Shostakovich on Trial: from Lady Macbeth to the Fifth Symphony

This lecture focuses on one of the watershed moments of Soviet music history: the censure of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and the composer’s path through reform to rehabilitation. The Shostakovich story was only the tip of the iceberg, and almost all Soviet composers had to adjust their aesthetic and style at this point, unless they were prepared to languish in obscurity and poverty. Shostakovich’s Songs on the Texts of English Poets is performed by Bass Ed Hawkins and the pianist Ceri Owen. A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker with a performance by Edward Hawkins (Bass) and Ceri Owen (Piano) The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the oppor