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Solomon VolkovMusicologist, music journalist, writer
Date of Birth: 17.04.1944
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Biography of Solomon Volkov
Solomon Volkov is a Soviet and American musicologist, music journalist, writer, and blogger. He was born in 1945 and lived in Riga from 1945 to 1958, after his parents returned from evacuation. He attended the Emil Darzins Riga Special Music School at the Latvian State Conservatory, studying violin from 1950 to 1958. In 1958, he transferred to the Leningrad Special Music School for Gifted Children at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory.
Volkov completed his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory and in the early 1970s, he began collaborating with composer Dmitri Shostakovich while working on the book "Young Composers of Leningrad" (published in 1971). Shostakovich wrote the preface for the book. In 1973-1974, Volkov served as the senior editor of the Soviet Union Composers' Union's magazine "Sovetskaya Muzyka," where he wrote annotations for books, concert reviews, and more.
In 1976, Volkov emigrated to the United States. He is married to pianist and photographer Marianne Volkova. He is a member of the editorial board of the Russian-American journal "Chaika" and a member of the independent jury for the "Liberty" award, which is given annually since 1999 for contributions to Russian-American cultural connections.
Controversy over the Book "Testimony"
In 1979, Volkov published the book "Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov" in the United States. He claimed that the book contained Shostakovich's accounts of his life and work, recorded during their meetings in Leningrad from 1971 to 1974. The book included Shostakovich's criticisms of some of his colleagues and expressed negative views of the Soviet government.
After the book's publication, there were protests from the USSR accusing Volkov of falsification. Shostakovich's son Maxim, his wife Irina, and several composers, including Veniamin Basner, Moisei Weinberg, Kara Karayev, Yuri Levitin, Boris Tishchenko, and Karen Khachaturian, protested against the book. They emphasized that Shostakovich was loyal to the Soviet regime. However, musicians such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Vladimir Ashkenazy, who were in emigration at the time, expressed support for the book prepared by Volkov.
Later, after leaving the USSR, Volkov changed the tone of his comments about the book. Maxim Shostakovich acknowledged the accuracy of the portrayal of his father in "Testimony," and in some cases, he was involved in the reissues of the book prepared by Volkov. However, none of the composers who signed the protest letter against Volkov's book have stated that their views have changed, even after the dissolution of the USSR. Boris Tishchenko, who introduced Volkov to Shostakovich, maintained his position that the book was fabricated in 1992.
Alla Latynina, a literary critic, concluded in 2005 that while the content of Volkov's book "Testimony" is mostly reliable, its authenticity remains unproven. To prove the authenticity of the conversations with Shostakovich, Volkov provided some pages signed by Shostakovich. However, Laurel Fay discovered that the signed pages were copies of Shostakovich's newspaper articles and reviews published many years before the alleged conversations took place. Volkov presented them as texts dictated to him by Shostakovich. Supporters of Volkov explain these coincidences as a result of Shostakovich's exceptional memory. Polina Fairclough noted that after Fay's publications, a small group of music journalists launched an unprecedented smear campaign against her (mainly in the UK) orchestrated by Feofanov and Ho in the US.