Here is the first full-length biography of the Soviet composer who is perhaps the most controversial figure in the field of contemporary music. Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg the year after the abortive revolution of 1905, and spent his boyhood and adolescence in the midst of the unrest and turmoil of the World War period and the Bolshevik Revolution, It was his mother--an extraordinary woman and an able musician--who kept the family together after the death of the father. She assumed the role of breadwinner and was Dmitri's constant companion and his first piano teacher. Out of her determination to give her talented son his chance was born the Shostakovich First Symphony. From the time of its first public performance, the young composer has been recognized as one of the most promising musicians of our time. This fine biography has made a thorough and sympathetic study of the family background and of the composer himself, and offers an interesting explanation for the sensational developments of Shostakovich's recent years, which have been marked by the banning of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mzensk, and by the attacks of the Soviet press. With the production of his Fifth Symphony came his return to popularity; the reception given his Seventh was a triumph.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Originally published: Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2015.

With the composer's consent, the manuscript was smuggled out of Soviet Russia - but Shostakovich, fearing reprisals, stipulated that the book should not appear until after his death. Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been the subject of controversy, some suggesting that Volkov invented parts of it, but most affirming that it revealed a profoundly ambivalent Shostakovich which the world had never seen before - his life at once triumphant and tragic. Either way, it remains indispensable to an understanding of Shostakovich's life and work. Testimony is intense and fiercely ironic, both plain-spoken and outspoken.