Composer of the Week: Shostakovich

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975): Unplayable

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Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975), Unplayable

Shostakovich: Soviet lackey... or undercover dissident?

Who was Dmitri Shostakovich? A faithful Soviet lackey... or a cunning secret dissident?

Dmitry Shostakovich, like his home country of Russia, was a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. From the very beginning of his career, he pushed the boundaries, but under Stalin’s stifling regime, experimental artists were enemies of the state, and Shostakovich was at the top of the wanted list. The composer was forced to censor his work and betray his own morals to survive - or was he?  

Some say Shostakovich was Stalin’s faithful lackey; others read dissident messages in his music. This week, Donald Macleod traces five turning points in the composer's career, from his explosive debut to his dramatic exile, as he attempts to decode the mystery that surrounds Shostakovich. 

In today’s programme, we hear the story of Shostakovich’s First Symphony. Admitted to the Conservatoire while still just a child and battling ill health, his debut made a splash for all the right reasons – and the wrong ones too…

Piano Concerto No. 2 In F Major, Op. 102: II. Andante 
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko 
Boris Giltburg, piano

Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10: I. Allegretto & II. Allegro 
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko 

Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10: III. Allegretto & IV. Allegro 
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko 

Symphony No. 2 in B Major, Op. 14 “To October”: II. Crotchet & III. Chorus 
Prague Symphony Orchestra and Prague Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Maxim Shostakovich 

Produced by Alice McKee in Cardiff.

Composer of the Week: Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)

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 offers an informative guide to the life and work of Dmitry Shostakovich.

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Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)

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