Karl Miller wrote:

>There are also many wonderful scores by Shostakovich.

Indeed there are and it seems likely that many are considerably better than
the films.  Hamlet and King Lear are fairly accessible but we rarely have a
chance to see any other films for which he wrote the music.  One of our TV
channels is running a series of Shostakovich films - some documentaries,
Cheryomushki, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.  O wise and admirable program buyer!
The most recent concerned some of Shostakovich's symphonies inasmuch as
they were supposed to musically badmouth Stalin.

The documentary asserted that after the 1948 nonsense (Khrennikov to this
day thinks he was right), Stalin ordered Shostakovich to write some film
scores, including The Fall of Berlin which I've heard a number of times and
assumed to be about the fall of Berlin.  Perhaps in parts it is, but the
few minutes we were shown depicted Stalin arriving in triumph after the
event and disembarking from a plane, thus causing an outbreak of ululation,
swooning, slogan shouting and bad acting by the assembled populace.  The
actor playing Stalin did at least look like him but appeared somewhat
embarrassed, as well he might.  As propaganda, I imagine even Goebbels
would have blushed at the sight of it.  If this is the sort of travesty
poor Shostakovich was forced to put his name to, perhaps all we should do
is listen to the music and be glad that the films are not easily
obtainable.

Richard Pennycuick
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