No musician of consequence, apart from the Stalinist apparatchik Tikhon Khrennikov, ever regarded Shostakovich as a Soviet puppet. Yet Fay and her fellow revisionists, with the curious support of Oxford University Press, generally accept only signed statements. Many of these will have been made under mortal pressure. Eye-witness accounts are all too often ruled out of court. There are persuasive attractions to this point of view.
Music is, after all, just music.
If a piece is any good it will speak to the hearts of an audience who know no more about the composer than his name and opus numbers. A masterpiece will always transcend time and place. Extra information may enhance your appreciation, but it does not affect the notes on the page. With the rise of the great conductor, perceptions changed. Gustav Mahler, the first composer who was also a world-famous conductor, introduced inflexions of irony and satire to his symphonies , urging conductors to bend certain phrases and suggest a subversive undercurrent.