Gregory Haimovsky: a pianist's odyssey to freedom,

摘要

A remark of Dostoevsky's, that 'Beauty will save the world' appears to be emblematic of this extraordinary record of Russian pianist Gregory Haimovsky's spiritual journey. The journey 'to freedom' in the title appears to represent more an inner odyssey than an actual escape from the spirit-crushing, bureaucratic machine of post-Stalinist Russia. Haimovsky left Russia for Israel in 1972, and narrates a prosaic process of applying to the KGB for permission, and being allowed to board a plane. The book is more concerned with the inner freedom achieved by an artist with a special talent of whom, had geopolitical circumstances been different, the world might have heard much more.