Marina Frolova-Walker

Well, what an excellent well researched book. Ms Frollova Walker tells us about the Stalin prize awarded to artists and scientists in the 40s and 50s in the USSR. It was a system of recognitionand reward intended to influence and guide people towards Socialit ism in their work. She focuses on the music awards which were made to composers and performers. She has done a thorough job of working through the meticulously kept Soviet archives to the extent of reading Stalin's own scrawled marginal notes on agendas and lists. It gives us a fascinating insight into the music of the time and how it was viewed, enjoyed or not, and developed. She throws particular light on Shostakovich who is often portrayed as someone oppressed by the system and whose entire output is regarded as hidden criticism of the society in which he lived. But Shostakovich was an active participant and was rewarded well by the prize system. His fame meant he could not hide.… (mehr)