Music From The Whirlwind: a play about the life and times of Dmitri Shostakovich
Book Details
Author(s)
John Aitken
Publisher
Prickly Pear Playscripts
ISBN / ASIN
B00GHILDVE
ISBN-13
978B00GHILDV2
Sales Rank
#1,746,403
Marketplace
United States 🇺🇸
Description
Music from the Whirlwind is an insightful, searingly funny and poignant exploration of the relationship between the oppressive Russian leader Josef Stalin and the revolutionary composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The play journeys through old St Petersburg where Shostakovich grew up, and into the life and mind of a great artist caught up in a madman’s vision. John Aitken asks how this particular artist survived a regime where writers, musicians, actors and painters vanished daily only to turn up later as tortured corpses.
The play chronicles the life of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, looking at his life and the state of the USSR under the rule of Stalin. Through the composer we are able to look at the role of the artist when working under a political system they abhor but risk death if their works overtly reflect their attitude.
The play begins with Shostakovich as an old man remembering himself as a young music student. It takes you into the excitement of the first performance of his first symphony and later his meeting with Nina Varzar, who was to become his wife. Shostakovich is at the height of his genius and yet is constantly plagued by fear of being taken by Stalin's henchmen. Much of his work is banned and the newspapers call him 'Enemy of the People Shostakovich". Yet to his astonishment he remains alive while all around him colleagues disappear.
The play is underscored and intercut with extracts from many of the great symphonies of Shostakovich as well as with some of his compositions for violin, cello and piano.
Editorial Reviews:
West Australian playwright John Aitken's powerful expose of the dangerous relationship between Dmitri Shostakovich and the Soviet dictator Josif Stalin...
Aitken is a committed educator, the appeal of whose work varies greatly according to the interest and veracity of his subject. When he has historical material between his teeth as he decidedly has this time, he marshals his sources, references and extrapolations with imagination and skill.
Stalin was at heart a small town gangster. The morbid fascination of his court, even more than that of his fellow monster Hitler's, was it's intimacy. The insomniacs, the hypochondriacs, Stalin knew them all, trusted none of them and disposed of them as he pleased.
For Shostakovich, caught between the impulse to explore what was happening to his country and its people through his music, and the need for him and his family to survive, it was at once a long nightmare and a unique creative spur. Aitken tells the composer's story with good, precise writing, a little more formal than life-like sometimes, but compelling nevertheless.
- David Zampatti, The West Australian
John Aitken has written a fascinating account of a remarkable talented musician who worked during The Terror wrought by Stalin
- The Daily Telegrapf
Such is the power of the script and the depth of the music that we share the intense emotional intensity, alternating between fear and relief that constantly surrounded this enigmatic composer.
- David Solomon, The West Australian
The play chronicles the life of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, looking at his life and the state of the USSR under the rule of Stalin. Through the composer we are able to look at the role of the artist when working under a political system they abhor but risk death if their works overtly reflect their attitude.
The play begins with Shostakovich as an old man remembering himself as a young music student. It takes you into the excitement of the first performance of his first symphony and later his meeting with Nina Varzar, who was to become his wife. Shostakovich is at the height of his genius and yet is constantly plagued by fear of being taken by Stalin's henchmen. Much of his work is banned and the newspapers call him 'Enemy of the People Shostakovich". Yet to his astonishment he remains alive while all around him colleagues disappear.
The play is underscored and intercut with extracts from many of the great symphonies of Shostakovich as well as with some of his compositions for violin, cello and piano.
Editorial Reviews:
West Australian playwright John Aitken's powerful expose of the dangerous relationship between Dmitri Shostakovich and the Soviet dictator Josif Stalin...
Aitken is a committed educator, the appeal of whose work varies greatly according to the interest and veracity of his subject. When he has historical material between his teeth as he decidedly has this time, he marshals his sources, references and extrapolations with imagination and skill.
Stalin was at heart a small town gangster. The morbid fascination of his court, even more than that of his fellow monster Hitler's, was it's intimacy. The insomniacs, the hypochondriacs, Stalin knew them all, trusted none of them and disposed of them as he pleased.
For Shostakovich, caught between the impulse to explore what was happening to his country and its people through his music, and the need for him and his family to survive, it was at once a long nightmare and a unique creative spur. Aitken tells the composer's story with good, precise writing, a little more formal than life-like sometimes, but compelling nevertheless.
- David Zampatti, The West Australian
John Aitken has written a fascinating account of a remarkable talented musician who worked during The Terror wrought by Stalin
- The Daily Telegrapf
Such is the power of the script and the depth of the music that we share the intense emotional intensity, alternating between fear and relief that constantly surrounded this enigmatic composer.
- David Solomon, The West Australian
