The Lost Pianos of Siberia cover art

The Lost Pianos of Siberia

In Search of Russia’s Remarkable Survivors

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The Lost Pianos of Siberia

By: Sophy Roberts
Narrated by: Catherine Bailey
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell.

Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos - grand instruments created during the boom years of the 19th century and humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood.

How these pianos travelled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers and exiles. That stately instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle.

But this is Siberia, where people can endure the worst of the world — and where music reveals a deep humanity in the last place on earth you would expect to find it.

©2019 Sophy Roberts (P)2019 Penguin Audio Russia Soviet Union Piano Imperialism

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Critic reviews

"A sparkling debut by an outstanding and gifted author. A brilliant guide to Russia of the past and the present, set around an extraordinary search for the heart, soul and lost keyboards of centuries gone by." (Peter Frankopan)

"An extraordinary, cadenced journey into music, exile and landscape." (Edmund De Waal)

"A masterpiece of modern travel literature with words that sing from its pages. A definitive exploration of Russia's wild east." (Levison Wood)

All stars
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Interesting in parts, this clearly became a personal voyage and travellog with the pianos as a pretext. Predictable and repetitive historical context. Once in a while a great character or incident lifted the narrative, but overall it was too long. the narration was dull.

Good in parts but too long. Narrator monotonous.

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The narration sounded too fast, like someone was rushing through it. If you slowed it down it didn’t sound right either.
Some fascinating stories presented in an interesting order but spoiled by the narration.

Interesting

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an amazing description of Siberia and its people as well as showing the stamina of the author

beautiful and also educational

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Brilliant writing. Travel story that made me want to get up and go there myself..

Magnificent journey

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Sophy Roberts made a good and lively narrator for this except for one huge thing which is not necessarily her fault, but why, oh why, did those who produced this recording not get advice on how to pronoune the Russian names? Almost every place name or person's name that she utters is wrong. If you have an interest in the subject, it is likely that you know some Russian or may at least have heard these names pronounced properly so it is very frustrating and distracting. Lake Baikal, which should be pronounced Bai-KAL (stress on KAL) was pronounced 'Bykle', the Christian name Pavel which is pronounced 'PAH-vyel' was pronounced by her as PavELLE. The famous singer Galich (pronounced GAH-leech) was pronounced GA-lick; the surname Fedorovna pronounced 'FyeDORovna' was pronounced 'Fedder-OVna', and there are loads and loads more, too many to mention here. I found this extremely irritating as it would have been so easy to check these out with a Russian speaker. The same thing happened with the recording of 'A Gentleman in Moscow' where the common word 'dacha' (pronounced 'DATCH-a' was called 'dakka'. Annoying.

Would have been a 5-star but for the Russian.

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