Xavier Güell, former orchestra conductor, cultural manager, and novelist, has just published in Editorial Galaxia Gutenberg, the third volume of the tetralogy 'Cuartetos de la guerra: Shostakóvich contra Stalin'.
The first one was dedicated to Béla Bartók, the second to Richard Strauss and this one to Dimitri Shostakovich, a composer who, together with Gustav Mahler, are the best-known composers of the Soviet Union.
The presentation to the press took place in a well-known Madrid restaurant near the Madrid Ateneo on May 9 and, as on other occasions, passion and emotion flooded the author, who did not disappoint when speaking about what he considers his best work to date and which is written with the structure of an opera in three acts, taking place in eight hours in an attempt by Shostakovich to finish his final work, Sonata for viola and piano. The novel has an opening prelude, three acts, an intermezzo separating the second from the third act, a coda, and a finale. His most musical work, although, up to now all of them are.
