How Shostakovich Changed My Mind

‘For Stephen Johnson, Shostakovich's music is nothing less than a matter of life and death. Johnson, a tireless and passionate advocate of the man and his works, explores how the fraught music of Shostakovich shepherded the Soviet Union through the dark times of Stalin and the Great Patriotic War - and also helped to pull Johnson, suffering from clinical depression, out of the suicidal depths of despair.’ Classical Music BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson explores the impact of Shostakovich’s music during Stalin’s reign of terror and writes – at the same time – of the extraordinary healing effect of music on the mind. As someone who has lived with bipolar disorder for most of his life, Johnson looks at neurological, psychotherapeutic and philosophical findings, and reflects on his own experience of how Shostakovich’s music helped him survive the trials and assaults of mental illness. Hardback, clothbound with ribbon marker 172 pages