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): Cornered

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Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)

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

Shostakovich is pushed to the edge and makes a shocking decision.

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 final programme, Shostakovich finds himself backed into a corner, forced to make a decision that shocks and mystifies those closest to him. 

Jazz Suite No. 2: VI. Waltz 2 
Russian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky 

String Quartet String Quartet No. 7 In F. Sharp Minor, Op.108: I., II. & III. 
Emerson String Quartet 
David Finckel, cello
Lawrence Dutton, viola
Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violin

Hamlet, Op 116: The Flutes Play, Ophelia's Descent Into Madness, & The Duel - The Death of Hamlet - Hamlet's Funeral 
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky 

String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110 
Emerson String Quartet 
David Finckel, cello
Lawrence Dutton, viola
Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violin

Symphony No. 13 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 113 “Babi Yar”: IV. Fears 
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mariss Jansons
Sergei Aleksashkin, bass vocals
Chor Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, chorus

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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