“What Music That Was!”
Leningrad 1941–42: Concerts, Compositions, Artists
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Everybody knows the story of Dmitrii Shostakovich’s famous Leningrad Symphony and the history of its performance. But the history of music in the besieged city has many additional facets. Famous soloists performed despite the artillery fire and filled the halls; composers assimilated events into their works; even laymen could not be dissuaded from musical performances during the winter of hunger in 1941–42. In the long run, this devotion to music was not least among the factors that saved the city and its inhabitants.
(Osteuropa 8-9/2011, pp. 199–214)