Sunday Feature: Shostakovitch and the Battle for Babi Yar

[Serial_Apologist]

On now (I shall have to listen to this later):

Lucy Ask tells the story behind the creation of Dmitri Shostakovitch's Symphony No 13 (nicknamed the Babi Yar), which was inspired by a poem by Siberian-born writer Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933-2017), about the 1941 massacre of 34,000 Jews by Nazi Germany in the Babi Yar ravine located near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. She pieces together the events leading up to the controversial first performance by speaking to people who witnessed it in a Moscow concert hall 60 years ago, including the cOmposer's son Maxim Shostakovitch, the poet's sister Elena Yevtushenko and music critic Iosif Raiskin. Plus input by biographer Pauline Fairclough and pianist Benjamin Goodman.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fwyh

[CallMePaul]

Is the mis-spelling of the composer's name deliberate? he and his son (who lived for a time in the USA) always used the spalling Shostakovich in the west, and in any case it is a better transliteration of the Cyrillic.

[Master Jacques]

Is the mis-spelling of the composer's name deliberate? he and his son (who lived for a time in the USA) always used the spalling Shostakovich in the west, and in any case it is a better transliteration of the Cyrillic.

It is a rather old, discounted (and often) transatlantic rendering of his name. Curiously, it was Britten's preferred spelling (possibly picked up during his American years??) Surprised anyone's using it today, although the BBC no longer has a department regularising such niceties.

I see it is spelt the "familiar" way on the BBC R3 website, though.

[DracoM]

Fine prog IMO

[Petrushka]

I'll catch up with this. Thanks for the tip off.

I have a recording (originally issued on Russian Disc) of what I think is the second performance given on December 20 1962. The tension is palpable in this recording, as if everyone expected to be arrested at any moment or he performance stopped. It's a fascinating historical document and no doubt it features in the programme.

For those wanting the disc it is on Russian Disc RD CD 11 191 though not sure of availability.

[Bryn]

I'll catch up with this. Thanks for the tip off.

I have a recording (originally issued on Russian Disc) of what I think is the second performance given on December 20 1962. The tension is palpable in this recording, as if everyone expected to be arrested at any moment or he performance stopped. It's a fascinating historical document and no doubt it features in the programme.

For those wanting the disc it is on Russian Disc RD CD 11 191 though not sure of availability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-n9NRTZkXM