“I love him Shostakovich Since I was a kid. His music is perfect for moody teenagers,” he admits. mt AndersonThe American writer and journalist heard an interesting story about the Russian composer in his youth: “When I read the CD booklets and the hand programs of the concerts, I learned that the notes were correct. Symphony number 7 Shostakovich was photographed, microfilmed and abducted abroad The Soviet Union It belongs to the United States.”
The notes toured the Middle East, North Africa, Brazil and Washington DC, the city of the officer responsible for transporting it, before reaching its final destination, New York. I decided to stop on the way for a snack at a cafe.. When he left the building, he realized he had left the microfilm inside and nearly threw it in the trash.
“It is usually assumed that microfilms were used to store the blueprints of a nuclear submarine or the key to the Enigma code, but not for a piece of music. If on that support it was decided that the score be transferred to the United States, it could be performed by the NBC Orchestra led by arturo toscanini and for the American people to support American aid to Moscow,” explains Anderson, who was fascinated by history and decided to start researching.
Conclusion symphony of the city of the dead (EsPop, 2022) is an essay on Shostakovich’s life, his childhood in a wealthy family, his steps as a composer, his work within the framework of the October Revolution principles, his success as a proletarian composer, and his misfortune in 2014. As the author of the 7th symphony, the Stalin regime and its liberation The suffering of the people of Leningrad, present-day Saint Petersburg, during one of the greatest sieges a city has suffered in human history. no less 872 days with cut off supply routes causing thousands, among many other dramas deaths from freezing, starvation, and horrific cases of cannibalism.
“The symphony was performed within the walls of besieged Leningrad in 1942, in the midst of the onslaught of Nazi troops, by an orchestra of hungry musicians who were about to pass out. The event was so risky that the Red Army had to bombard the Germans in order to try to keep the fire away from the concert hall. from the other side,” explains MT Anderson, who faced many difficulties while carrying out his research.
“It is difficult to reconstruct any life from documents. However, it becomes even more difficult when you analyze a dictatorship like Stalin’s. everyone had a reason to lie, betray and falsify records. The Soviets created a system in which no one could be trusted. Propaganda obliterated the facts, people were tried and executed for crimes they didn’t commit, and everyone lied to stay alive. “Even Shostakovich hid things from his children because if they said something inappropriate at school, the whole family would be in danger.”
“Fifty years later, when the Soviet regime collapsed, these lies started to work in the opposite directionta: everyone wanted to tell a story about how they were secretly dissident. The problem with governments built on lies is that there is always an air of unreality when you try to write about events that took place in the Soviet Union. This is a challenge the United States is currently grappling with because how can we prevent the poison of lies from making the entire nation sick?
chaos instead of music
On January 26, 1936, Stalin took part in one of the demonstrations. Lady Macbeth A four-act opera from the Mtsensk region, written by Alexander Preis and composed by Shostakovich. Despite being of bourgeois origin, the musician, who managed to create a work that combines artistic avant-garde and proletarian spirit, witnessed how the communist leader stirred in the lodge, whispered to his friends and expressed his displeasure with what he heard.
newspaper the next day Pravdawho praised the opera in the past months chaos instead of musica Hostile criticism of Shostakovich’s work this could have triggered serious problems for the composer at that time. From that moment on, the musician tried to show his devotion to Stalin by directing his public statements. Volunteer to fight the Russian Army in WWII and, when rejected, enlisted in the Leningrad fire brigade, which he combined with the composition of the Seventh Symphony, which in some of its movements contained implicit criticism of Stalin.
“Somehow, the form of the symphony seems to contain something. Secret message about Stalin’s terrible rise to power. The first movement is interrupted by a somewhat silly walking melody that seems harmless at first but builds and builds until it becomes enraged and violent, destroying everything around it. People other than Shostakovich called it the “invasion” theme. What is striking, however, is that this music is not at all reminiscent of the suddenly and instantly terrifying German invasion of Russia, but rather closer to the rise of Stalin, who at first appeared to be a clown in the environment. Explaining that Shostakovich never openly accepted this criticism of the Soviet leader, MT Anderson says, “He told his neighbor what the symphony was about.” forces that crush the human spirit Wherever they are, including both Hitler and Stalin and all those dangerous men who are clumsy in their egoism and deadly in their arrogance.”
symphonic propaganda
Despite this so-called criticism of Stalin, the Soviet government declared that the seventh symphony was an inspiring composition that shines through the efforts and heroism of the people of Leningrad, and thus a piece of propaganda that helped the allies forget the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact That the Soviets signed with the Nazis a few years ago.
“We will never know exactly how Shostakovich felt about this decision, because it was too dangerous to write down his opinions, but I guess he will too.” Used for the Communist Party. Among other things, because when she was finally forced to join him, he must have cried and considered suicide. On the other hand, I think that the composer had a sincere love for the Russian people and the city of Leningrad. He was deeply affected by the plight of his hometown, he wanted to show it to the world, to give his compatriots hope and victory over the Nazis. In this sense, the symphony was not just propaganda, but conveyed the true feelings of the musician as a firefighter and watching from the roof of the Leningrad Conservatory his beloved city come under attack.”
After more than 60 years, Symphony Number 7 Shostakovich’s work is considered one of the greatest works of Russian music. The piece is part of the repertoire of orchestras around the world, and for several months now, Again, as it inspired it, it is interpreted in a warlike and authoritarian context: the Ukrainian War and the government of Vladimir Putin.
“About this time last year, I was invited to speak on the Seventh Symphony at a conference in St. Petersburg in August 2022. When the war broke out, the organizers asked me if I still wanted to attend, and I declined the invitation. I did not give them an explanation at the time. , but he continues: How can I attend a conference on Soviet wartime politics and music without noting that the situation has been reversed and it is now the Russians who are proudly speaking about how they will starve the enemy in the winter of their brutal invasion and siege? Also, that my words may be responsible for the conference organizers. How can I deliberately say such things out loud? Once again, and in a regime that, as in Stalin’s case, threatens to imprison anyone who opposes it?” They see Shostakovich as a patriotic hero who should be listened to, paying special attention to his “compassion, his anger against injustice, his defiance against oppression”. But also us, behind that wall of silence, not everyone is as obedient as they seem. However, we can never know the suffering of others until we truly listen to them.”