The Conductor

In June 1941, Nazi troops march on Leningrad and surround it Hitler s plan is to shell, bomb, and starve the city into submission Most of the cultural elite are evacuated early in the siege, but Dmitri Shostakovich, the most famous composer in Russia, stays on to defend his city, digging ditches and fire watching At night he composes a new work.But after Shostakovich and his family are forced to evacuate, only Karl Eliasberg a shy and difficult man, conductor of the second rate Radio Orchestra and an assortment of musicians are left behind in Leningrad to face an unendurable winter and start rehearsing the finished score of Shostakovich s Leningrad Symphony. Read The Conductor author Sarah Quigley – kino-fada.fr This is an absolutely wonderful novel about the siege of Leningrad and the great Russian composer Shostakovich, who composed most of his seventh symphony while the city was under siege, which was finally performed as a symbol that Russia would never give in.It s a very harrowing read, as the details of the siege are quite graphically t...This is a very moving and memorable novel, which begins in the Spring of 1941 with rumours of war with Germany and ends during the siege of Leningrad The book involves many characters, including Shostakovich, ignoring warnings and trying to get his Seventh Symphony on paper, his friend Nikolai and his beloved daughter Sonya and Karl Illyich Eliasberg, the conductor of the title Eliasberg conducts the rather second rate Radio Orchestra, while the conductor Mravinsky and the Philharmonic are This is a very moving and memorable novel, which begins in the Spring of 1941 with rumours of war with Germany and ends during the siege of Leningrad The book involves many characters, including Shostakovich, ignoring warnings and trying to get his Seventh Symphony on paper, his friend Nikolai and his beloved daughter Sonya and Karl Illyich Eliasberg, the conductor of the title Eliasberg conducts the rather second rate Radio Orchestra, while the conductor Mravinsky and the Philharmonic are Shostakovich s chosen musicians Yet, as war comes closer, much of the musical elite of Leningrad are ev...My interest in Sarah Quigley s fourth novel, The Conductor, was piqued when I read its description amongst the titles listed in the IMPAC longlist It s the story of how the 7th Leningrad Symphony came to be composed by Shostakovich and then broadcast on August 9th 1942 by a raggle taggle orchestra during the 900 day Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War.It s well written historical fiction, shedding light on the interior lives of three main historical figures composer Dmitri My interest in Sarah Quigley s fourth novel, The Conductor, was piqued when I read its description amongst the titles listed in the IMPAC longlist It s the story of how the 7th Leningrad Symphony came to be composed by Shostakovich and then broadcast on August 9th 1942 by a raggle taggle orchestra during the 900 day Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War.It s well written historical fiction, shedding light on the interior lives of three main historical figures composer Dmitri Shostakovich the conductor of the Radio Orchestra Karl Eliasberg and the musician Nikolai Nikolayev The story begins with the rumours that Hitler might be about to renege on the pact he had with Stalin, when life among the cultural elite is a m lange of backstabbing jealousies and gossip and Eliasberg is only on the fringes because a radio orchestra is not in t...This is a truly great book Great as in the sense of good, inspirational, deeply moving yet unsentimental The heroism of the musicians who battled starvation and exhaustion to learn and perform Shostakovitch 7th Symphony while the city was besieged and cut off and of their conductor who inspired and cajoled them into achieving the impossible is a story that richly deserves to enter into the stuff off legend Sarah Quigley might just have helped that to happen by bringing the story vividly back This is a truly...I bought this to read on my way to St Petersburg and because I had enjoyed Julian Barnes The Noise of Time I just couldn t get into it though If it makes sense, it was too fictionalised for me The conversation seemed banal at times and although ...This story takes place in Leningrad between the spring of 1941 and the summer of 1942 and is based on a true historical event In the autumn of 1942 the Nazis began the siege of Leningrad as they attempted to starve and bomb the city into submission The important musicians living in the city were evacuated by the Russian government, but Dimitri Shostakovich chose to stay and during this time he composed his Seventh Symphony, also known as the Leningrad Symphony.In the summer of 1942 Russian This story takes place in Leningrad between the spring of 1941 and the summer of 1942 and is based on a true historical event In the autumn of 1942 the Nazis began the siege of Leningrad as they attempted to starve and bomb the city into submission The important musicians living in the city were evacuated by the Russian government, but Dimitri Shostakovich chose to stay and during this time he composed his Seventh Symphony, also known as the Leningrad Symphony.In the summer of 1942 Russian officials in Leningrad ordered that Shostakovich s symphony would be played in an attempt to boost the morale of the citizens who had managed to survive a gruelling winter with almost no food and no fuel for warmth As the pre eminent Leningrad orchestra and conductor had been safely removed from the city, the task of playing this symphony fell to the second rate Radio Orchestra and their second rate conductor, Karl Eliasberg Of the initial orchestra of 100 people, only 15 were left, the others ...Although Quigley s writing was eminently readable, and even contained moments of really quite nice writing, overall the book failed to have the impact that I think it was intended to have or, at least, the one that I thought it would have It was enjoyable, but ephemeral I didn t particularly care when I reached the end, nor feel any emotion, positive or negative, for the characters.Partially this may have to do with unmet expectations The book takes place in the context of the German siege Although Quigley s writing was eminently readable, and even contained moments of really quite nice writing, overall the book failed to have the impact that I think it was intended to have or, at least, the one that I thought it would have It was enjoyable, but ephemeral I didn t particularly care when I reached the end, nor feel any emotion, positive or negative, for the characters.Partially this may have to do with unmet expectations The book takes place in the context of the German siege of Leningrad during World War II, and against the starvation, death and misery of that time The dust jacket blurb makes much of the fact that the book is about the titular conductor Eliasberg preparing his second rate orchestra for the task of a lifetime He is to conduct a performance of Shostakovich s Seventh Symphony a haunting, defiant new piece, which will be relayed by loudspeakers to the front lines Eliasberg s musicians are starving, and ...A book that is maybeevolving about an atmosphere than about the story as such This might be a bit disappointing in the first part of the book, where several characters are introduced along with a beginning story It seems at first the book is about to evolve around a story of one of those characters, which becomes clear is not the case later on in the book Once you leave the longing for a story behind and just take in the setting of Leningrad, the dread of the war and it s difficulties, A book that is maybeevolving about an atmosphere than about the story as such This might be a bit disappointing in the first part of the book, where several characters are introduced along with a beginning story It seems at first...I found it very difficult to rate this book Forthan the first half, I found it very slow going I found the characters with a couple of exceptions, Sonya for one quite flat and hard to empathise with There seemed to be no distinct plot and the characters nor the writing seemed to be quite enough to make up for what felt like a lack of clarity in the novel s direction However, for the last 100 pages or so I really did enjoy this book I found the setting vivid, the characters muchI found it very difficult to rate this book Forthan the first half, I found it very slow going I found the characters with a couple of exceptions, Sonya for one quite flat and hard to...The human cost of war is a subject that has been expounded upon by many writers, but seldom do we read about the human face of historical events and the art that transcends them Sarah Quigly has created a ficitionalisation of Shostakovich s endeavour to compose his seventh symphony amongst the devastation of Hitler s invasion of Leningrad with a sublime sense of realism.Alexander Polinsky implores us to be kind for everyone is fighting a great battle and it is this assertion that draws us The human cost of war is a subject that has been expounded upon by many writers, but seldom do we read about the human face of historical events and the art that transcends them Sarah Quigly has created a ficitionalisation of Shostakovich s endeavour to compose his seventh symphony amongst the devastation of Hitler s invasion of Leningrad with a sublime sense of realism.Alexander Polinsky implores us to be kind for everyone is fighting a great battle and it is this assertion that draws us into the ...

• English
• 04 August 2018
Sarah Quigley
• Paperback
• 300 pages
• 1869795067
• Sarah Quigley
• The Conductor