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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Composer of the Week: Soviet Russia (1953-1991)

Composer of the Week: Soviet Russia (1953-1991): Episode 1: After Stalin: The Thaw

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Composer of the Week: Soviet Russia (1953-1991)

Episode 1

Episode 1: After Stalin: The Thaw

Soviet Russia (1953-1991)

After Stalin: The Thaw

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Soviet Russia (1953-1991), After Stalin: The Thaw

Donald Macleod presents music from 1953, the year of Stalin's death.

Donald Macleod charts Soviet music from 1953 - the year of Stalin's death.

Marking the centenary of the 1917 Revolution, Donald Macleod continues his exploration of Russian music with a week of programmes charting Soviet music from the death of Stalin to the dissolution of the Union in 1991.

In the company of Professor Marina Frolova-Walker, we discover a musical culture travelling down two parallel roads. Communist ideals continue to find their place in music, through film, drama and orchestral music. But cultural outsiders plough a furrow too, determined to explore new musical techniques, often at the risk of being ostracised by their peers and the establishment. 

The week begins in 1953, the year of Stalin's death. The so-called 'Thaw' begins, and with it musicians increasingly test the water in their responses to changing times. Composers like Georgy Sviridov present an image of a 'paradise lost', and Galina Ustvolskaya turn to the most ascetic sounds of the avant-garde. And amongst it all, Dmitri Shostakovich continues down a treacherous path of trying to be true to his musical and political ideals in a climate where an iron fist is never far above the composer's head. 

Khachaturian: Sword Dance of the Young Thracians (from Spartacus)
Scottish National Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

Sviridov: Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin (excerpt)
Alexei Maslennikov (tenor)
Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir
Leningrad State Philharmonic Society Symphony Orchestra
Yuri Temirkanov, conductor

Bunin: Viola Concerto (excerpt)
Rudolf Barshai (viola/director)
Moscow Chamber Orchestra

Ustvolskaya: Preludes 10-12
David Arden (piano)

Shostakovich: Symphony No.11, Op.103 (finale)
USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (conductor).

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod unravels the masterpieces of the musicians from the USSR

Donald Macleod unravels the lives and masterpieces of the musicians who shaped musical life from the USSR's inception in 1917 through to its dissolution in 1991

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Episode 1: After Stalin: The Thaw

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