I spent one summer when I was 13, reading about Russia and a book entitled ‘The lives of the great composers’ …..many Russians.
I LOVED Russia. Knew nothing of the political implications of the Revolution. Just loved the Soul of Russia.
The 2017 Proms ended on 9/9. They had celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution throughout the Programme.
One performance broadcast the day before the Last Night, was Shostokovitch 5th Symphony. This was composed in 1937 at the height of Stalin’s purges.
A small point…Valery Gergiev conducted the Marinsky Orchestra from the floor not from the rostrum.
A sense of those times … those aspirations…sounding in the music.
Acknowledgements : Royal Academy of Arts – Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932
Poster: The Bolshevik – Boris Kustodiev 1920
www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/revolution-russian-art