Episodes
| Series | Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 01 | Turning Inward | 20150914 | This week, Donald Macleod views Shostakovich through the prism of his string quartets. Today, the composer withdraws from the risky world of public art to the inward sphere of the quartet. Shostakovich came relatively late to the string quartet; he wrote his first in the year following the 5th Symphony, which had marked his rehabilitation after the furore whipped up by Stalin over the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District - 'Muddle instead of music', screamed Pravda - and the suppression of his angular, epically-proportioned 4th Symphony. A bad review from the Soviet state's official mouthpiece wasn't just an inconvenience; if you were considered guilty of 'formalism', or of not reflecting 'the life of the people', you could be whisked away in the dead of night and never seen again - or not for a long time, anyway. So after what must have been a truly terrifying period for Shostakovich, it's not particularly surprising, even once the 5th Symphony had been pronounced an official success, that he should have decided to take a holiday from the limelight and immerse himself in the rarified world of the string quartet - beyond the interest and under the radar of Soviet officialdom. Shostakovich's 1st String Quartet is a charming if relatively unambitious work, described by the composer as 'joyful, merry, lyrical' and even 'springlike', though a vein of melancholy winds its way through the first three movements. The story goes that Shostakovich's Piano Quintet started life as a second string quartet - with the composer adding a piano part when he realized that touring with it would allow him to travel! How Shostakovich withdrew from public art to the inward sphere of the quartet. |
| 2015 | 02 | Music For The Bottom Drawer | 20150915 | Donald Macleod views Shostakovich through the prism of his string quartets. Today, music for two pianos; music in praise of Stalin; and a quartet so subversive it had to be banned. Shostakovich's father died young, so at 16, to help make ends meet, the aspiring composer had to take a job as a cinema pianist. As it turned out, this thankless drudgery stood him in good stead for his later work writing music for film; he was prolific, producing almost 40 scores in as many years. His music for The Fall of Berlin, a lavishly-funded Mosfilm epic, is by turns evocative and highly dramatic. If only the film - a self-styled 'artistic documentary' that rewrites the history of the Second World War with Stalin as the central character - lived up to the quality of the music! The same year he made that musical contribution to Stalin's burgeoning cult of personality, he also composed one of his most intensely beautiful string quartets, the 4th - Haydnesque in its clarity of expression and suffused with the spirit of Jewish folk music. Shostakovich's musical timing was faultless but his political timing was not so good. At that time the r退gime was engaged in a crackdown on the Jews - or 'unpatriotic, rootless cosmopolitans', as Pravda called them - and the head of the Music Division of the Committee for Artistic Affairs determined that the new quartet should be consigned for the time being to the composer's bottom drawer, where it remained till after the Glorious Leader's death. Around the time of the 4th Quartet's eventual premi耀re, Shostakovich wrote his Concertino for two pianos, for his 16-year-old son Maxim and a classmate to play. It's a simple but brilliantly effective little piece whose mock-serious opening soon gives way to unbounded levity. Music for two pianos, a work in praise of Stalin and a quartet so subversive it was banned |
| 2015 | 03 | The Unwilling Communist | 20150916 | Donald Macleod views Shostakovich through the prism of his string quartets - today, the 7th quartet, in memory of his wife Nina; and the 8th, in memory of himself. After a long courtship, Dmitri and Nina Shostakovich had married in secret, in the face of opposition from both their mothers. It was a stormy relationship that quickly became an 'open' marriage, but it survived more than 20 years till Nina's sudden and unexpected death from cancer of the colon in December 1954. Shostakovich felt unequal to the task of bringing up two teenage children on his own, so he promptly set about finding a conjugal replacement. His first preference, Galina Ustvolskya, was a former composition student with whom he had become intimately involved; she turned him down. His second choice, a young woman called Margarita Kainova, accepted. Apparently the proposal was made by phone; perhaps nowadays he'd have sent a text. The marriage - which Shostakovich announced to his children after the event - failed within a few years. It probably didn't help that Margarita - who worked for the Soviet Youth Movement - appreciated neither Shostakovich's musical nor biological offspring. The year after the divorce, he wrote his ultra-concise, elliptical 7th String Quartet, to commemorate what would have been Nina's 50th birthday. Later the same year - 1960 - Shostakovich was staying in the spa town of Goerlitz, near Dresden, supposedly working on the score for a film by his friend Lev Arnshtam - Five Days, Five Nights. In the event, he made little headway with the film but was pitched headlong into a new quartet - his 8th - which he completed, in an extraordinarily concentrated burst of creative activity, in just three days. It's an explicitly autobiographical work that seems to have affected Shostakovich deeply. The tart filling in this quartet sandwich is his sardonic Satires, subtitled 'Pictures from the Past', to ensure that no-one could think the composer - who after years of resistance had finally, and with a colossal sense of self-disgust, joined the Communist Party - was intending to satirize the present state of Soviet society. Donald Macleod explores Shostakovich's String Quartets No 7 and 8. |
| 2015 | 04 | Looking Death In The Face | 20150917 | Donald Macleod views Shostakovich through the prism of his string quartets. Today, the ailing composer's thoughts turn to death - in the 14th Symphony, the music for King Lear, and the 'downright strange' 13th Quartet. In 1969, the muscular-wasting condition Shostakovich had been suffering from for a number of years was finally given a name: poliomyelitis. A stay in a Siberian clinic brought some relief, but from now till the end of his life, his time was increasingly punctuated by spells in hospital. It was during one of these spells that he composed his 14th Symphony, a song-cycle for soprano, baritone, strings and percussion on the subject of death - to underline the point, a senior party official, Pavel Apostolov, died during the premi耀re. The following year, Shostakovich wrote the music for Grigory Kosintsev's film of King Lear, material from which found its way into the 13th String Quartet - also completed during a hospital stay. It's a bleak, melancholy and unsettling work cast in a single, 20-minute arc, or as the composer described it to his colleagues in the Composers' Union, 'a short, lyrical quartet with a joke middle' - the 'joke middle' being a passage in which Shostakovich directs all but the first violin to strike the bellies of their instruments with the wood of their bows. What do these knocks signify? ... the irregular ticks of a malfunctioning clock? ... death knocking at the door? ... the final nailing-down of the coffin lid?... Donald Macleod discusses the composition of Shostakovich's unsettling String Quartet No 14 |
| 2015 | 05 LAST | The Two Shostakoviches | 20150918 | Donald Macleod views Shostakovich through the prism of his string quartets. Donald Macleod views Shostakovich through the prism of his string quartets; his 15th expressed powerfully in music the dissidence he was incapable of expressing in his public life. Since the official battering he had received for his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Shostakovich had been at pains to toe the party line. During the Stalin era this was understandable enough - it was a matter of sheer survival. But after Stalin's death there was, in relative terms, something of a thaw, and dissident voices began to be heard. Shostakovich's was emphatically not one of them - in fact he became more than ever the party loyalist, accepting all sorts of official posts and duties and even adding his name to an open letter attacking the nuclear physicist and civil-rights activist Andrei Sakharov. The only language in which Shostakovich was prepared to express dissidence was the elusive, ambiguous, indefinable language of music. So there grew up in Russia the notion of 'the two Shostakoviches' - one daring and progressive, the other, frankly, a coward. Shostakovich subtitled the first movement of his 15th Symphony 'The Toyshop', but it quickly becomes clear that this creepy, eerie toyshop is no place for children. The profoundly melancholy 15th String Quartet - one of the composer's last major works - is a relentless procession of six Adagios, in which Shostakovich completes the journey to the interior he had begun with his 1st String Quartet nearly four decades earlier. Donald Macleod focuses on Shostakovich's String Quartet No 15. |
| 2019 | 01 | Complicated Love | 20190520 | Today, Donald Macleod takes a look at the complicated beginning to Shostakovich's relationship and marriage to Nina, and how he celebrated the birth of his daughter with champagne and a run-through of his Fourth Symphony round the piano with friends. And we'll find out the answer to an important question: is Shostakovich a cat or a dog person? This week we're exploring Dmitri Shostakovich the family man. We are turning our attention to the middle of the Russian composer's life, hearing about his relationship with his two children (Galina, born in 1936, and Maxim, born in 1938) and his first wife Nina, who he was married to from 1935 until her death in 1954. Suite for Variety Orchestra - Waltz 2 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Riccardo Chailly, conductor Six Romances on Texts by Japanese Poets, Op. 21 No. 2. Before the Suicide No. 4. The First and the Last Time No. 5. Hopeless Love Verena Rein, soprano Jascha Nemtsov, piano The Tale of the Silly Little Mouse Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly Symphony No 4 in C major Op 43 (Mvmts 1 & 2) Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conductor Producer: Amy Wheel, BBC Cymru Wales Marriage. It's complicated... and how Shostakovich celebrated the birth of his daughter. |
| 2019 | 02 | Family Life In A Time Of Upheaval | 20190521 | Today, Donald Macleod meets the Shostakovich family at a difficult time when they were wartime evacuees, and we learn the tale of the symphony that was almost lost in a train's toilet. His children attend their first concert, and we hear Shostakovich's Second Piano Sonata, dedicated to his friend and former piano teacher. This week we're exploring Dmitri Shostakovich the family man. We are turning our attention to the middle of the Russian composer's life, hearing about his relationship with his two children (Galina, born in 1936, and Maxim, born in 1938) and his first wife Nina, who he was married to from 1935 until her death in 1954. 6 Romances on Verses by English Poets Op 62 - 1. Sir Walter Raleigh to His Sonne Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Thomas Sanderling, conductor Gerald Finley, baritone Sonata No 2 in B minor Op 61 Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano Symphony No 7 in C major Leningrad' Op 60 (4th mvmt) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko, conductor Producer: Amy Wheel, BBC Cymru Wales Donald Macleod meets the Shostakovich family at a time when they were wartime evacuees. |
| 2019 | 03 | Retreat | 20190522 | Presenter Donald Macleod joins the Shostakoviches in a country retreat set up by the USSR Union of Composers, the 'House for Composers', where Shostakovich and his family spent memorable summers, with time for play and relaxation and important time for the composer to write in a converted hen house. We hear part of his Second String Quartet, and a movement of his Eighth Symphony (in a recording with Shostakovich's son conducting), both written at this retreat, and his Children's Notebook, written for his daughter to perform. This week we're exploring Dmitri Shostakovich the family man. We are turning our attention to the middle of the Russian composer's life, hearing about his relationship with his two children (Galina, born in 1936, and Maxim, born in 1938) and his first wife Nina, who he was married to from 1935 until her death in 1954. Children's Notebook Op 69 (1. March) Dmitri Shostakovich, piano Children's Notebook Op 69 (2-7) Rimma Bobritskaia, piano String Quartet 2 in A major Op 68 (mvmnt 1 & 2) Emerson String Quartet Piano Trio No 2 Op 67 (4th mvmt) The Nash Ensemble Symphony No 8 in C minor Op 65 (5th mvmt) London Symphony Orchestra Maxim Shostakovich, conductor Producer: Amy Wheel, BBC Cymru Wales Join Shostakovich and his family in a country retreat where he set aside time to compose. |
| 2019 | 04 | An Important Call | 20190523 | Shostakovich was composing for the big screen to earn money to support his family, writing pieces to comply with Party guidelines, and composing works for the concert hall that were hidden for many years, and only premiered after Stalin's death. In today's programme we hear of the terrifying moment Shostakovich received a phone call from Stalin himself. Donald Macleod presents Shostakovich's Fourth String Quartet, and a movement from his First Violin Concerto. This week we're exploring Dmitri Shostakovich the family man. We are turning our attention to the middle of the Russian composer's life, hearing about his relationship with his two children (Galina, born in 1936, and Maxim, born in 1938) and his first wife Nina, who he was married to from 1935 until her death in 1954. Pirogov (Finale) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Riccardo Chailly, conductor Violin Concerto No 1 in A minor Op 77 (1st mvmt) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor Lisa Batiashvili (violin) The Song of the Forests Op 81 (part 1 & 2) Mikhail Kotliarov, tenor Nikita Storojev, bass New London Children's Choir Brighton Festival Chorus Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor String Quartet 4 Op 83 Emerson String Quartet Producer: Amy Wheel, BBC Cymru Wales We hear about the terrifying moment Shostakovich received a phone call from Stalin. |
| 2019 | 05 LAST | Now They'll Devour Him | 20190524 | Today Donald Macleod takes a look at Shostakovich's relationship with his first wife, Nina, and we learn how he coped when she was gone. We hear his Second Piano Concerto - a piece he wrote for his 19-year-old son Maxim - in a recording with the composer on the piano, and his Seventh String Quartet, which Shostakovich wrote in his wife Nina's memory, to commemorate what would have been her 50th birthday. This week we're exploring Dmitri Shostakovich the family man. We are turning our attention to the middle of the Russian composer's life, hearing about his relationship with his two children (Galina, born in 1936, and Maxim, born in 1938) and his first wife Nina, who he was married to from 1935 until her death in 1954. Festive Overture Op 96 Royal Scottish National Orchestra Neeme J䀀rvi, conductor Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 (4th mvmt) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko, conductor Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102 Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Fran瀀aise Andr退 Cluytens, conductor Dmitry Shostakovich, piano String Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, Op. 108 Borodin String Quartet Youth (Romance) from The Gadfly Janine Jansen, violin Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Barry Wordsworth, conductor Producer: Amy Wheel, BBC Cymru Wales Donald Macleod takes a look at Shostakovich's relationship with his first wife, Nina. |
| 2023 | 01 | Unplayable | 20230116 | 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 programme, we hear the story of Shostakovich's First Symphony. Admitted to the Conservatoire while still just a child and battling ill health, his debut made a splash for all the right reasons - and the wrong ones too - Piano Concerto No. 2 In F Major, Op. 102: II. Andante Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko Boris Giltburg, piano Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10: I. Allegretto & II. Allegro Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10: III. Allegretto & IV. Allegro Symphony No. 2 in B Major, Op. 14 `To October`: II. Crotchet & III. Chorus Prague Symphony Orchestra and Prague Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Maxim Shostakovich Produced by Alice McKee in Cardiff. Shostakovich: Soviet lackey... or undercover dissident? |
| 2023 | 02 | Game | 20230117 | 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 programme, we hear about the fateful night that Stalin paid a visit to the opera, and Shostakovich's career as a composer was changed forever - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, Act 1: Interlude & Act 2: Interlude Orchestre De L'Op退ra Bastille, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung The Nose, Act 2: Interlude and Scene 6 Orchestra Of The Moscow Chamber Theatre, conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, Act 2 Scene 5 & Act 3 Scene 6 The London Philharmonic Orchestra and The Ambrosian Opera Chorus, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich Dimiter Petkov, high bass Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano Nicolai Gedda, tenor Symphony No. 4 The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda Produced by Alice McKee in Cardiff. Stalin goes to the opera. |
| 2023 | 03 | Spectacle | 20230118 | 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 programme, we hear how Stalin offered Shostakovich an opportunity to rescue his reputation - at great personal cost. Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op 47: II. Allegretto London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op 47: IV. Allegro non troppo Russian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich Violin Concerto No. 1 In A Minor, Op. 99: I. Nocturne. Moderato Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy Boris Belkin, violin From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op.79: III. Lullaby, IV. Before A Long Separation, V. A Warning, IX. A Good Life Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink Ortrun Wenkel, Contralto Elisabeth S怀derstr怀m, Soprano Ryszard Karczykowski, Tenor Song of the Forests Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Brighton Festival Chorus, Vladimir Ashkenazy Produced by Alice McKee in Cardiff. Shostakovich attempts to save his reputation. |
| 2023 | 04 | Puppet | 20230119 | 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. The death of Stalin should have meant rebirth for Shostakovich, but in today's programme, we find the composer caught up in a new power struggle. Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93: II. Allegro Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67: III & IV Yo-Yo Ma, cello Emanuel Ax, piano Isaac Stern, violin Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93: IV. Andante - Allegro The Gadfly Suite, Op. 97a: VI. Galop, VII. Introduction, X. Nocturne London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maxim Shostakovich Produced by Alice McKee in Cardiff. The composer is caught in a new power struggle. |
| 2023 | 05 LAST | Cornered | 20230120 | 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 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. The composer makes a shocking decision. |