Testimony

THE MEM OIRS OF

DMITRI

HOSTAKOVICH

"The tragic horror of a trapped genius."-Yehudi Menuhin as related to and edited by

SOIDMON VOLKOV

Translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis

At Shostakovichs Moscow apartment: (from the left) the composers wife Irina, his favorite student, Boris Tishchenko, Dmitri Shostakovich, Solomon Volkov. On the wall, a portrait of Shostakovich as a boy by Boris K ustodiev. The inscription on the photograph reads: "To dearSolomonMoiseyevich Volkov in fond remembrance. D. Shostakovich.13XI1974. A reminder of our conversations about Glazunov, Zoshchenko, Meyerhold. D.S."

LIMELIGHT EDITIONS

NEW YORK

TESTIMONY

The Memoirs of

Dmitri Shostakovich

as related to and edited by

Solomon Volkov

Translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis

All photographs except where otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Solomon Vollr.ov.

First Limelight Edition, October 1984

Copyright© 1979 by Solomon Volkov. English-language translation copyright© 1979 by Harper&: Row, Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Proscenium Publishers Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry &: Whiteside Limited, Toronto.

Originally published by Harper&: Row, Publishers, Inc.

ISBN 0-87910-021-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

Designer: Gloria Ade/sun

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Shostakovich, Dmitrii Dmitrievich, 1906-1975.

Testimony: the memoirs o.f Dmitri Shostakovich.

Includes index.

I. Shostakovich, Dmitrii Dmitrievich, 1906-1975. 2. Composers-Russia-Biography. L Volkov, Solomon. II. Title.

ML410.S5!1A!I 1984

780'.92'4 [BJ

84-4399

Contents

Preface x1