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Joined January 13th, 2016
style For Soviet citizens, SHOSTAKOVICH was ‘our’ composer. I came to his Fifth Symphony only after exploring the Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh and Thirteenth symphonies. The Fifth was a coup defoudre. It speaks about the darkest and most tragic years of the Soviet regime - a period I know about from my parents. Every family had people who were damaged by Stalin’s repressive machine. How is it that music can tell you more about life and history in a few minutes than a lot of books? Even now when I …