The Sound of Utopia (eBook)

Musicians in the Time of Stalin

Michel Krielaars (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
336 Seiten
Pushkin Press (Verlag)
978-1-80533-003-5 (ISBN)

Infos

When Stalin came to power, making music became a dangerous endeavour. Russian composers now had to create work that served the socialist state, and all artistic production was scrutinized for potential subversion. The Sound of Utopia offers a vivid portrait of Soviet musicians and composers struggling to create art in this climate of terror. Some successfully toed the ideological line, diluting their work in the process; others ended up facing the Gulag or even death. With pace and verve, Michel Krielaars tells stories of intrigue, betrayal and stunning reversals of fortune, from the gay popular singer arrested at the height of his popularity to the blacklisted composer who wrote music on scrap paper in a forced labour camp.Dramatic and immersive, this is a rich exploration of the absurdity and the richness of Soviet musical life - and a tribute to those who crafted sublime melodies under the darkest circumstances.

Autor

Michel Krielaars is a writer and a journalist specialising in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, who currently writes for the Dutch daily newspaper NRC. He studied history and Russian at the University of Amsterdam and was a correspondent in Russia between 2007 and 2012. Krielaars has written novels, short-story collections and several books about Russia, including Through Chekov's Glasses and Travels through Russia, which won the Bob den Uyl Prize. He lives in Amsterdam.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 16.1.2025
• Übersetzer: Jonathan Reeder
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Schlagworte: Antony Beevor • artistic repression • biographies of composers • censorship in USSR • composers in danger • composers Stalin • cultural oppression • dictatorship and creativity • Gulag and musicians • Music and Politics • music biography • music under dictatorship • popular music Russia • Prokofiev and Shostakovich • repression music • Russian History • Russian Music • Shostakovich • Simon Sebag Montefiore • Socialist Realism • Soviet artistic control • Soviet composers • Soviet cultural politics • Soviet era nonfiction • Soviet history • Soviet music • Soviet music history • Stalin and the arts • Stalinist Terror • totalitarianism and art • twentieth century music history
• ISBN-10: 1-80533-003-9 / 1805330039
• ISBN-13: 978-1-80533-003-5 / 9781805330035