Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

by M. T. Anderson

Other authorsM. T. Anderson (Narrator)
Digital audiobook, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

780.92

Tags

20th Century, 1940s, 21st Century Literature, Nonfiction, American Literature, Biography, Music, Composers, Shostakovich, War, WWII, Siege of Leningrad, Soviet Union, Stalin, Russia, Audiobook, Narrated by M. T. Anderson, Free, Sync, Acquired in 2016

Genres

Collection

Audiobooks

Publication

Candlewick on Brilliance Audio (2015), Unabridged MP3; 10h20

Description

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.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member noblechicken
I remember having lunch with M.T. Anderson while he was researching this book. As we ate at a wonderful Asian restaurant in Cambridge, he spoke with such excitement and passion about the subject of composer Dmitri Shostakovich and how clandestine it was to smuggle the 7th symphony.Real spy type
Show More
 stuff. You could really see the spark of creation in him.

This is the story of all artists. It is a look into the horrors of Stalin coming to power, as well as the Nazis, and how difficult it was to be an artist in Russian during that time. It is also a novel about survival and determination under such oppression.Here is a brilliant man, who had to live a life of duplicity; on one hand writing scores for Stalin's propaganda films, on the other hand writing great works expressing the suffering under Stalin's hand. An artist who had to dance between comrade and bourgeoisie as his friends disappeared in the night, were jailed, tortured and killed. As all of this is happening in his country, Herr Wolf is also taking his turn at the stage of fascism.

The world is lucky that Shostakovich survived and Anderson expresses this eloquently. He paints a vivid and well researched picture of not only the microcosm of Shostakovich's life, but also the world at the time as effected by Russia. A power book about the difficulty of life for an artist, and a lesson to ANY artist oppressed by either fascism or banned books or any situation where art is being suppressed.

M.T. Anderson is one of the most prolific authors I have the pleasure of knowing. His books range from the silly to the sci-fi to the historic. Symphony is one of his best.
Show Less
24 more
LibraryThing member lisapeet
I liked this quite a bit. It's marketed as YA, and as such has its moments of elision when it comes to Shastakovich's life, not to mention the Siege of Leningrad—this is not a big fat history volume. But it's informative, and if I had read this as a high schooler for a WWII history class I think
Show More
 I'd have gotten a sharp, interesting picture of the time and politics. Anderson also gets points for weaving commentary about his source material into the narrative and stressing the awareness that any history is pieced together from facts of various degrees of reliability. Some of the writing's a little hyperbolic, but some of it is just terrific, too, and often very affecting. Recommended, though if you're a Shostakovich/wartime Russia historian it might feel slim. The rest of us, though, should go for it.

Also: Super nice cover.
Show Less
LibraryThing member keristars
M.T. Anderson's experience as a YA writer shows in this biography of Shostakovich: the writing is clear and engaging to make for an uncomplicated read, and he takes pains to point out where facts end and conjecture begins, which is especially useful for younger readers who may not have the
Show More
 sophistication or experience to figure it out by reading between the lines.

Symphony for the City of the Dead sets out to tell the story of Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th symphony - why it was created and what happened during that creation to make it so special. To fully explain the context of Leningrad in 1941 and 1942, Anderson goes back to the Russian Revolution of 1905 and lays out basic facts of what life was like and a general idea of why the revolution occurred, only a year before Shostakovich's birth. He then recounts what is known or supposed of Shostakovich's childhood, and what life would have been like under Bolshevik and then Soviet rule. Shostakovich's music is complicated and not easily accessible for new listeners, so Anderson also details Shostakovich's musical background and influences - this includes explanations of Soviet Constructivism in all the fine arts, painting and theatre as well as music.

The second third of the book traces Shostakovich's work in the 1930s and during Stalin's Great Purge, injecting a frisson of suspense as Shostakovich comes so close to being purged himself several times during his life. We know that he survived to create his symphony during the war, but was he tortured or banished to Siberia during the Purge? One place that the book falls short here, and which I only happened to discover by happenstance of watching a Hollywood movie from 1938 while I was reading, is that Anderson doesn't really make it clear how famous Shostakovich was internationally during the period, and that his international fame was quite likely what saved him. On the other hand, this section goes further in contextual history and gives more background to Stalin's Purge and political actions, laying the groundwork to understand why everything went so poorly at the start of the war, and in Leningrad especially.

The final third looks at the Siege of Leningrad itself - this is why the symphony was so important, and the conditions Shostakovich endured while writing it. These chapters are dramatized, with anecdotes and facts chosen to have the reader empathize with the residents of the city. It is not an impartial recounting that can be found on Wikipedia or dryer history books, which unfortunately means that even while it draws the reader in and creates a very rich environment, it probably doesn't create a very balanced view of the Siege, but overemphasizes the darkest days. Still, it was extremely readable, and gave me a fuller understanding of that part of history, which I was only incidentally familiar with before (thanks in part to books like Rose Under Fire (Wein) or Between Shades of Grey (Sepetys)).

Overall, I have two responses to Symphony for the City of the Dead. 1) I am super grateful for Anderson's explanations of Constructivism and the Soviet-approved artforms of the 1910s-1930s - I work in a contemporary art museum, but have found it somewhat difficult to fully understand the context of some of the artwork we have, including recent exhibitions of Malevich's work, but Anderson provided me with several Aha! moments so that I I feel like huge chunks of understanding of modern/contemporary art are filled in. 2) The book trails off after the Leningrad premier of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 and gives only a cursory outline of what happened to Shostakovich afterwards. I am incredibly curious now about how Soviet life, as Anderson describes it here, transitioned post-Stalin and into the Cold War era, and I feel a need to seek out more books on the topic. I've friends who lived in Soviet Russia and Ukraine in the 1980s and 1990s, so I have some understanding of what it was like then, but 1945-1980 is something of a blank for me, which this book has made more obvious simply by filling in the 1905-1945 parts.

I highly recommend Symphony for the City of the Dead to any reader who would like to read more of any of the topic it covers, or as an introduction to reading about history and biographies for young people. Not only does Anderson write an engaging book about history, but he shows readers what goes into figuring out history from source documents, so that they can become more discerning readers in the future.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lindapanzo
I've won many ER books but this one is probably the best ER book I've ever won. This simple and straightforward book tells the story of the Soviet terror of the 1930s and how this impacted the people, in particular, composer Dmitri Shoshtakovich. However, the bulk of the book focused on the 872-day
Show More
 German siege of Leningrad and the impacts of this horrific time on the starving populace, again, with a particular emphasis on the famed composer and his family.

Most interesting, I thought, involved Shoshtakovich and his efforts at writing his 7th symphony, later called the Leningrad Symphony, during the siege, and how this piece of music improved morale in the Soviet Union, particularly in Leningrad. Also of interest was the part about how a copy of the symphony's score was smuggled out of the USSR to the U.S. so that it could be performed here.

It's an informative book, but yet, a page turner and I learned so much, about music, about wartime history, and about political history. I would highly recommend this tremendous book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tnilsson
While I love listening to classical music, it’s rare that I am willing to read a book about composers or their music. I’d rather let their music speak for them. I’m also not a big fan of Russian composers, especially modern ones, having little experience with their music. But for some reason,
Show More
 M. T. Anderson’s “Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad” seemed like it might be interesting to read, even though I don’t own any of Shostakovich’s music and can’t even recall hearing it. I suppose I need to put that in the past-tense now, because reading Mr. Anderson’s book spurred me to buy Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (his Leningrad Symphony that is the subject of this book) and listen to it. I have to say that it’s not what I expected, either itself or its history, which I mean as a very big compliment.

Mr. Anderson’s book starts out reading like a gripping spy-thriller, complete with American and Russian agents and secret microfilms smuggled across enemy lines and across the world during WWII at great personal risk. From there the book returns to Russia at the dawn of the 20th Century, proceeding through the Russian Revolution and life in Russia, especially in Leningrad, through to the end of the Second World War. The German siege of Leningrad plays a starring role, with all its heroism and suffering and death. Throughout it all play the strains of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, a symphony that may have done as much as anything else to help Russia defeat the Germans despite the long odds against them.
Mr. Anderson does a marvelous job ferreting out the facts from conflicting sources, including the words of Shostakovich himself, sources whose veracity is often subject to question. Telling the truth in Russia, throughout the period at issue, could all too easily lead to exile, torture, and/or execution. The “truth” was all too often a lie intended to support an ideological end or intended to ensure self-preservation for oneself or one’s family. Winnowing what appears to be the truth from all the lies could not have been easy.

I don’t want to give too much away about this marvelous book. Suffice it to say that if you are a fan of history, WWII, classical music, Soviet Russia, or books about human nature, I think this book will appeal to you. I suspect there is something for most readers in this book and I’ve found myself raving about it to friends with very disparate reading interests. If you buy this book, I recommend that you at the same time buy a copy of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony. You will invariably decide you need to hear it, probably more than once, while reading this book, and buying both at the same time will simply help you avoid frustration later when you want to hear the piece but don’t have it on hand. I bought Leonard Bernstein’s and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.1 & 7 “Leningrad". Their recording has received rave reviews as the one to beat. While I haven’t heard other recordings of this symphony, having heard this one, I find it hard to believe that anyone can have topped it. I’d highly recommend both the book and this CD. The biggest risk is that you will decide, as I have, that you now need to acquire Shostakovich’s other symphonies mentioned in the book (especially his 4th Symphony, which you may also want to have on hand while reading the book). But that’s a risk that seems worthwhile.
Show Less
LibraryThing member stevesmits
Symphony for the City of the Dead is a well-researched history and political analysis of the Soviet government's impact on the arts centered around Dmitri Shostakovich and his work, particularly his masterful seventh symphony -- the Leningrad Symphony. The book touches deeply on the manipulation of
Show More
 the arts and artists to further the political aims of the Communist state. Shostakovich, recognized then and now as one of the 20th century's most accomplished composers, was profoundly impacted by the state's attempts at controlling artistic content, particularly after Stalin took power. The use of art in the Soviet system as propaganda intended to sway the public's acceptance of the state's ideology is the major theme of this book and is told quite well.

After the Bolshevik's took power in 1917 a spirit of modernism took hold among the artistic elite. In the visual, literary and performing arts there emerged the so-called Futurist movement which optimistically exalted the arrival of the "new" society that discarded the corrupt and exploitive political, economic and social systems of the past. Shostakovich was a part of this scene, writing musical compositions,film scores for message-driven films and avant-garde operas. His renown soon became international.

This rosy optimism began to fade after Stalin's assumption of power following Lenin's death. His iron-handed approach to advance the Soviet state wrought incredible suffering and death to millions of people through the brutal efforts to collectivize farming and the five-year industrial plans. By the 1930's Stalin's tyrannical control over Soviet society became massively draconian and oppressive. His paranoid persecution of purported "enemies of the state" resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the exile to forced labor of millions. Intellectuals in all fields were caught up in this era of the "Great Terror"; those not persecuted were consumed by anxiety that they might be on the list of enemies and it decidedly affected their art. The book's depiction of Soviet brutality is quite chilling.

Shostakovich fell prey to the regime's campaign against "formalistic" art in the aftermath of the debut of his opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". The work premiered to ecstatic reviews until it was seen in person by Stalin who, to the shock and dread of the composer, walked out in mid-performance. Shortly after, the critical reviews changed completely in tone and the work was deemed "a mess instead of music". In the Soviet Union of the 30's such criticism meant much more than disappointment; it could mean the life or freedom of the composer.

The invasion of Soviet Russia by the Nazi's in 1941 changed Shostakovich's standing dramtically. The city of Leningrad was surrounded by the German army within months. The city was continually shelled and bombed and was cut off from food and fuel resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths through starvation. It was Hitler's overt plan to starve the city into non-existence. The book's portrayal of the suffering of the city's residents details the horrors they endured. Shostakovich resided in Leningrad in the early months of its isolation, but later was evacuated to the east with most of his family. He had begun already to compose the seventh symphony and completed the work in exile. The piece is massive in scope and length. It was understood to convey the devastation inflicted by the German invaders and to praise the city's heroic resistance ending, by the fourth movement, in foreseeing the inevitable triumph of Leningrad and Mother Russia over the fascist enemy. The symphony brought a huge boost to the morale of the country and, after being smuggled circuitously out of the country, was performed throughout the West where it was perceived as a tribute to Russian courage and sacrifice. Here again the relationship of art and politics in the 20th century is seen. After the war and until Stalin's death in 1953 Shostakovich was again subjected to the state's political criticism of his work, most likely because his work was so revered in the West that by then had become the enemy of the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

The book touches well on the major themes and events from the onset of the Soviet state to the post war era. Its depth of analysis and description makes it a worthwhile read. It is marred, however, by quite a bit of sloppy and inartful writing. The author resorts to many one-sentence paragraphs that seem glib and curt. He makes frequent use of odd-sounding allusions -- "With the kind of grotesque, Tintin-esque whimsy that somehow always dogs espionage like a puppy hot on the heels of a murderous thug,...." There are too many cliche's, e.g. "she watched him like a hawk" and so on. When his misplaced manuscript was found on the dirty bathroom floor of the train carrying his family to escape from besieged Leningrad... "they discovered that the score was almost entirely unstained. The lesson here: a true masterpiece can marinate in filth and still come out clean". Not major, but he mentions of allied planes shipped to Russia as "B-52's"; I think they were B-25's. One hopes that further editing will clean up this distracting writing because the book makes an important contribution to the story of the Soviet Union's use and misuse of artists.

One, of course, should listen to the symphony before and after reading the book. It is a deeply evocative, if profoundly complex, work.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Carmenere
An enlightening read of not only the tragedies and terror that befell the city of St. Petersburg/Leningrad during the governance of Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin and Hitler's seige but also the power of music to combat without bombs, to empower without words and nourish without food. Composer
Show More
 Dmitri Shostakovich walked a very thin line in composing material that would be acceptable to the powerful regime yet still speak to the proletariat. His Seventh Symphony, in particular, not only brought a dying city back to life but served as a conduit to nations across borders and oceans to find strength and community.
Actual photos really enhance the story as well. Highly recommend.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
At the heart of Symphony for the City of the Dead is the story of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich's seventh symphony, written against the background of the siege of Leningrad during World War II. The author's life story is a prelude to the history of the siege of Leningrad and the writing and
Show More
 premiere of Shostakovich's symphony. I listened to the audio version read by the author, and I wish I had read the book instead. There's a reason that so many audiobooks use professional narrators. This should have been one of them. The author/narrator pauses in all the wrong places, and it negatively impacts the listener's comprehension.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thosgpetri
This was a quick and easy read though it covered a lot history. I have never read a book that that so well captured the horror of war and the suffering people, civilian and soldier alike, caught in the front lines. Adding in the story of Dmitri Shostakovich and his personnel suffering and
Show More
 privations, as well as his triumphs during the repressive Stalin era was an experience to make your skin crawl, and to make his triumphs all the more meaningful. My parents lived in Hungary at the start of W.W. II, and this story rings true to telling of the agony each felt as the war came closer and closer . Finally they each had to make their way westward, even as Russians made their way eastward in order to survive. They were finally reunited in West Germany, I mention their experience in this amazing time to validate, at least for me the awesome work that Mr. Anderson did in bringing this time to life. Well worth the time it takes to read it. As Merle Haggard once said, "the only thing war is good for is turning young men into dead men". (this was long after "Oaky from Muscogee" made him famous.) Now I would like to hear The Seventh Symphony, a.k.a. the Leningrad Symphony, for my self. Read the book, it will make a believer out of you and arose your curiosity about Shostakovich's music
Show Less
LibraryThing member mamzel
Outstanding biography that places an artist in his historical context. Shostakovich was a classical composer who was caught in Lenningrad when the Germans put the city under siege. For nearly 900 days the citizens of the city suffered lack of everything including food and heat. For much of this
Show More
 time Shostakovich wrote a symphony that seemed to describe the progression of the siege and the strength and resilience of the Russian people during this horrendous time.

Written for teens, the well researched book is punctuated by pictures of the composer, his family, and the city.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kristilabrie
What an interesting aspect of WWII research. This historical novel looked at the war through the lens of music and its influence on entire cultures and nations. Not just any music, but that of the famous Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, peering into his entire tumultuous, revolutionary life in
Show More
 Leningrad and seeing the common "chord" through it all that never lost Shostakovich’s focus. A passionate story that bolsters music as one of the all-time unifiers in life.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JFBallenger
Previous readers of Anderson's brilliant young adult fiction (the YA label in his case is rather arbitrary) will be surprised by the subject matter and form of this book - a historical narrative of Stalinist and Nazi brutality, the suffering of war, and the power of music to transcend. I would not
Show More
 have picked up a book on these topics were it not that a writer whom I have found so compelling wrote it. I am very glad I did. Anderson has crafted a mind-blowing narrative of humanity at its very worst and very best.
Show Less
LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
The further along I got into this book the less I felt that it was geared towards YA readers. Things started out with me thinking I wouldn't enjoy as it was on too young a reading level, but either that changed or I got used to it. Either way, a very good bit of work. As with any other work on the
Show More
 Great Terror or the purges or the siege of Leningrad, some parts are very difficult to read.

Taking a look at the bibliography, mostly secondary sources it appears, not an enormous amount of original research...not to say a tremendous amount of work didn't go into the writing of this, just that there is not all that much new here I don't think.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sgrame
Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian composer who worked creatively to write wonderful symphonies while avoiding the oppression under the government of Stalin and supporting his beloved homeland. The cleansing of departments by Stalin wiped out almost all of his top officials leaving the country in
Show More
 serious trouble when Hitler turned against him and invaded Russia, mercilessly taking Leningrad under siege for 3 years. We learn how despite constant bombardment, starvation and threats from his own government, Shostakovich would not stop writing his testimony of the times in the form of his 7th symphony to tell the story of all his people went through. Some of the chapters are stark and raw, hard for the soul to read. Yet it comes together to tell a story of a time and a place with background so that listening to the piece will never be the same for a listener again. This 456 page non-fiction book is suggested for high school & adults.
Show Less
LibraryThing member benuathanasia
I'd like to say this book is beautiful, but it's too sad. It's a melancholy beauty. I didn't think I'd like it at first since I don't care for biographies and I thought several college courses had killed any interest I had reading nonfiction about the early Soviet regimes, but I really came to care
Show More
 for Shostakovich and everything Stalin put the people of the Union through.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cygnet81
Great Book! This book is well written and very interesting. I have a degree in Russian studies and still learned a lot about the war, St. Petersburg and of course Russian culture.
LibraryThing member Castlelass
Well-constructed non-fiction that weaves together a biography of Dmitri Shostakovich with the key events in the history of the Soviet Union during his lifetime. It portrays how events influenced his music, and how his music, in turn, influenced and inspired the people. It tells of the rise of
Show More
 Lenin, Stalin’s Great Terror, the German invasion of Russia during WWII, the Siege of Leningrad, and the Cold War.

The author discusses Shostakovich’s many compositions, focusing on details of his writing his Seventh Symphony, which became known as the Leningrad Symphony. He gives readers a glimpse into the mindset of the Russian people as they endured one hardship after the next. He does not spare the gruesome details of starvation, deaths, and horrific circumstances experienced during the three-year Siege.

I appreciated the photos, which are inserted into the narrative at appropriate points to provide a visual of what has been described. One of the highlights of the book is a gripping set piece of the performance of the Leningrad Symphony during the Siege – simply amazing! It portrays the power of music to lift spirits, inspire hope, and unite people in a common cause.

This book offers a captivating account of a brilliant composer and the brutal times in which he lived. The author must occasionally infer motives and construct a possible series of events due to the lack of verifiable information. If you read the voluminous footnotes, you will get a good idea of why the author chose to interpret specific actions the way he did. I read the book, then listened to the symphony.

4.5
Show Less
LibraryThing member EllsbethB
This book does a good job explaining why Shostakovich's music meant so much to so many people. It's tough to read about the Siege of Leningrad and the time period surrounding it, but it is history worth knowing. If you teach AP Euro, this could be a good this could be a good choice for your
Show More
 students.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kakadoo202
fantastic narrative about this composer. lots of Russian history that I didn't know. easy but haunting read.
LibraryThing member fmclellan
Terrific story, vividly brought to life in Anderson's clear, effective style. Rich with history, conversation, poetry, and music, always music. A page-turner.
LibraryThing member Iudita
Incredibly well crafted. It weaves together the horrific historical details of the siege of Leningrad with the story of Shostakovich composing his Symphony No. 7 during the invasion. It was a juxtaposition between art and war, between immense suffering and the power of music. This is a book about
Show More
 the human spirit soaring during times of intense hardship.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mjspear
A true account of Dmitri Shostakovich's life, highlighting his years in Leningrad during Stalin's reign and World War II. Atrocities committed by Stalin pale in comparison to those of Hitler; notably, the siege of Leningrad during which more than a million city residents died of starvation. Through
Show More
 it all,Shostakovich kept writing music, including Symphony #7, The Leeningrad Symphony. It is a miracle he survived at all. MT Anderson better known for his dystopic fiction, has written a firecracker of a book, proving that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ToniFGMAMTC
3.5 stars

I never knew what the Soviet Union went through around WWII. This was almost like an apocalyptic read, with all the horrors they lived. And the kicker is that it’s true.
LibraryThing member lilibrarian
The story of the siege of Leningrad by the Germans during WWII. Composer Dmitri Shostakovitch and his family were there for a good part of it until the government evacuated them. He wrote his seventh symphony about it.
LibraryThing member ToniFGMAMTC
3.5 stars

I never knew what the Soviet Union went through around WWII. This was almost like an apocalyptic read, with all the horrors they lived. And the kicker is that it’s true.

Awards

Original language

English

Original publication date

2015

Similar in this library

More

Amazon.comLibraryThing
Page: 0.7064 seconds