Testimony (1988 film)

Testimony: The Story of Shostakovich is a 1988 British musical drama film directed by Tony Palmer and starring Ben Kingsley, Sherry Baines and Robert Stephens. The film is based on the memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) as dictated in the book Testimony (edited by Solomon Volkov, ISBN 0-87910-021-4) and filmed in Panavision. Some consider the book to be a fabrication.

Awards

• Winner of the Gold Medal for Best Drama - New York International Film Festival
• Winner of the Fellini Prize - UNESCO
• Winner of the Critics Prize - São Paulo International Film Festival

Cast

• Ben Kingsley as Dmitri Shostakovich
• Sherry Baines as Nina Shostakovich
• Magdalen Asquith as Galya Shostakovich
• Mark Asquith as Maxim Shostakovich
• Terence Rigby as Stalin
• Ronald Pickup as Tukhachevsky
• John Shrapnel as Zhdanov
• Robert Reynolds as Brutus
• Vernon Dobtcheff as Gargolovsky
• Colin Hurst as Stalin’s Secretary
• Joyce Grundy as Stalin’s Mother
• Mark Thrippleton as Young Stalin
• Liza Goddard as The English Humanist
• Peter Woodthorpe as Glazunov
• Robert Stephens as Meyerhold
• William Squire as Khachaturian
• Murray Melvin as The Film Editor
• Robert Urquhart as The Journalist
• Christopher Bramwell as Vanya
• Brook Williams as H. G. Wells
• Marita Phillips as Madam Lupinskaya
• Kenneth Holland as pall bearer / grave digger

Music

The London Philharmonic Orchestra

• Leader: David Nolan
• Conductor: Rudolf Barshai

The Golden Age Singers

• Chorus Master: Simon Preston

Soloists:

• Margaret Fingerhut
• Yuzuko Horigome
• John Shirley-Quirk
• Felicity Palmer
• Howard Shelley
• The Chilingrian Quartet

See also

• Stalinism
• Testimony (book)
• Solomon Volkov

Further reading

• Volkov, Solomon: Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator; Knopf 2004. ISBN 0-375-41082-1
• Fay, Laurel: Shostakovich versus Volkov: Whose Testimony? – The Russian Review, vol. 39 no. 4 October 1980 pp. 484–493.

External links

• Testimony at the Internet Movie Database

Dmitri Shostakovich Operas and operetta Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Moscow, Cheryomushki The Nose Orango The Big Lightning (unfinished) The Twelve Chairs (unfinished) The Gamblers (unfinished) Ballets The Bolt The Golden Age The Limpid Stream Symphonies No. 1 in F minor No. 2 in B major (To October) No. 3 in E♭ major (The First of May) No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in D minor No. 6 in B minor No. 7 in C major (Leningrad) No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in E minor No. 11 in G minor (The Year 1905) No. 12 in D minor (The Year 1917) No. 13 in B♭ minor (Babi-Yar) No. 14 No. 15 in A major Concertos Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor Violin Concerto No. 2 in C♯ minor Cello Concerto No. 1 in E♭ major Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major Orchestral works Suite from The Nose Suite from The Golden Age Suite from The Bolt Suite from The Limpid Stream Suite from Encounter at the Elbe Suite from The Gadfly Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 Suite for Variety Orchestra Tahiti Trot Festive Overture in A major for Orchestra Novorossiisk Chimes, the Flame of Eternal Glory for Orchestra Film music The New Babylon Alone Golden Mountains Counterplan The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda The Youth of Maxim Girl Friends The Return of Maxim The Vyborg Side Friends The Great Citizen Zoya Simple People The Young Guard Pirogov Michurin Meeting on the Elbe The Fall of Berlin Belinsky The Unforgettable Year 1919 The Gadfly Five Days, Five Nights Sofiya Perovskaya Hamlet King Lear Vocal music Anti-Formalist Rayok The Execution of Stepan Razin From Jewish Folk Poetry Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok Song of the Forests Suite on Finnish Themes Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti The Sun Shines over Our Motherland Chamber music String quartets No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B♭ major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F♯ minor No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in A♭ major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D♭ major No. 13 in B♭ minor No. 14 in F♯ major No. 15 in E♭ minor Other Cello Sonata in D minor Piano Quintet in G minor Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Quartet Movement in E♭ major (c. 1960s) Viola Sonata Violin Sonata Piano music Twenty-Four Piano Preludes and Fugues Children's Notebook (6) Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor Three Fantastic Dances Named for Shostakovich 2669 Shostakovich London Shostakovich Orchestra Shostakovich Peninsula Related articles List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich DSCH motif Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Literaturoper Maxim Shostakovich Muddle Instead of Music Neoclassicism Post-romanticism Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Testimony The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin Wihuri Sibelius Prize Portal:Classical music