Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan
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Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan
Ebook PDF Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan
In Leningrad: Siege and Symphony, Brian Moynahan sets the composition of Shostakovich’s most famous work-his seventh symphony- against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it. Using a wealth of new material, Moynahan tells the story of the cruelties inflicted by Stalin and Hitler on a city of exquisite beauty and rich cultural history, and the symphony that inspired its survival.
Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan - Amazon Sales Rank: #795826 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-13
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.90" h x 1.60" w x 5.80" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 496 pages
Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan Review "Like a movie camera, [Moynahan] zooms in and out on the besieged civilians, the bitterly cold troops on the city’s edge and the simultaneous efforts of Shostakovich to set these experiences to music from the relative safety of evacuation… This multi-perspective approach makes for a gripping story… Moynahan’s Leningrad: Siege and Symphony vividly brings to life a hero city that refused to die."—New York Times Book Review"A passionate and moving book...nothing short of masterly."—Wall Street Journal"A narrative that is by turns painful, poignant and inspiring"—Minneapolis Star Tribune"Moynahan...is a vivid writer, and his account bulges with the reminiscences and contemporaneous accounts of participants; the accumulation of individual experience sears his narrative while sometimes threatening to overwhelm it. He reaches into the guts of the city to extract some humanity from the blood and darkness, and at its best Leningrad captures the heartbreak, agony and small salvations in both death and survival...Moynahan’s descriptions of the battlefield, which also draw from the diaries of the cold, lice-ridden, hungry combatants, are haunting."—Washington Post"As Moynahan reveals, the real story of the symphony’s genesis and its triumph was more complex and more tragic than is generally understood…Combining a full description of the birth of the Seventh Symphony with a rich and horrifying account of the hell that was Leningrad under siege, this selection brings new depth and drama to a key historical moment”—Booklist (starred review)“The technique, if not the scale, is Tolstoyan . . .The terrible beauty of the book is in its anecdotal detail, and the horror is of a kind that makes you weep but at times approaches comedy . . . It’s certainly hard to imagine reading his gripping, skillfully woven account without emotion.”—Stephen Walsh, Spectator (UK)“Brian Moynahan interweaves three gripping stories in this compelling kaleidoscope of war-ravaged Leningrad: Hilter's 900-day siege, Stalin's purges that decimated the city's professional and cultural leaders and Dmitri Shostakovich's desperate struggle to write his haunting Seventh Symphony. Its performance by half-starved musicians between bouts of German shelling attests to the triumph of the human spirit amidst the greatest upheaval of the twentieth century.”—Angela Stent, author of The Limits of Partnership: US-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century and professor at Georgetown University.“Leningrad: Siege and Symphony is a remarkable achievement. Brian Moynahan holds the reader in suspense while teaching an important chapter in the history of the Second World War. His magnificent tale portrays the terror within and without Leningrad during its heroic defiance of the Nazi conquerors and subtle resistance to its Stalinist masters. Like Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, this is a triumph.”—Charles Glass, author of Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation and The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II“A stupendous story, driven by a furious narrative yet biblical in its thematic confrontations of beauty and evil. It’s vivid in three dimensions: The Red Army’s battles with Hitler’s war machine; the ordeals of the Russian people terrorized by the malevolent maniac in the Kremlin; and throughout the faint but swelling counterpoint of hope as the great Dmitri Shostakovich struggles to write the score of his Seventh Symphony to express the soul of his martyred city . . . This is history to cherish.”—Sir Harold Evans, Editor at Large at Reuters, author of The American Century, and publisher of The Russian Century“Beautifully written and profoundly moving, Leningrad is a stunning, haunting book that has stayed with me long after I turned the last page.”—James Holland, author of Dam Busters“A bold attempt to set the composition of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony within the extraordinary context of its times”—Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday (London)
About the Author Brian Moynahan's books include the much-praised William Tyndale: If God Spare My Life. As a foreign correspondent, he covered fighting in the Far and Middle East and Africa, and was latterly the European Editor of the London Sunday Times.
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Most helpful customer reviews
37 of 40 people found the following review helpful. Leningrad Symphony By S Riaz Subtitled, "martyred by Stalin, starved by Hitler, immortalised by Shostakovich" it is clear before you even open this book that you are in for an emotive read. This is an incredible book about a city besieged by the Germans, starved, under attack, living in fear of their own regime and yet still able to remain defiant. Stalin notoriously disliked Leningrad, believing them bourgeois and distrusting their links with the Romanov family, while Hitler declared that Leningrad 'must disappear utterly from the face of the earth."This, then, is the story of the siege of Leningrad and of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, the 'Leningrad Symphony'; composed partly in the city as the Germans closed in and then finished after the composer and his family were flown to Moscow in 1941. The work was performed in Moscow, London and New York. Could it though, be played in Leningrad itself? It was a huge work, demanding an orchestra of over one hundred musicians. Yet the Leningrad Philharmonia had been evacuated to Siberia and only the Radio Orchestra remained in the city - or what was left of them. The handful of members still alive were weakened by disease, hunger and the cold. Jazz musicians and members of dance or regimental bands were enlisted to play. Many died before the performance and those still alive could only rehearse for minutes at a time, unable to muster the energy to play. Shostakovich stated that, "I wanted to create the image of our embattled country, to engrave it in music.""There has," the author states, "never been a performance to match it." On Sunday 9th August, 1942, the 'Leningrad Symphony' was first played to a city besieged by the Germans since September 1941. The German guns were less than seven miles from the Philharmonia Hall when the concert took place and yet, even under German fire and with a depleted and exhausted orchestra, the residents of Leningrad flocked to the Philharmonia. Skeletons dressed their pre-war finery it was an act of brave defiance. The author recreates this historical event in wonderful detail and explains what it meant - both to the people of Leningrad itself and the rest of the world. For example, it gave the Allies belief in the Russians and the story of their resistance and the performance of the piece (the score flown in over German lines) became a sensation. He also asks what the truth really was. Shostakovich certainly loved his city and cared about it, but even before the Germans arrived it was terrorised by Stalin. A city where even such a seemingly harmless hobby, such as stamp collecting, could be seen as a dangerous and anti Soviet activity.Leningrad suffered terrible horrors under German bombardment as winter set in and food ran out. There was constant shelling, bombs falling, freezing temperatures and terrible hunger. The Germans also suffered from the weather, as the cold froze sentries to death, jammed their weapons and left them suffering and vulnerable in insufficient winter clothing. In Leningrad itself, the author tells terrible, heart rending stories of human suffering, of how people resorted to cannibalism, were starved, frozen and exhausted and yet still the purges, arrests and denounciations of the Stalinist regime continued unabaited; adding even more horror onto an intolerable situation. This then is a brilliant account of that music, that city and that time, which will undoubtedly stay with you for a long time should you read it. If you like this book, and I have no doubt that you will, you might also enjoy the novel The Conductor, which is also about the performance of the Leningrad Symphony.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful. Somewhat of a slog, but very informative By Gregory M. Zinkl Like one of the previous reviewers, I was interested in this book because of the Shostakovich connection. Once you realize that you're reading basically a diary of events, it becomes easier to read. People come and go during the pages at a good clip, I dare anyone to catalog all the names that come through. It wasn't the page turner I had hoped it would be, but Moynahan ends the book well.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Difficult but Great Read By Steve50 I visited St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, for the first and only time in late May, 1992. I was there with other members of SouthWest BrassWorks, the faculty brass quintet at Texas State University. St. Petersburg is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. We were only there for a few days, but performed at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and stayed at the historic Astoria Hotel. When I noted that Brian Moynahan's hardcover book would be released in October 2014 I ordered immediately. I was not disappointed! That said, this was not an easy read. Moynahan's attention to detail and his story telling ability made the horrors of those terrible days come to life. The perspective alternates between following the life of Shostakovich and his writing of the 7th symphony, and of one besieged in Leningrad. Moynahan paints with stark reality the dangers of living in an atheistic society with a nefarious dictator, Stalin, and his perverse henchman, Beria, head of the NKVD, later to become the KGB. He reveals to us what it was like for a sensitive, frail genius like Dmitri Shostakovich to live and work in an environment in which he faced enemies on two fronts, the invading Germans, and the ever watchful eye of Stalin and Beria. Shostakovich became everyman's hero with his 7th Symphony, written during the Siege of Leningrad. On a more personal note, twice Moynahan mentioned A. Anisimov. I wonder if he was related to Boris Anisimov, an elderly gentleman who we met in 1992 and who gave us some of his compositions and arrangements. This book is highly recommended for musicians, historians, and anyone interested in ways people survive in the most difficult of circumstances.
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Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan
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Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan
Leningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich, by Brian Moynahan
