Lev Lebedinsky
Encyclopedia
Lev Lebedinsky was a Russia
n musicologist.
He is perhaps most well known today as a friend and oft-quoted confidant of composer Dmitry Shostakovich. His part in the debate over Shostakovich's memoirs and musical intentions created a certain amount of conflict with the late composer's family after his death in 1975.
He is quoted, perhaps most controversially, claiming that around the time of writing his dour and autobiographical Eighth Quartet
, Shostakovich was suicidal — that Lebedinsky removed a bottle of sleeping pills from the composer's pocket.
Lebedinsky's testimony is questioned by some because of his previously-held positions - as an agent for the Bolshevik
secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky’s notorious Cheka
, and as a major leader of the RAPM (Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) which officially opposed Shostakovich and other Soviet composers in the 1920s.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n musicologist.
He is perhaps most well known today as a friend and oft-quoted confidant of composer Dmitry Shostakovich. His part in the debate over Shostakovich's memoirs and musical intentions created a certain amount of conflict with the late composer's family after his death in 1975.
He is quoted, perhaps most controversially, claiming that around the time of writing his dour and autobiographical Eighth Quartet
String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor was written in three days . It was premiered that year in Leningrad by the Beethoven Quartet....
, Shostakovich was suicidal — that Lebedinsky removed a bottle of sleeping pills from the composer's pocket.
Lebedinsky's testimony is questioned by some because of his previously-held positions - as an agent for the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky’s notorious Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
, and as a major leader of the RAPM (Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) which officially opposed Shostakovich and other Soviet composers in the 1920s.