To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut....
He was just a wisp of undifferentiated nothingness. Then he caught life and his peephole opened on September 25, 1906. Light and sound came roaring in. Voices told him his name was Dmitri Shostakovich. The voices never shut up. Nothing they said could be appealed. Later they told him he was a communist and an atheist.
In 1934 He wrote this wildly exiting and obsession worthy piece. A few years later a big voice by the name of Stalin told him he was "coarse, primitive, and vulgar". They told him he was obsessive, so he would send postcards to himself, just to check the efficiency of the postal system. (I can relate to that).
He joined the Communist party in 1960. His peephole closed on August 9, 1975, and became a wisp of undifferentiated nothingness once again.
One of the best friends I've ever had in this world, closed his own peephole. I will think of him fondly when I listen to this music.
Anne Gastinel and Roger Muraro.
Martha Argerich & Mischa Maisky.
One of the comments to Op.40 IV on YouTube was the following...
"It's like two mad scientists at work!"
