The title of this highly absorbing book is deceptively general, for the story of Gregory Haimovsky (b. 1926), one of the least well known of the great pianists of the twentieth century, is not so much about his emigration from Russia, but mainly an account of his early career and, most importantly, his heroic attempts to introduce the music of Olivier Messiaen to the Soviet Union of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, where Stalin’s legacy was very much alive, both in the stultifying dogma of Socialist Realism and, still more seriously, in the continued conviction of Russian supremacism and virulent antisemitism…[Marissa] Silverman has successfully performed a labour of love which, it must be hoped, will not only paint a picture of a great man, but also of a whole era in Soviet life, both provincial and metropolitan, through a sensitive and perceptive musician’s eyes. It deserves to be widely read. –Arnold McMillin, University of London for THE SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW
For a non-musicologist such as myself, this is an accessible book which tells a compelling story. Haimovsky’s personal qualities of courage and integrity are convincingly displayed, and the Russian