Shostakovich trove imperiled
The owner of an archive relating to composer Dmitri Shostakovich says it is gathering dust in an Estonian apartment and disintegrating by the day.
Mark Matsov -- son of conductor Roman Matsov, who worked closely with Shostakovich during the Soviet censorship years -- fears the collection of 700,000 manuscripts and documents and 1,000 hours of concert recordings could be lost forever.
Struggling to pay the rent on the archive’s home in Tallinn, Matsov, who lives in Moscow, says the collection is in danger of becoming homeless and could perish if not digitally recorded.
Experts have yet to examine the archive and determine its cultural value, though Matsov says they are free to do so.
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