This and That

One of the loveliest and haunting pieces of music I have recently heard is Dimitri Shostakovitch 's music,"From Jewish Folk Poetry". Prokofiev did something similar but not nearly as authentic as S. did. I know that Shotakovitch despised Prokofiev's music. I do not know whether that went both ways. I believe that Shostakovitch was one of those Soviets who believed that P. ran off to Paris for several years because he could not stand the musical competition in Russia. The irony for Prokofiev was that when he got to Paris he was in competition with Igor Stravinsky. That was also a competition he could not win. I do believe that S. suffered much more under Stalin's watchful eye and ear than P. did. There was a small period of time when S.'s music was not heard in Soviet concert halls. According to some, Shostakovitch always had his bags packed to go to Siberia. He was under constant stress. There is a lot of mythology about S. One view is that in a few of his pieces for Chamber music there is hidden meaning which was suggestive of anti-Stalin repression.