Symphony for the City of the Dead

Posted on 18 March 2017 by M.T. Anderson

National Book Award winner M T Anderson delivers an account of the Siege of Leningrad and the role played by Russian composer Shostakovich and his Leningrad Symphony.In September 1941, Adolf Hitler s Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943 1944 More than a million citizens perished Survivors recall corpses littering the frozen streets, their relatives having neither the means nor the strength to bury them Residents burned books, furniture, and floorboards to keep warm they ate family pets and eventually one another to stay alive Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens the Leningrad Symphony, which came to occupy a surprising place of prominence in the eventual Allied victory.This is the true story of a city under siege the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds It is also a look at the power and layered meaning of music in beleaguered lives. 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Anderson – kino-fada.fr Every now and then a book comes along that blows me away and Symphony for the City of the Dead Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad is one of those books.A riveting story of the music of composer Dimitri Shostakovich along with an extensively researched history of the siege of Leningrad I was vaguely aware of this composer and to...Holy cats, you guys THIS BOOK It s a masterpiece At once a fascinating biography, a testament to the power of music, and a riveting World War II story that I bet your teens don t know much about I certainly didn t Your performing arts kids, your WWII and history buffs, DON T LET THEM MISS IT.In Symphony for the City of the Dead Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad history is very clearly explained starting with Bloody Sunday in 1905 and continuing through the Siege of Leningrad The history presented is woven around the central figure Dimitri Shostakovich 1906 1975 You get history and biography together Little of his life after the years of the siege is presented The central focus is nevertheless the role of music, and particularly Shostakovich s in the siege I have In Symphony for the City of the Dead Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad history is very clearly explained starting with Bloody Sunday in 1905 and continuing through the Siege of Leningrad The history presented is woven around the central figure Dimitri Shostakovich 1906 1975 You get history and biography together Little of his life after the years of the siege is presented The central focus is nevertheless the role of music, and particularly Shostakovich s in the siege I have seen it stated that this book was for young adults It is not a simplified version History is not cleaned up for the ears of the young The history is clearly stated, interestingly told and unbiased That which is not definitively known is stated as such Rumors are presented only for what they are I would not classify this as a young adult book it is suitable for young adults and adults equally wel...One of the best things about this book for me is how it shed light on a period of Russian history that I had heard about but had never really understood on a gut level The book took me from the 1917 Russian Revolution when Czar Nicholas II was overthrown to the take over by Lenin a few months later and on to the reign of Stalin and the siege of Leningrad by the Nazi army History is told best in the particular This turbulent and painful period of Russian history is woven around the life story One of the best things about this book for me is how it shed light on a period of Russian history that I had heard about but had never really understood on a gut level The book took me from the 1917 Russian Revolution when Czar Nicholas II was overthrown to the take over by Lenin a few months later and on to the reign of Stalin and the siege of Leningrad by the Nazi army History is told best in the particular This turbulent and painful period of Russian history is woven around the life story of a ci...I m still reeling from this book, and think I will be for quite a while It was the kind of book that I had to put down often, just to be able to process the horror that the Russian people experienced There s all kinds of horror in here at the hands of the state, at the hands of the Germans, at the hands of people you thought were your friends Anderson does an amazing job of bringing the realities of what it must have been like to live through Stalin s purges and the siege of Leningrad to lif I m still reeling from this book, and think I will be for quite a while It was the kind of book that I had to put down often, just to be able to process the horror that the Russian people experienced There s all kinds of horror in here at the hands of the state, at the hands of the Germans, at the hands of people you thought were your friends Anderson does an amazing job of bringing the realities of what it must have been like to live through Stalin s purges and the siege of Leningrad to life It s incredibly hard to read, but also important to understand this time of history I found myself trying to bring all conversations back to Soviet Russia while reading this book I wanted people to talk to about it I wanted them to understand I think Anderson using Shostakovich as the conduit to tell this story was particularly brilliant There s a lot about Soviet history in here,...I should give myselftime to compose an appropriate review, but I want so badly to hand everyone a copy of this book that I m going to rush to get the word out Biography, history, philosophy and sociology all collide in this brilliant book and I am not going to be able to say enough good things about it.During a semester studying abroad in St Petersburg, I first heard the story of Shostakovich and his 7th symphony That story has stuck with me for 20 years, and this book is able to arti I should give myselftime to compose an appropriate review, but I want so badly to hand everyone a copy of this book that I m going to rush to get the word out Biography, history, philosophy and sociology all collide in this brilliant book and I am not going to be able to say enough good things about it.During a semester studying abroad in St Petersburg, I first heard the story of Shostakovich and his 7th symphony That story has stuck with me for 20 years, and this book is able to articulate why in a way that I never could While the title indicates that the book is about this particular symphony, it is about so muchThe reader is taken into the world of Stalinist Russia in the 30s, w...This is a long book and a library book, too, and I didn t read it as carefully as I likely would have had I owned it Maybe I will get it out of the library again at some point That said, I enjoyed what I read, and learned quite a bit, not just about Shostakovich, but about the shifting conditions I was fascinated by how happy Shostakovich was in his early life though there was a lot of hardship It seemed happiness in adverse conditions was not an unlikely outcome when people feel connected t This is a long book and a library book, too, and I didn t read it as carefully as I likely would have had I owned it Maybe I will get it out of the library again at some point That said, I enjoyed what I read, and learned quite a bit, not just about Shostakovich, but about the shifting conditions I was fascinated by how happy Shostakovich was in his early life though there was a lot of hardship It seemed happiness in adverse conditions was not an unlikely outcome when people feel connected to each other and connected to a cause And then, in contrast, this book presents the misery and torment of every day life when people are faced with demented leadership that does its best to undermine and eat away at the fabric of trust between people and their loved ones Not that there aren t always troubles on a personal and political level in any given community But the severity of the persecution under Stalin, and the ways it tore people s words apart, was vividly and painfully drawn.I think this bo...In general, I ve been reviewing all the books that really move me in full Obviously, I m not doing that for Symphony for the City of the Dead, mostly because I ve never really been sure how to write a comprehensive review for nonfiction, since that seems to come down in large measureon the accuracy of the information which I can t really speak to.In all my years studying history, I ve always been most fascinated by the World War II era One of my other favorite bits of history to study wa In general, I ve been reviewing all the books that really move me in full Obviously, I m not doing that for Symphony for the City of the Dead, mostly because I ve never r...It feels like it s been a good year for nonfiction This, the Steve Sheinkin This is a powerful piece of work about the life of the Russian composer Shostakovich, who wrote the titular symphony for Leningrad the City of the Dead It s almost exhausting in its comprehensiveness It s detailed and meticulously told and very interesting at the same time it also retains a degree of author presence, particularly when pointing out how unreliable certain sources are.It s a funny thing, that autho It feels like it s been a good year for nonfiction This, the Steve Sheinkin This is a powerful piece of work about the life of the Russian c...An extraordinary achievement A penetrating gaze into the not too distant past into a chapter of history I imagine most people understand only in broadest brushstrokes, and through the haze of propaganda The humanity and the horror of the people who lived under 20th Century European despotism is laid bare here, as the talents and survival of one nervous, brilliant composer are caught in the tug of war between Stalin s schizophrenically incompatible objectives, and then between Stalin and Hitler An extraordinary achievement A penetrating gaze into the not too distant past into a chapter of history I imagine most people understand only in broadest brushstrokes, and through the haze of propaganda The humanity and the horror of the people who lived under ...

18 March 2017

M.T. Anderson