This is one of the most gripping stories of the 20th century — a secret struggle between an artist and a man of power that lasted nearly two decades, with musical scores serving as the battlefield.

Shostakovich is hailed as the second-greatest figure in Russian musical history, after Tchaikovsky. Yet, despite his extraordinary talent, this outstanding musician spent his entire life living in constant fear under the tyranny of Stalin’s Red Terror. In his later years, according to the memoir Testimony smuggled out by Solomon Volkov, Shostakovich reportedly said: “The prospect of execution was a theme that tormented me my entire life.”

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