Composer Dmitri Shostakovich died 50 years ago and in this special three-hour programme Jon Tolansky commemorates Shostakovich’s life and oeuvre with valuable recollections from artists who knew him and discussed his music with him. The programme includes a very rare archive-recording of Shostakovich himself speaking. In this survey of Shostakovich’s output musical extracts include Symphonies Nos. 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15; his operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District; his first Violin Concerto; his String Quartets Nos. 8 and 13; the Piano Quintet; the Piano Trio No. 2; the oratorio The Song of the Forests; the song cycle Seven Romances on Verses by Alexander Blok; and his private satire Rayok.
RTÉ lyric fm, Friday 14th November, 7pm-10pm
