Musical Offerings, Spring 2019

Musical Offerings ⦁ 2019 ⦁ Volume 10 ⦁ Number 1 1 Musical Offerings 10, no. 1 (2019): 1–12 ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2019, Hanna R. Bahorik, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ) Shostakovich and the Memoirs Hanna R. Bahorik Cedarville University erhaps no other composer in history has been at the center of so much controversy as the Russian composer, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich. Even though Stalin publicly reprimanded Shostakovich in 1936 for his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District , Shostakovich was hailed by his communist comrades as a great patriot; his symphonies were appreciated as nationalistic anthems. Few had any reason to question his persona as being anything other than that of a faithful Russian, considering his awards, high positions, and success within the communist regime. It was not until the 1979 publication of a book called Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich that debates began to take form that would eventually charge into the realm of violent disputes from many sides. 1 Solomon Volkov, the editor of the soon- controversial Testimony and a young music journalist from Leningrad, supposedly met with the composer and wrote down what he said. One year after Testimony appeared, American researcher and specialist in Russian and Soviet music, Laurel Fay, responded to Testimony with an article in The Russian Review entitled, “Shostakovich versus Volkov: Whose Testimony?” in which she brought forth evidence of falsification and tampering. 2 Fay stated about Volkov’s Testimony that “the Shostakovich of these memoirs, at the time of his death and for many years before by far the most prominent, honored, and respected composer in the Soviet Union, reveals here with unparalleled scorn and bitterness the fear and oppression that plagued his life.” 3 Since then, other writers have come to the defense of Volkov such as Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov in their book, Shostakovich Reconsidered , which 1 Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich and Solomon Volkov, Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (New York: Limelight Editions, 2004). 2 Laurel E. Fay, “Shostakovich versus Volkov: Whose Testimony?” The Russian Review 39, no. 4 (1980): 484-93. 3 Ibid., 484. P