From this year’s Revolution Festival, Peter Kwasiborski, introduces Shostakovich.
Classical music may seem like a world apart from revolutionary politics. But it isn’t so. The legacy of Dmitri Shostakovich has been a subject of a veritable war over the last half a century since his death.
As an opponent of Stalin’s regime, claims abound of him being an anti-communist, and against everything that the USSR ever stood for. On the other side, due to him deciding to stay in the country and write works that resonated with its needs, some paint him as a Stalinist stooge and a puppet for the CPSU. None of these are true in the slightest.
This talk will elaborate on Shostakovich – his life and music, and on his true legacy – being the musical conscience of the genuine ideals of October Revolution. The legacy which should be upheld and cherished by the Bolsheviks of today.
