Leningrad, Siege & Symphony

Introduction

Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony was first played in the city of its birth on 9 August, 1942. There has never been a first performance to match it. Pray God, there never will be again. Almost a year earlier, the Germans had begun their blockade of the city. Already many thousands had died of their wounds, the cold, and most of all, starvation. The assembled musicians – scrounged from frontline units and military bands, for only twenty of the orchestra’s 100 players had survived – were so hungry, many feared they’d be too weak to play the score right through. In these, the darkest days of the Second World War, the music and the defiance it inspired provided a rare beacon of light for the watching world.

In Leningrad: Siege and Symphony, Brian Moynahan sets the composition of Shostakovich’s most famous work against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it. In vivid and compelling detail he tells the story of the cruelties heaped by the twin monsters of the twentieth century on a city of exquisite beauty and fine minds, and of its no less remarkable survival. Weaving Shostakovich’s own story and that of many others into the context of the maelstrom of Stalin’s purges and the brutal Nazi invasion of Russia, Leningrad: Siege and Symphony is a magisterial and moving account of one of the most tragic periods in history.

Review

I know the book is widely accredited. For one or another reason I found it difficult to get through. Brian Moynahan has decribed the fights in enormous detail and I found these parts just incredible to read. When describing the performance of the musicians, I found the facts interesting, but not as much as the parts about the siege itself. It’s probably just because I am not interested much in reading about people suffering, while being exploited for propaganda.

At times the book is just impossible to read, but its  hard to explain why this is the case. For one or another reason it’s not an “easy” book to read, on the contrary. Some of my friends came to a similar conclusion. However, this just not make it a bad book.  I think some people will just love it, some others would probably prefer a diferent writing style and they will probably better like other books about the battle. Even though the book is a classic,  other books may just appeal more to you than this one.

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