänestäisit."
http://www.elisanet.fi/mlang/ - VIHREÄT.
(Ayhan Keser)
H. Markus Lang yazdı:
That book is a "digest" of Shostakovich's articles on different
newspaper and journals. Articles was written from 1920 to 1975. Do you
actually think that articles was written and "published" by officials
in 1920? Soviet officials must have good sixth sense and they estimate
Testimony. What a fantasy...
The book that i read contains all articles sources; date, newspaper,
name, issue...
On Stalin...
I like Stalin... Because i hate Hitler.
@zonnet.nl Herman van der Woude
[snip]
>
>
> That book is a "digest" of Shostakovich's articles on different
> newspaper and journals. Articles was written from 1920 to 1975. Do you
> actually think that articles was written and "published" by officials
> in 1920? Soviet officials must have good sixth sense and they estimate
> Testimony. What a fantasy...
O no, no fantasy at all. What you regard as a genuine article of the
1920 can well be a fake made in the 1960'or 1970's! There is a very
good biography written by Krzystof Meyer (a Pole who admired
Shostakovich and who was a friend of his), of which I don't know the
English titel (I am Dutch myself), which I highly recommend! In that
biography you will find more than one remark mad by Shostakovich that
so much was written and published in his name of which he himself had
no idea. So, conclusion is: don't trust any Soviet books as they simply
are not reliable!
> The book that i read contains all articles sources; date, newspaper,
> name, issue...
Yes, and you just cannot trust any of this give dates as you can't
guess who actually wrote those articles.
> On Stalin...
> I like Stalin... Because i hate Hitler.
Stalin had the 'luck' to find himself in 1941 on the same side as the
allies. He had to fight Hitler as Hitler had invaded the Soviet Union.
That does not yet makes him a man you can 'like'. He was as bad as
Hitler. Have you forgotten that Hitler and Stalin had this treaty in
1939 (which gave Hitler the opportunity to start 'his' war, leading to
World War II), in which, among other things they divided Poland? No,
Stalin was not a nice man...
As others already told you, please start reading 'Testimony' and you
will understand more about both Shostakovich and Stalin.
Cheers!
--
Herman van der Woude
hvdwoude @ zonnet.nl
spaties toegevoegd om spam te vermijden/spaces added to avoid spam
H. Markus Lang
Herman van der Woude wrote:
> There is a very good
> biography written by Krzystof Meyer (a Pole who admired Shostakovich and
> who was a friend of his), of which I don't know the English titel (I am
> Dutch myself), which I highly recommend!
Curiously enough, that book hasn't been translated into English yet (nor
into Finnish).
> As others already told you, please start reading 'Testimony' and you
> will understand more about both Shostakovich and Stalin.
As for the translations of "Testimony", the English translation is not
as good as one might desire. It does not convey the staccato style of
the Russian original. Unfortunately, again, most translations are made
from the English one and they recapitulate the unauthenticity of the style.
The Finnish translation by Dr. Seppo Heikinheimo was however done
directly from the Russian (as well as the German one), and I dare think
that it is the most true to Shostakovich's own style: short, laconic
sentences that remind one of Tchekhov, for instance. (Heikinheimo
compared a few foreign translations and points this issue out in his
memoirs.)
-----------------------------
ml...@elisanet.fi
http://www.elisanet.fi/mlang/