Buchvorstellung mit Elena Yakovich

In the organizer's words:

Publisher Arnt Cobbers in conversation with filmmaker and author Elena Yakovich

Irina Antonovna Shostakovich gives the first comprehensive account of her life with the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). In 2021, Elena Yakovich conducted extensive interviews with Shostakovich's third wife, who was an important support and creative partner to him in the last thirteen years of his life. This impressive book was created from the material of the film published in 2022. Irina Antonovna tells of her childhood in besieged Leningrad, her first meeting with Shostakovich, his marriage proposal and his illness, but also of political reprisals. The focus is also on the composition process of the thirteenth symphony "Babi Yar", Stravinsky's visit to Moscow and Shostakovich's encounters with Benjamin Britten, Anna Akhmatova, Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Further previously unpublished memories from prominent contemporary witnesses round off the book.

The filmmaker Elena Yakovich studied journalism in her home city of Moscow. She has made more than 100 films and television programs and has won numerous prizes at international film festivals. Her focus is on sensitive documentaries about personalities such as Joseph Brodsky, Andrei Sakharov and Anna Akhmatova. She has lived in Tel Aviv since 2022.

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