“It Seems That I Myself am a Jew”
On the “Jewish Element” in the Work of Shostakovich
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
To the extent that there exists an inclination to suspect the music of Dmitrii Shostakovich categorically of being potentially critical of the Soviet regime, is allegedly inferred without difficulty by the use of Jewish musical idioms: an expression of identification with the fate of the Jews, code for repression. In fact, the circumstances are more complicated. Such concrete meanings are hardly clear and can only be imagined by the listeners.
(Osteuropa 8/2006, pp. 75–92)