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As Shostakovich survives the climate of fear; forever striving to keep Stalin and the NKVD at bay, he is increasingly assailed by recurring nightmare-like voices and images from his turbulent, affrighted past.

It's difficult to imagine more telling portrayals of key figures -- Shostakovich, Stalin, Tukhachevsky and grown daughter Gayla -- than those by Kingsley, Rigby, Pickup and Rowena Parr.

Terence Rigby's Stalin frequently is interwoven with historical footage of the man himself and the actor unerringly defines the menace and foreboding that was only fully revealed to the West after Stalin's passing.

At various times Ben Kingsley has appeared as Mahatma Gandhi (1982), Silas Marner (1985), Simon Wiesenthal (1989), Potiphar (1995) and Otto Frank (Anne's father, 2001). Here -- as in his Gandhi portrayal -- he emerges as the virtual embodiment of Dmitrij Dmitrievich [watch and listen -- chapter 16, 1.49:38-1.51:20].

While the composer's predicament deepens and his dilemmas aggregate Kingsley's appearance, the ironic mutterings, his demeanor -- even his stance -- reveal the composer's inner torture with stunning acting mastery.

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