Saturday Evening Movie-- Close Up Shostakovich: A Portrait Of The Russian Composer

[Click through to YouTube.]

I watched it and read many of the comments, from people very familiar with Shostakovich. Some complain that the biographer quoted has been discredited, but it still stands as a good account of the basic story, and many family members appear in the film.

One thing I noticed that has nothing to do with Shostakovich—the men during the Stalin era in the former Soviet Union greeted one another with cheek kisses?

I never noticed that before. It felt like Mandala effect, a little. But more likely, I just never noticed it.

I’ve always wanted somebody with a true ear for classical music to tell me what they hear in his 5th symphony—the one that Russian people heard as their story finally told, while the Stalin crowd took as their ideological conquering of Shostakovich.

The 5th Symphony of Shostakovich has its own, lengthy Wikipedia page. (Are we in a simulation?) 🫣

“The astonishing thing about his 5th Symphony is that it could so easily have been trite, obedient, hollowed out music (like those painfully forgettable film scores he did in the late 1940s). Instead he produces an extraordinarily rich and meaningful masterpiece, written through with fear and hope and survival - and sheer love of life.”

—YouTube comment.

”Your business is rejoicing. Your business is rejoicing.”

Poor guy.