'this collection makes a very worthwhile contribution to Shostakovich studies, for the brilliance of some of the contributions, for the new information, and for the excellent photographic illustrations' -SEERThis volume presents recent research into Dmitry Shostakovich's life (1906-1975) and work by leading scholars, and aims to place the composer in a variety of different contexts: musical, literary, and historical. The contributors are musicologists, Russian literature specialists, biographers, and cultural historians, and their diverse fields of expertise are reflected in the interdisciplinary nature of the materials collected here, contributing substantially to our knowledge of the composer.