Shostakovich Part I and II
In this two-part series, musicologist Matthew Heck guides us first through an historical context that sheds light on Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s music – focusing on his string quartets. The second talk will take a closer look at musical and extra-musical stylistic elements through his Third Quartet.
Part I: Beyond the Political: Listening to Shostakovich’s Quartets
Glorified in Russia as a faithful Soviet servant, then lionized in the West as a closet dissident, Dmitri Shostakovich has consistently been played as a pawn in a geo-political chess match. His biography carries so much ethical baggage that it threatens to smother the music that established him as one of the 20th century’s most compelling voices in the first place. While we must understand his relationship to the Stalinist regime that dictated his fate, the ideological battle over his legacy, fueled by cold war prejudices, leaves little room to explore, appreciate, and understand the kinds of subjective expression in his work that we value in the compositions of so many other composers. Shostakovich’s fifteen quartets, deeply personal works that attracted less government attention and thus required fewer concessions to a restrictive Soviet aesthetic, give us a window into the introspective and philosophical vectors of Shostakovich’s art. In this talk, Matthew offers an overview of Shostakovich’s life as well as the issues surrounding his reception and nests these insights in a chronological survey of the composer’s chamber music.
Recommended reading:
Wendy Lesser: Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets
“ A paean to Shostakovich’s quartets and their significance… Literate, sensitive and imaginative.” – New York Times Book Review
“Wendy Lesser, a quiet giant of the world of criticism, most recently turned her far-reaching curiosity on the chained genius. In Music for Silenced Voices, she gives us a biography written within the narrative framework of his fifteen quartets. Lesser’s premise is that the quartets are Shostakovich’s truest music – that they are “a kind of ‘diary’ that records ‘the story of his soul,’ as his widow puts it – they offer unparalleled access to the composer’s inner life.” – Alli Carlisle, Full Stop.
Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time
Barnes is the author of twenty previous books, and has received the Man Booker Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and more.
“A condensed masterpiece that traces the lifelong battle of one man’s conscience, one man’s art, with the insupportable exigencies of totalitarianism.” – The Guardian“
A tense and elegant study of terror, shame and cowardice, of a celebrated artist capitulating to power, yet on his own terms… Barnes interweaves the painful and the sublime to achieve an epic orchestral effect.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune
Matthew Heck