Frightful Tension
Shostakovich and Igor’ Stravinskii
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Shostakovich and Stravinskii are generally considered representatives of fully contrary musical views. The relationship between the composers, however, is more complex than it appears at first glance. Shostakovich attentively followed the work of his older colleague and admired him as musician – although not as a thinker. Conversely, Stravinskii’s ambivalent attitude towards Shostakovich gave way to an increasingly harsh criticism of Shostakovich as a Soviet “state composer” and of his “primitive” aesthetics.
(Osteuropa 8/2006, pp. 157–161)