"I am an
admirer of Solomon Volkov.
There is nothing false
there [in
Testimony].
Definitely the style of speech is
Shostakovich's
- not only
the choice of words, but the way they are
put
together."
GALINA SHOSTAKOVICH
composer's
daughter
Interview with Allan Ho and Dmitry Feofanov
1996
"It's all true."
RUDOLF
BARSHAI
conductor, friend of
Shostakovich
BBC
Radio 3 interview 1983
"Everything
in Testimony is true. Everything."
IL'YA
MUSIN
conductor, friend of
Shostakovich
Gramophone 1997
"I have no doubt that it's true."
KURT
SANDERLING
conductor, friend of
Shostakovich
DSCH1996
"Basically
everything that is stated there is true."
MSTISLAV
ROSTROPOVICH
cellist, conductor, friend
of
Shostakovich
Interview with Elizabeth Wilson 1989
"Authentic from its first to its last
letter."
ANDREI BITOV
novelist
Shostakovich's
Gulag and Memorial 1991
"I
have no doubts about the authenticity of these confessions."
VERA
VOLKOVA
musicologist
melos
1993
"I regard this book as one of the
most
important publications devoted
to the composer, and its
authenticity
does not raise any questions.
There is no doubt about it.
I am ready
to put my signature
under every word of it. This is the
truth about
Shostakovich."
LEV LEBEDINSKY
musicologist,
friend of Shostakovich, co-author of libretto to
Rayok
melos 1993
"I
read the book
with excitement, unable to put it down. I reread it,
reflected on
it, compared it with my own materials (diaries, letters,
and
clippings). I checked it with statements made by
Shostakovich's
friends
and, finally, with my own memories. From every
angle, I
found myself
contemplating the same picture - exactly what I
had
seen happening
around him, even inside him, at the beginning of
the
'60s."
DANIEL ZHITOMIRSKY
musicologist,
friend of Shostakovich
Daugava 1990
"It was with the greatest agitation that I
read
Shostakovich's memoirs, prepared by Solomon Volkov.
Much of
what
comes as a surprise to the Western reader was not
a surprise for
me.
I knew many things and guessed many others."
KYRILL
KONDRASHIN
conductor, friend of
Shostakovich
The Interior Shostakovich 1980
"The conductor Kyrill Kondrashin has wholeheartedly
endorsed
the book and I have been privately informed through a
reliable
source
in the Soviet Union that it is indeed
authentic."
GERALD ABRAHAM
musicologist
The Times
Literary Supplement 1982
"Most
of Testimony, I'd say, corresponds to the truth."
YURI
TEMIRKANOV
conductor
DSCH
1995
"What I read in that book is
what I
hear in his music.
To me that's the important issue.
The
spirit is true."
SEMYON BYCHKOV
conductor
BBC-2 TV interview 1991
"My views are identical with Ian MacDonald's views
(on
Testimony).
He really understands what happened, and in
the
end he says
what I said and what Rostropovich and
Vishnevskaya
said,
and what Maxim said in the end. As far as the
character
and image of Shostakovich are concerned, I'm sure
Testimony
is true to life."
VLADIMIR
ASHKENAZY
pianist, conductor
DSCH
1991
"Exceptionally important in
acutely describing how the
composer
found himself entangled in the
mechanisms of a totalitarian
system,
and his dependence on the foibles
of a morally corrupt
musical milieu
directed by Tikhon Khrennikov. Even
if we contest its
authenticity, its
value is no less inestimable for
those interested
in musical biography..."
KRZYSZTOF
MEYER
composer, friend of Shostakovich, author of
Dimitri Chostakovitch
(1994)
Ibid.
"In the light of
all we know today about the inhuman terror
the
communists maintained
in Russia for seventy years, you may say that
Testimony is a
rather moderate document. This lack of criticism in
the
wide
political perspective speaks in favour of the book's
authenticity."
TORSTEN EKBOM
musicologist
melos
1993
"The book by
Solomon Volkov
was considered an authentic document
without any
reservation during
the last few years of the Soviet system.
The legend
that circulated
earlier, insinuating that the book was
a falsification,
was
completely disposed of, though it is
still disturbing some
Western
minds."
DETLEF GOJOWY
musicologist,
author
of Dimitri Schostakowitsch (1983)
melos
1993