[Larry Lucido]

I was expecting to read about Solzhenitsyn’s side gig as a session musician. He’d have fit right in with ZZ Top.

[Carry_Okie]

Ahhh, the flowery lingo of the classical music buff! Yet somehow, he starts out with this clunker: A figure of immense complexity, he “managed to navigate a difficult situation with great prudence and political astuteness.” This sentence is an insult to euphony, in wont of a synonym, and culminating in a fart. He could have used a little "acumen," don't you think?

[married21]

Thank you for posting this.

[heylady]

In 1960, Shostakovich was performing with the Boston Symphony orchestra. I sent him a fan letter. As a 12-year-old, I couldn’t understand why he didn’t reply. Now I realize he probably never even got my letter. My 6th grade teacher had formerly been the school’s music teacher. She played a recording of A Polka from the Golden Age. I loved it and sent my Father all over to find a recording. I would play it all day long, finally my Mother banished me to the basement. I must have played it a great deal when my kids were growing up because at one of Granddaughter’s concerts another school played a piece, and my daughter knew Shostakovich had composed it.