Lost pianos, who'd have thought?
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts
So OK, I decided to read this purely on the romantic view I had in my head. The title just grabbed me. I envisioned a swathe of wonderful pianos populating Dr Zhivago like scenes, sweeping across vast snowy tracts and expansive steppes, deep in dark forests, draped in interesting places, hinting at lost pasts. Maybe some one slightly referencing Kate Busch dancing across and around in a Cathy Come Home sort of way.
But this book turned out to be not my dream.
This is Sophy Roberts searching out the importance of music to the Russian soul, the lost masterfully made pianos left over from before the Revolution are the focus of her pilgrimage into knowing Russia and its music, her obsession. As she states, "There is a covert charm to Siberia." That charm draws her in. Roberts is, "captivated by how marvellous it would be to find one of Siberia’s lost pianos in a country such as this. What if I could track down a Bechstein in a cabin far out in the wilds? There was enough evidence in Siberia’s musical story to know instruments had penetrated this far, but what had survived?"
I found it hard to be upbeat about the Gulag excerpts, given the massive deprivation and dehumanizing that occurred here. Still Sophy's enthusiasm injected music into the dark night of its soul.
In some ways this is a brave and creatively romantic lens through which to view the Russian landscape, it's triumphs and flaws.
Whichever it is, this is a fascinating and very different journey.
A Grove Atlantic ARC via NetGalley
****
So OK, I decided to read this purely on the romantic view I had in my head. The title just grabbed me. I envisioned a swathe of wonderful pianos populating Dr Zhivago like scenes, sweeping across vast snowy tracts and expansive steppes, deep in dark forests, draped in interesting places, hinting at lost pasts. Maybe some one slightly referencing Kate Busch dancing across and around in a Cathy Come Home sort of way.
But this book turned out to be not my dream.
This is Sophy Roberts searching out the importance of music to the Russian soul, the lost masterfully made pianos left over from before the Revolution are the focus of her pilgrimage into knowing Russia and its music, her obsession. As she states, "There is a covert charm to Siberia." That charm draws her in. Roberts is, "captivated by how marvellous it would be to find one of Siberia’s lost pianos in a country such as this. What if I could track down a Bechstein in a cabin far out in the wilds? There was enough evidence in Siberia’s musical story to know instruments had penetrated this far, but what had survived?"
I found it hard to be upbeat about the Gulag excerpts, given the massive deprivation and dehumanizing that occurred here. Still Sophy's enthusiasm injected music into the dark night of its soul.
In some ways this is a brave and creatively romantic lens through which to view the Russian landscape, it's triumphs and flaws.
Whichever it is, this is a fascinating and very different journey.
A Grove Atlantic ARC via NetGalley
****
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