Ein unbekanntes Genie: Der Symphoniker Alexander Lokschin. Monographien - Zeugnisse - Dokumente - Würdigen by M. Lobanova E. Kuhn (review)

Abstract

546 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 'escapism'. Language offers a means of return and a place of refuge that functions as an alternative home to the one that has been lost. Bozena Shallcross, however, approaches this notion of 'escapism' in a new and interesting way. These three authors' Ithaca, she argues, was to be found in works of art, discovered on their travels in exile, which presented them with a series of significant epiphanies or illuminations. She even calls their various journeys 'epiphanic': 'blissful or bleak but [... ] always endowed with a "transfiguring perceptual power", a power that goes beyond transforming travel and can transform the traveler's world and life' (p. xiv). What is more, she contends that 'it is not by accident that Brodsky, Herbert, and Zagajewski, writers who opposed totalitarianism, should introduce the narrator as a solitary wanderer, a flaneur, for whom the act of seeing is his basic modus operandi. In their separate accounts, alone in crowds of tourists, they celebrate the primacy of visualization, the capacity which, in turn, prompts their epiphanic insight' (p. xviii). Using small brushes rather than broad strokes, she dedicates the three chapters of her volume to each individual writer and their 'epiphanic' experience of Western art. Shallcross explores the role of various paintings (Dutch on Zagajewski and Herbert), edifices (Greek on Herbert), and even a whole city (Venice on Brodskii) in each writer's experience of emigration, focusing on the importance of artistic visualization in their creative journeys. No attempt is made, however, to emphasize the connections between Zagajewski, Herbert and Brodskii, and thus the volume disappointingly lacks an intertextual analysis of their work. In spite of this, Shallcross's commentary is lucid and dynamic, and even sometimes quite poetic, as if informed by the language and perspective of each of these great emigre poets. Department of SlavicLanguagesandLiteratures ILYA KUTIK Northwestern University,Illinois Lobanova, M. and Kuhn, E. (eds). Ein unbekanntes Genie.Der Symphoniker Alexander Lokschin. Monographien-eugnisse Dokumente Wiirdigen. Studia Slavica Musicologica, 26. ErnstKuhn, Berlin, 2002. X+ 236 pp. Notes. Musical illustrations. Chronology. Discography. Bibliography. Indexes. ?44.95 (paperback). IT is no exaggeration to call the composer AleksandrLokshin (I920-87) an unknown genius, for the cruel vagaries of Soviet culturalpolicies suppressed his talent for most of his life and he died largelyforgotten in his own country and not yet known in the West. Although he is musicallyvery different,it is easy to compare his fate to that of his younger and far better known contemporary, Alfred Schnittke, also a victim of the Soviet system, who, by contrast,achieved greatpopularitybefore his death. It may be hoped thatthis book will inspire concert promoters, record producers and musical opinion formers to increased efforts to give Lokshin the place he deserves in the musicalpantheon. He undoubtedlydeservesit. ErnstKuhn, both an editor and the publisherof thisvolume, has produced many other books on neglected music from Eastern Europe. Here he has REVIEWS 547 assembled an impressivecollection of musicians and others eager to analyse Lokshin'smusic and commemorate his name, aswell as severalothervaluable historicaldocuments. The majorityof the materialis translatedby Kuhn from Russiansources,but its assemblyin one compact volume is a veryworthwhile enterprise. Now it must be hoped that a further translation will make the materialavailableto Anglophone readers. The book is divided into seven parts. The first consists of the composer's shortautobiography(i 982) with two supplements(1986 and I998 -the latter written by his widow), and also an essay he wrote in I98I on his music and creativeplans. PartTwo iswrittenby the Hamburgscholarandleading expert on Lokshin,MarinaLobanova, underthe title 'The Composerand His Time', outlining Lokshin's fate as an aesthete, protester and victim of the regime whose political and culturalatmospherehe found so uncongenial. PartThree addresses his work directly: the former Moscow scholar Irina Lavrent'eva (I93I-8I) discusses in detail an important aspect of Lokshin's oeuvre, the style of his writing for voice and orchestra;Evgeniia Chigareva (Moscow) highlights the distinctive features of his symphonic work; Tat'iana Gellis (Cologne) analyses the composer's frequently used technique of 'tsitatareplika ' (the answering of a musically set verbal text by purely orchestral means), taking as her example the important Songsof Gretchen (usuallyknown in English as SongsofMargaret) to verses from Goethe...