Analyzes the Russian royal family's distorted relationship with art throughout three centuries, providing coverage of such topics as how the poet Pushkin shared a power struggle with Alexander I and how Dostoevsky transitioned from a monarchy supporter to the tsarist cause.
"In a sweeping cultural history of Russia from the rise of the house of Romanov in 1613 to its downfall at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1917, Solomon Volkov effortlessly unwinds the twisted relationship between art and the royal family. Throughout the Romanov dynasty, Russia'…
"In a sweeping cultural history of Russia from the rise of the house of Romanov in 1613 to its downfall at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1917, Solomon Volkov effortlessly unwinds the twisted relationship between art and the royal family. Throughout the Romanov dynasty, Russia's…
What were Dmitri Shostakovich's views about his homeland? Until 1979 the Soviet Union's official composer was considered a staunch supporter of Joseph Stalin and his successors. This assumption was then challenged with the publication of Testimony, ostensibly the composer's memo…
Shostakovich, the man and his music
This volume of essays by musicians, composers and critics embraces all his principal works, and discusses the historical circumstances and the political and cultural atmosphere of their composition. Among the contributors, Christopher Rowland and Alan George of the Fitzwilliam Q…