Soviet composer and pianist (1906-1975)
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Com a Suite for Variety Orchestra, Dmitri Shostakovich fez muito mais do que “música leve”. Ele criou uma obra que ri dos poderosos, dança com os oprimidos e pisca para os atentos.Logo após a Primeira Guerra Mundial, a Europa Ocidental caiu sob o feitiço dos estilos musicais populares americanos. O jazz, em especial, trouxe um ingrediente indiscutível para a formação de uma linguagem musical cada vez mais colocada a serviço do comentário social. Com suas infusões de ritmo, improvisação e leveza, o jazz representava tanto entretenimento e fuga quanto uma forma de emissão de julgamentos morais, seja de maneira flagrante ou velada.Na União Soviética, entretanto, o jazz era visto com desconfiança. Considerado uma importação ocidental indesejada, Stalin decretou que toda a “música leve” estaria sob controle estatal direto. Mesmo sob essa vigilância, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) ousou. Ele compôs duas suítes em estilo jazzístico — datadas de 1934 e 1938 — que prestavam homenagem aos estilos populares, desafiando, com ironia e astúcia, o regime.Até recentemente, uma peça intitulada Suite for Variety Orchestra (Suíte para Orquestra de Variedades), composta por oito movimentos, era equivocadamente identificada como a Jazz Suite No. 2. Na verdade, essa suíte foi provavelmente compilada após 1956, usando temas que Shostakovich já havia composto para filmes (como The First Echelon, de 1956), balés e peças teatrais.Apresentado por Aroldo Glomb com Aarão Barreto na bancada. Seja nosso padrinho: https://apoia.se/conversadecamara RELAÇÃO DE PADRINS Aarão Barreto, Adriano Caldas, Gustavo Klein, Fernanda Itri, Eduardo Barreto, Fernando Ricardo de Miranda, Leonardo Mezzzomo,Thiago Takeshi Venancio Ywata, Gustavo Holtzhausen, João Paulo Belfort , Arthur Muhlenberg e Rafael Hassan.
We're taking a musical detour this week as Patrick throws a little classical music into your ears. All week, he's going to be counting down his top 10 classical jams! Number six is a piece of modern classical (sort of) music from Steve Reich and number five is a string quartet from Russian master Dmitri Shostakovich. Rockin' the Suburbs on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or other podcast platforms, including audioBoom, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon, iHeart,Stitcher and TuneIn. Or listen at SuburbsPod.com. Please rate/review the show on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends. Visit our website at SuburbsPod.com Email Jim & Patrick at rock@suburbspod.com Follow us on the Threads, Facebook or Instagram @suburbspod If you're glad or sad or high, call the Suburban Party Line — 612-440-1984. Theme music: "Ascension," originally by Quartjar, next covered by Frank Muffin and now re-done in a high-voltage version by Quartjar again! Visit quartjar.bandcamp.com and frankmuffin.bandcamp.com.
In this episode, we talk to violinist Yusong Zhao about winning the concerto competition and his upcoming performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 77.
Few other works in the canon occupy a place like this symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. John Banther and Evan Keely dive into history as they show you what to listen for, Shostakovich's perilous circumstances, and what clues he could have left for all of us in the music.Support Classical Breakdown: https://weta.org/donatefmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's hard to overstate the depth of the connection between Dmitri Shostakovich and the legendary cellist Mstistlav Rostropovich. Shostakovich and Rostropovich were extremely close friends, and Shostakovich wrote and dedicated several works to him, including the piece we're going to talk about today, the first Cello Concerto. Rostropovich had been desperate to get Shostakovich to write a concerto for him, but Shostakovich's wife had one simple piece of advice: if you want Shostakovich to write something for you, don't talk to him about it or even mention it. So Rostropovich waited and waited, until July of 1959, when he was asked by Shostakovich to come to Leningrad to try out a new Cello Concerto. Shostakovich played through the piece for Rostropovich, turned to him, and asked him if he liked it. Rostropovich apparently told Shostakovich that he “had been shaken to the core.” Shostakovich, in his famously modest way, then shakily asked Rostropovich if he could dedicate the concerto to him. Rostropovich immediately agreed, and then rushed off to learn the concerto as quickly as possible. He learned the entire concerto in 3 days, then returned to Shostakovich and played it for him by heart. The concerto is practically stamped with Rostropovich's name, which is why I'll be using a recording of a live performance of Rostropovich during the show today, though I must say I also recommend a pretty great modern recording by a certain cellist who is also my sister, Alisa Weilerstein. This concerto has always been one of my favorites; it is compact, powerful, punchy, beautiful, intense, concentrated, and tremendously exciting. For me, it is one of Shostakovich's most Beethovenian works, in its lean power and its obsession with a single motive. Today on this fundraiser sponsored show, we'll talk through this fantastic concerto, and explore just what makes its momentum so inevitable and so thrilling from start to finish. Join us!
Here are two statements by Dmitri Shostakovich about the same piece, the 8th symphony that we are talking about today: Statement No. 1, Shostakovich's published comments about the symphony when it was first performed in 1943: The 8th Symphony reflects my…elevated creative mood, influenced by the joyful news of the Red Army's victories…. "The Eighth Symphony contains tragic and dramatic inner conflicts. But on the whole it is optimistic and life-asserting. The first movement is a long adagio, with a dramatically tense climax. The second movement is a march, with scherzo elements, and the third is a dynamic march. The fourth movement, in spite of its march form, is sad in mood. The fifth and final movement is bright and gay, like a pastoral, with dance elements and folk motifs. "The philosophical conception of my new work can be summed up in these words: life is beautiful. All that is dark and evil rots away, and beauty triumphs." Statement No. 2, from the disputed book Testimony, published in the 1970s: ‘And then the war came and the sorrow became a common one. We could talk about it, we could cry openly, cry for our lost ones. People stopped fearing tears. Before the war there probably wasn't a single family who hadn't lost someone, a father, a brother, or if not a relative, then a close friend. Everyone had someone to cry over, but you had to cry silently, under the blanket, so no one would see. Everyone feared everyone else, and the sorrow oppressed and suffocated us. It suffocated me too. I had to write about it. I had to write a Requiem for all those who died, who had suffered. I had to describe the horrible extermination machine and express protest against it. The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are my Requiems. I don't know of a more profound example of Shostakovich's doublespeak, or of his ability to make diametrically opposing statements about the meaning behind his music. Shostakovich's 8th symphony premiered at the height of World War II, and it was not a hit, unlike his 7th symphony which had swept the world with its seeming patriotic fervor and its devastating condemnation of the Nazis. Shostakovich's 8th is a very different piece, darker, edgier, less catchy, less simple, and certainly less optimistic. It was panned in the Soviet Union by the official critics and was effectively banned from performance in teh Soviet Union from 1948 until the late 1950s. It was also not particularly popular outside of the Soviet Union, as the 7th's popularity and accessibility dwarfed the 8th, though this equation has now flipped, with the 8th symphony now probably becoming slightly more often played than the 7th. As always with Shostakovich, he mixes tradition with his own Shostakovich-ian innovations. The symphony has a Sonata Form first movement, but that movement is longer than the following three movements combined. It has a darkness to light theme from C Minor to C Major, like in Beethoven's 5th and Mahler's 2nd, but whether the ending is optimistic is subject to furious debate. It has not 1 but 2 scherzos, but they are among the least funny scherzos ever written, and it has a slow movement that is surprisingly un-emotional. The requiem Shostakovich speaks of seems to happen slowly over the course of this 1 hour symphony. It is perhaps Shostakovich's most ambiguous mature symphony, and it is also thought of as one of his greatest masterpieces. Today on this Patreon Sponsored episode, we'll dive into this remarkable work, trying to create a framework to understand this huge and demanding symphony. Join us!
Dmitri Shostakovich, o homem que aguentou a pressão. Com Martim Sousa Tavares.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
La Segunda Guerra Mundial es, sin ningún género de duda y con Darmstadt como prueba, el factor temporal determinante de la revolución vivida en la música de la segunda mitad de siglo. La música salvó a muchos, si no de la contienda, al menos de parte de sus traumáticas consecuencias._____Has escuchadoAutobiografía intelectual. Luis de Pablo. Entrevista realizada al compositor el 25 de marzo de 2010 en la Fundación Juan March: [Web]Cuarteto de cuerda nº. 8 en do menor. Largo (1960) / Dmitri Shostakovich. Fitzwilliam String Quartet. Decca (1992)Cuarteto n.º 3, op. 46 (1943) / Viktor Ullmann. Cuarteto Bennewitz. Grabación sonora realizada en directo en la sala de conciertos de la Fundación Juan March, el 3 de marzo de 2021. Dentro del ciclo “Terezín: componer bajo el terror. La música de cámara en Terezín”“Tomás Marco habla sobre la “música confinada”. YouTube Vídeo. Publicado por Fundación BBVA, 27 de septiembre de 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q02yvqKCDEMWar Requiem (1962) / Benjamin Britten. Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano; Peter Pears, tenor; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, barítono; The Bach Choir & London Symphony Orchestra Chorus; London Symphony Orchestra; Benjamin Britten, director. Decca (1985)_____Selección bibliográficaARNOLD, Ben, “Music, Meaning, and War: The Titles of War Compositions”. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, vol. 22, n.º 1 (1991), pp. 19-28*BOTSTEIN, Leon, “After Fifty Years: Thoughts on Music and the End of World War II”. The Musical Quarterly, vol. 79, n.º 2 (1995), pp. 225-230*DINGLE, Christopher Philip (ed.), The Cambridge History of Music Criticism. Cambridge University Press, 2022*FANNING, David (ed.), The Routledge Handbook to Music under German Occupation, 1938-1945: Propaganda, Myth and Reality. Routledge, 2020*FUNDACIÓN JUAN MARCH, “Terezín: componer bajo el terror” [Programa de concierto]. Ciclo de miércoles 24 de febrero al 10 de marzo de 2021: [PDF]GUILBAUT, Serge, Manuel J. Borja-Villel, Be-Bomb: The Transatlantic War of Images and All That Jazz, 1946-1956. Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2007*HEILE, Björn, Charles Wilson, et al. (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Modernism in Music. Routledge, 2019*JAROCINSKI, Stefan, “Polish Music after World War II”. The Musical Quarterly, vol. 51, n.º 1 (1965), pp. 244-258*KRADER, Barbara, “Soviet Research on Russian Folk Music since World War II”. Ethnomusicology, vol. 7, n.º 3 (1963), pp. 252-261*ORAMO, Ilkka, “Sibelius, Bartók, and the ‘Anxiety of Influence' in Post World War II Finnish Music”. Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. 47, n.º 3/4 (2006), pp. 467-479*POTTER, Pamela M., “What Is ‘Nazi Music'?”. The Musical Quarterly, vol. 88, n.º 3 (2005), pp. 428-455*ROGERS, Julian C., Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars. Oxford University Press, 2021*ROSS, Alex, El ruido eterno. Seix Barral, 2009*SCHWARZ, Boris, “Soviet Music since the Second World War”. The Musical Quarterly, vol. 51, n.º 1 (1965), pp. 259-281*VYBORNY, Zdenek y William Lichtenwanger, “Czech Music Literature since World War II”. Notes, vol. 16, n.º 4 (1959), pp. 539-546*WALLNER, Bo, “Scandinavian Music after the Second World War”. The Musical Quarterly, vol. 51, n.º 1 (1965), pp. 111-143* *Documento disponible para su consulta en la Sala de Nuevas Músicas de la Biblioteca y Centro de Apoyo a la Investigación de la Fundación Juan March
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) - Sinfonia n. 15 in la maggiore, op. 1411. Allegretto2. Adagio 8:27 3. Allegretto 4. Adagio 23:50The Philadelphia OrchestraEugene Ormandy, conductorAbout Sinfonia n. 15 in la maggiore, op. 141
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) - Sinfonia n. 14 in sol maggiore per soprano, basso, archi e percussioni, op. 135Testo: Federico García Lorca (n. 1 e 2), Guillaume Apollinaire (n. 3-8), Vilgelm Kyukhelbeker (n. 9), e Rainer Maria Rilke (n. 10 e 11)1. De Profundis - Adagio2. Malagueña – Allegretto 4:263. Lorelei - Allegro molto 7:104. Samoubijca (Il suicida) – Adagio 15:495. Nacheku (In guardia) – Allegretto 22:416. Madam, posmotrite! (Signora, guardi!) – Adagio 25:447. V tjur'me Sant`e (In prigione) - Adagio 27:468. Otvet zaporozhskikh kazakov konstantinopol'skomu sultanu (La risposta del cosacco Zaporozian al sultano di Costantinopoli) – Allegro 37:449. Delvig, Delvig! – Andante 39:3010. Smert' poeta (La morte del poeta) – Largo 43:3611. Zakljuchenie (Conclusione) – Moderato 48:06 Gal James, sopranoAlexander Vinogradov, bassoRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko, conductor About Sinfonia n. 14 in sol maggiore
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) - Sinfonia n. 13 in si bemolle minore "Babi Yar", op. 113per basso, coro maschile e orchestraTesto: Yevgeni Yevtushenko 1. Babi Yar (Adagio) 2. Humour (Allegretto) 17:113. Al grande magazzino (Adagio) 25:334. Paure (Largo) 38:185. Una carriera (Allegretto) 50:13 Sergei Aleksashkin, bassoChoral Academy MoscowWDR Symphony Orchestra CologneRudolf Barshai, conductor About Sinfonia n. 13 in si bemolle minore "Babi Yar", op. 113
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) - Sinfonia n. 12 in re minore “L'anno 1917”, op. 112Pietroburgo rivoluzionaria (Moderato - Allegro)Razliv (Allegro - Adagio) 13:03Aurora (Allegro) attacca 24:53L'alba dell'umanità (L'istesso tempo) 29:28 Eliahu Inbal, conductorWiener Symphoniker About Sinfonia n. 12 in re minore "L'anno 1917", op. 112
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) - Sinfonia n. 11 in Sol minore (Op. 103, L'Anno 1905)1. Adagio (La Piazza del Palazzo)2. Allegro (Il 9 gennaio)3. Adagio (L'eterno ricordo)4. Allegro non troppo (Tocsin, L'allarme) BBC National Orchestra of WalesThomas Søndergård, conductor About Sinfonia n. 11 in Sol minore (Op. 103, L'Anno 1905)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) - Sinfonia n. 10 in mi minore, op. 93 00:00:00 I. Moderato00:23:09 II. Allegro00:27:21 III. Allegretto00:39:54 IV. Andante – Allegro Orchestra Sinfonica della WDR Semyon Bychkov, conductor About Sinfonia n. 10 in mi minore, op. 93
On the July 6 edition of Music History Today, John meets Paul, disco hits number one, and Manfred Mann gets a lead singer. Also, happy birthday to 50 Cent and Bill Haley. For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts from ALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday On this date: In 1953, singer Dorothy Squires married actor Roger Moore.In 1957, John Lennon met Paul McCartney and one of the greatest musical partnerships was born. In 1963, Chubby Checker performed at a concert before the Mets baseball game in New York City. In 1964, the film A Hard Day's Night by the Beatles premiered in London. In 1965, Marty Balin started forming the group Jefferson Airplane. In 1966, Elvis Presley's movie Paradise Hawaiian Style opened. In 1966, Mike D'abo became the lead singer for Manfred Mann. In 1967, Pink Floyd performed on British TV's Top of the Pops music show for the first time. In 1969, Mick Jagger started filming the movie Ned Kelly. In 1971, Bjorn Ulvaeus & Agnetha Faitskog of ABBA were married. In 1972, David Bowie created controversy in England when he put his arms around guitarist Mick Ronson during his performance of his song Starman on the British TV show Top of the Pops. In 1974, the Hues Corporation became the first disco group to hit number one on the Billboard singles chart with Rock the Boat. In 1977, the event that inspired Pink Floyd's album The Wall happened when Roger Waters yelled at the crowd during Pink Floyd's concert in Montreal for setting off fireworks & being unruly. In 1978, Tammy Wynette married record producer George Richey. In 1984, the Jacksons started their Victory tour, which was the last time that Michael toured with his brothers. In 1988, Neil Young's video for his song This Note's For You, about music artists selling their songs to corporations for commercials, was banned by MTV because it mentioned corporate brands like Coke & Pepsi. The video ended up winning video of the year at that year's MTV Video Music Awards. In 1990, the animated movie Jetsons the Movie, co-starring the voice of singer Tiffany premiered. In 1991, BB King & James Brown performed in Zagreb, Croatia. In 1991, Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, & Mary married restaurant owner Ethan Robbins. In 1994, the movie Forest Gump opened. The movie spawned a hit soundtrack of songs from the 1950s - 1970s. In 1999, Richie Havens published the book They Can't Hide Us Anymore, which was his autobiography. In 2009, Ryan Ross & Jon Walker left the group Panic! at the Disco. In 2009, Alanis Morissette started her acting role on the TV show Weeds. In 2016, singer Ciara married football player Russell Wilson. In 2019, Lil Nas X's song Old Town Road with Billy Ray Cyrus broke the record set by 3 other songs for longest hip hop song at #1 when it started its 13th straight week at #1 on Billboard's hot 100 singles chart. The song would eventually break the record for longest #1 reign on that chart, regardless of genre, & still holds the record at 19 consecutive weeks. In classical music: In 1877, Pyotr Tchaikovsky married wife Antonina Miliukova. In 1975, Dmitri Shostakovich finished his Sonate for Alto Opus 147. In theater: In 1946, the Broadway show St Louis Woman closed. In 1997, the Broadway musical Dream, the Johnny Mercer Musical closed. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musichistorytodaypodcast/support
[00:00:00] Sergey Bogza: Obviously there are strengths and weaknesses in each generation. The conductor is how to utilize the strengths. Every generation brings a perspective. It's certainly a fascinating process working with the baby boomers, so to speak. The work ethic - you're going to get stuff done with baby boomers. They just know how to get stuff done, and they know how to work, and show up on time, and be diligent in their work. +++++++++++++++ [00:00:38] Tommy Thomas: Sergey delves into the unique dynamics of working with different generations within an orchestra, highlighting how he leverages the strengths of each age group while minimizing their weaknesses. He discusses the strategic process of assembling and leading an orchestra, emphasizing the importance of understanding each member's skill set before making changes. He also reflects on the balance between rigorous rehearsals and the freedom of live performances, sharing his philosophy on leadership and creativity in the fine arts. This episode is a deep dive into the art of orchestral leadership and the life lessons that come with it, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in leadership, teamwork, and the performing arts. Let's pick up where we left off last week. [00:01:40] Tommy Thomas: I want to go to I guess how you assemble an orchestra like, and we'll just take Panama City. When you came to town you had a group of people that I suppose were members of the symphony. How do you build the team? Did you have to go out and bring new people in? Did you have to release some that weren't up to what you thought might be possible? [00:02:07] Sergey Bogza: Right? There's a little bit of both. And what I didn't want to do is to be a one-chapter hero or a one act hero act, or I don't know the best way to describe it. And it all started with, first of all, trying to understand everyone's skill set and not making any changes right away. I wanted to become an informed, compassionate leader first, before initiating any changes, before releasing anyone, before recruiting anyone. I wanted to give everyone a fair shot. [00:02:54] Sergey Bogza: I also wanted to give myself a fair shot of getting a clear understanding of where we are as an orchestra from a leadership perspective, from talent depth, and get a few concerts under my belt to see here's where we are and to be able to assess and get a clear understanding of where we are as an orchestra. And then only after that, start making strategic decisions. How do we become a better orchestra? So, the first three, four or five months I was in the data collection phase of talking to people, interviewing orchestra members, and having chamber concerts with selected orchestra musicians. And after I got a clear picture of where we were, only after that, we started making strategic moves, whether it was by way of an audition, or by way of closely working with people. [00:04:00] Tommy Thomas: I want to ask you an innovative kind of question, as it relates to the orchestra. Is there room for the orchestra members to innovate or be creative, or is that pretty much in the hands of the conductor? [00:04:17] Sergey Bogza: It's a little bit of both, frankly. And it's more on the conductor. The conductor will shape more, for example, with a piece that the orchestra has never done, or with a brand-new work that nobody knows. A world premiere. It's the conductor that has a thing called the score where everyone's parts are in it and the role of the conductor is to take all of that data and assimilate it into a vision and then communicate that vision to the musicians or traditional works. For example, classical works that everybody has played. It is a much more collaborative process. Everybody brings something to the table. It's a collaborative process and they offer and then we kind of mold together into one vision that we present to the audience. So, it's a little bit of both. If I'm being 100 percent honest. [00:05:17] Tommy Thomas: Over the years, you've worked with people from probably the boomer generation, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. Have you noticed any differences in the generations in terms of when it comes to working together as a team. Is there any group that does it better or any group that says, no, we're not going there? Or am I being too general? [00:05:42] Sergey Bogza: No, I don't think you're being too general. I suppose in my position, especially in the world of fine arts, you work with all groups of people. And I would say that the four groups that you've described have some similarities. There are some overlaps. Obviously there are strengths and weaknesses in each generation. The conductor is how to utilize the strengths that every generation brings and perspectives. It's certainly a fascinating process working with the baby boomers, so to speak. The work ethic - you're going to get stuff done with baby boomers. They just know how to get stuff done, and they know how to work, and show up on time, and be diligent in their work. But there is also value in millennials and Gen Xers. In our family, my brothers and sisters span about 20 years. So, I've got a chance to get to know each of those generations quite intimately. +++++++++++++++ [00:07:04] Tommy Thomas: If y'all invited me to one of your practice sessions and after a while I convinced you to let me have some time alone with the orchestra. And I asked them two questions. I'd like your response. What would they say is the most challenging aspect of working with you? [00:07:24] Sergey Bogza: That I'm too punctual during the process. But too free during the performance. [00:07:34] Tommy Thomas: You want to unpack that a little bit. [00:07:36] Sergey Bogza: Sure. Probably during our rehearsal some musicians would probably criticize and say that it's too surgical work, that it's too detailed and too punctual, and we're going to start here. We're going to end there. And now we're going to take a break and now we're going to work on this and now we're going to work on that. And it's very, it's super structured and organized and buttoned up. But when the performance comes, I'm a free man and people will say hold on, we've done this punctual work and then it comes to the performance and then we just sail free and the performance and the sailing free can feel sometimes a little dangerous or on the edge. [00:08:29] Sergey Bogza: And that's what I live for. That edge in the performance. I feel I can be free in the performance, but for the musicians, they want to keep some of that structure that we've had in rehearsals. So as a leader, I'm still learning how to balance those, how to put the group together and give it that freedom, but not for us to fly during the performance. But not to fly dangerously, I love to fly dangerously during performances. It's what I live for, but it's not always to everyone's comfort level. [00:09:03] Tommy Thomas: But you couldn't mean you couldn't have that comfort. I don't imagine if you hadn't gone through all the rigor of what you just described in the first two or three minutes of this piece that you've practiced. I've heard basketball coaches say that the ball games are won in the practice session. Dean Smith used to say that at Chapel Hill, they won or lost before we got to the game. [00:09:25] Sergey Bogza: 100%. And that's my philosophy. We set the boundaries, or we set the structure during the rehearsals, but in the performance, we just fly. And sometimes I like to fly too dangerously in performances. And so that's probably if, when it comes to some of the criticism of musicians, that's probably one of the things that would say is that, things that we thought were all going to be this loud in rehearsal are now twice as loud in the performance because a spirit has taken over or some things we thought that we were going to take play this fast in rehearsal are now a little slower in performance or now a little faster in performance. But in the performance, you adjust to the spirit of the night rather than the spirit of rehearsal. And that is where the magic happens in performances. And I've always felt that I'm a much better performer than in rehearsal. As a coach in rehearsals, I tend to be too tedious, too formulaic. [00:10:39] Sergey Bogza: And then like a switch happens when there's an audience and I can't help but to be free. After all, it's what everybody else came to see. They came for the magic, for the wonder of music. And if we perform where the scenes are seen, where the work that the orchestra has put is obvious, where people can see the effort, we've missed the mark. It needs to feel effortless. When you fly too dangerously, it's sometimes uncomfortable to some people, but it's what we do. [00:11:28] Tommy Thomas: So, on the flip side, what would they say would be the most rewarding part of being a member of your symphony? [00:11:37] Sergey Bogza: The rewarding part, whether it's working with the symphony, the board or other musicians is that we complete projects that we start. And we don't take on projects that have a low chance of success. When we get together and we agree to do something, the majority of cases people know one way or another, this project will cross the finish line. And I think for most people, it's a rewarding aspect. How many times have people started something and never completed it because of the determination factor that didn't come through or somebody else didn't complete a portion of their role with the symphony? We like to do projects that we have a good feeling that we're going to complete. [00:12:36] Sergey Bogza: And when working with the symphony, whether we do concerts or music education projects, our goal, and in most cases when the people sign up, they internally know that this project will cross the finish line. And instilling that confidence that what we work on will be presented eventually, it will complete. This is not a vanity project that will just patter out because of lack of focus or lack of enthusiasm. I think it's what gets people going and people are willing to contribute so much more when there's this confidence that we will cross the finish line together. [00:13:23] Tommy Thomas: A quick question, maybe two, about the pandemic. I can't even imagine what the pandemic was like for an orchestra or a symphony. And then maybe the second question, what did you get out of the pandemic that's a lesson that you can take forward? What was the silver lining? [00:13:41] Sergey Bogza: Time is valuable, and time is fleeing. That's what I took away from the pandemic. And for me, I remember even before the pandemic, people would often say, if I had the time, I would learn a new language. I would travel. I would spend more time. I would learn a new skill. I would discover composers I've never heard before. And then the pandemic happened. And people have all this time and to my surprise, more often than not, whatever people said they wanted to do when they had the time, people didn't pursue those things for one reason or another. So, my thought was like, okay, you must make the time. [00:14:33] Sergey Bogza: One must find the way to achieve your dreams. Because as I've said, during the pandemic, everybody had so much time on their hands to develop new skills, whatever, to achieve some portion of their dreams, but utilizing time to your best advantage is a skill. Probably the time I've learned from the pandemic is that time is valuable. You never get it back. So might as well utilize it to the best of your advantage and use it for your own or your good and to do something valuable with it. That's the lesson I took away from that pandemic. [00:15:11] Tommy Thomas: It is said that we learn most from our failures. If that's the case, why are most of us so afraid to fail? [00:15:33] Sergey Bogza: I'm trying to give an answer to this, but I'm having a hard time coming up with the right answer because strangely I've got used to failure. It's part of my DNA and I suppose I'm not afraid of failure. I hope it's not coming off, sounding too proud. But I wish more people would take on projects that would make them scared. There's so much reward on the other side and embracing, I don't know, maybe it's getting comfortable with fear. [00:16:13] Sergey Bogza: Once one finds a way to be comfortable with fear, whether it's fear of public speaking, of doing something difficult, of doing something where you might embarrass yourself, there's such a reward and beauty on the other side when you can talk to that version of yourself that is fearful. It's the reason why I feel I've taken up endurance sports. During the endurance run, I always come across that weak, pathetic version of Sergey that says, go home, practice your piano. Why are you here in the middle of the mountains running? Your knee hurts. Your head hurts. You're a musician after all. What are you doing here? And when one meets that, and gets to understand those evil thoughts of one's weak, pathetic version of themselves, and one gets comfortable with that part of yourself, and one learns how to have that conversation, that I know that voice. Whether it's music or any other field that says maybe this is not for you, maybe you don't belong at this level, you're not meant to achieve these things. And one learns how to confront that and have an honest conversation, or at least be on equal terms. There's so much freedom on the other side of fear. ++++++++++++++++= [00:17:58] Tommy Thomas: I'd like you to respond to a few quotes. This is always a fun part of the podcast to me. And here's one that would certainly be in your area. It's from Ben Zander, the Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. He says the conductor doesn't make a sound. The conductor's power depends upon his or her ability to make other people powerful. [00:18:22] Sergey Bogza: I could not agree more. Adding anything to that quote would be taking away from it. [00:18:35] Tommy Thomas: Here's another one. No matter what job you have in life, your success will be determined 5 percent by your credentials, 15 percent by your professional experiences, and 80 percent by your communication skills. [00:18:54] Sergey Bogza: I have no response except to say, keep them coming. Those are wonderful quotes. Communication is, I suppose everything. And in a world of conductors, where we make no sound at all, and we communicate without gestures, with our eyes, where we communicate nonverbally, where we communicate how we dress, how we look at people, our postures, our demeanor, our facial expressions. Our orchestras often say within 10 seconds of the conductor on the podium, even before they give the first cue to start, we know the type of person they are. And if we're going to have a successful concert. [00:19:48] Tommy Thomas: Phil Jackson, the former coach of the Lakers, the strength of the team is each member. The strength of each member is the team. Another one. No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it. [00:20:14] Sergey Bogza: That is true. Wow, these are wonderful quotes. Keep them coming because I feel like I've just become a student. And I'm learning. There's no response to that. This is beautiful. These are beautiful quotes. And yeah, they apply to orchestras, just like any business or any organization that requires a team to make it tick and work. Another athletic quote from Casey Stengel. Getting good players is easy. Getting them to play together is the hard part. [00:20:53] Sergey Bogza: I have something to say about that. In the musical world, and especially in a professional orchestra, where you're not learning, when you're not working with amateurs, when you're working with people that have years and years of training, and to be in a music world there's no way you cannot have an ego to get on stage, to pick up an instrument, to make a sound and to have that confidence. I have something valuable for people to listen to that takes a certain amount of conviction and takes a certain amount of ego in the best sense of that word. Now, when you get 65 musicians that have that pedigree, that have that background, and to mold all of that into a group, that is tricky, that is difficult. [00:21:52] Sergey Bogza: And that is where quality of leadership is essentially determined. I have had a friend who said, you don't really know how good of a conductor you are until you've truly worked with a professional orchestra. It's easy as a conductor or a coach to work with. I don't want to say it's easy. It's a different ball game. If you're working with, say undeveloped talent, where you have to do drills and you have to instill the basics. But when you're working with professionals who have done it, who know the business, who know how it goes, when on the first go around the orchestra is sounding amazing, when you don't need to point out little deficiencies, when you no longer need to correct wrong notes, wrong rhythms, or the orchestra is not together, when the product is great from the get go, that's when you really learn the kind of leader you are and the depth of your conducting abilities. [00:23:06] Sergey Bogza: Because then you really must give the magic, then you must give the musical leadership, the intentions behind the music, the spirit of it, you have to inspire a great product of what you're already getting that's wonderful. And that's when you really learn what level of a musician you are. Are you an artist or you are a drill sergeant or you're a basic conductor that just knows the basics? That's the tricky part. It's when you get a well-oiled machine. For example, when I grew up, I loved basketball. And in the mid 90s, of course, it was the Chicago Bulls. [00:23:50] Sergey Bogza: Imagine becoming a coach of a team like that. Winning championships, we've got the best player in the world, you've got the best synergy and your goal as a coach to drive that, to give them something even more, we're not coaching a team that's losing every other game, where you get the best team and your goal is to continue that energy and to elevate it. That's where you really learn who you are as a leader and as a coach. [00:24:29] Tommy Thomas: Here's a different kind of quote. If you never color outside the lines, the picture will never change. [00:24:38] Sergey Bogza: Yeah. And in the world of music, when you're working with works that have been composed 200 years ago, 300 years ago, 100 years ago, that have become staple in our repertoire world, works that everyone has, everyone knows. And when they come to a concert and you're performing that piece, the conductor's role is to color outside the lines, to give those works a new perspective, a new life. And in that sense would have missed the point by coloring inside the lines. We'll close out with a couple of, two, three lightning round questions. The first one, have you changed in the last five years? [00:25:29] Sergey Bogza: Oh, yes. I think I'm a different person than I was five years ago. I'd like to say that I'm a more patient and sympathetic person. And I give that credit to my two dogs, Samson and Stella. I've become a dog owner in the last five years. It's a new area of life that I've discovered and taking care of two animals daily has changed who I am as a person. That's one of the things I wish I had done earlier in my life, is to become a pet owner. [00:26:21] Tommy Thomas: If you could meet any historical figure and ask them only one question, who would it be and what would you ask? [00:26:40] Sergey Bogza: It would be the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. And the question I would ask him is, where did you find the energy and the meaning to carry on? [00:27:02] Tommy Thomas: Final question, what's the best piece of advice anybody's ever given you? [00:27:09] Sergey Bogza: Be humble, be a student, and lead with compassion. [00:27:21] Tommy Thomas: Thank you for joining us today. If you are a first-time listener, I hope you will subscribe and become a regular. You can find links to all the episodes at our website – www.JobfitMatters.com/podcast. If there are topics you'd like for me to explore, my email address is tthomas@jobfitmatters.com. Word of mouth has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing. Surveys tell us that consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising. If you've heard something today that's worth passing on, please share it with others. You're already helping me make something special for the next generation of nonprofit leaders. I'll be back next week with a new episode. Until then, stay the course on our journey to help make the nonprofit sector more effective and sustainable. Links and Resources JobfitMatters Website NextGen Nonprofit Leadership with Tommy Thomas The Perfect Search - What every board needs to know about hiring their next CEO Panama City Symphony Website Sergey Bogza's Personal Website Connect tthomas@jobfitmatters.com Follow Tommy on LinkedIn Listen to NextGen Nonprofit Leadership with Tommy Thomas on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1187, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Other Bond Film Characters 1: Miss Moneypenny is the personal assistant of this character, the head of MI6. M. 2: First name of American spy Mr. Leiter, who often helped James Bond defeat the bad guys. Felix. 3: Ben Whishaw is the new computer-savvy version of this character. Q. 4: Supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld shows up in "Thunderball" as the head of this criminal organization. SPECTRE. 5: The giant metal-mouthed assassin "Jaws" chews up the scenery in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and this film in space. Moonraker. Round 2. Category: Ad Council Classics 1: The Ad Council began in 1942 as the War Advertising Council; its first campaign urged the sale of war these. bonds. 2: A 1983 campaign introduced the phrase "Friends don't let friends" do this. drive drunk. 3: In 1979 the Council unleashed McGruff the Crime Dog, who urged Americans to do this 6-word thing. take a bite out of crime. 4: A 1988 campaign that said "Help stop AIDS. Use" one of these was the first in America to use the word. a condom. 5: The Council's 1960s recruiting campaign for this JFK program called it "the toughest job you'll ever love". the Peace Corps. Round 3. Category: Symphonies 1: This Soviet superstar subtitled his third symphony "May First". (Dmitri) Shostakovich. 2: In 1889 Cesar Franck shocked some French critics by using this "English" instrument in a symphony. the English horn. 3: The "Pathetic" Symphony is by this Russian who also gave us the celebratory "1812 Overture". Tchaikovsky. 4: "Merry Gathering of the Peasants" is one movement of his 1808 "Pastoral" symphony. Ludwig van Beethoven. 5: In 1983 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Symphony No. 1 made her the first woman to win this prize for music. the Pulitzer Prize. Round 4. Category: BOoks. With B in quotation marks 1: This children's classic is subtitled "A Life in the Woods". Bambi. 2: The title of this bestseller by Ann Patchett refers to a smooth style of opera singing. bel canto. 3: This classic kids' book by Felix Salten is subtitled "A Life in the Woods". Bambi. 4: It's the huge 1992 bestseller about a photographer, a farm wife and 4 days in Iowa. Bridges of Madison County. 5: "Fleeing playgirl traced to Rio" is a headline about Holly Golightly in this Truman Capote tale. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Round 5. Category: Every Day'S A Holiday 1: On January 12 have a cuppa on National Hot this Day. Tea. 2: In Japan, November the 11th is a holiday celebrating this art form. origami. 3: National Thank You Note Day is on this date, the day after opening lots of gifts. December 26th. 4: August 13 is a special day for these folks, including Barack Obama, Paul McCartney and Clayton Kershaw. southpaws (left-handers). 5: Held in October at the end of the week, this alliterative day celebrates Mary Shelley and her famous creation. Frankenstein Friday. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used
19th-20th Centuries A Tribute to Magister Neil Smith This week we hear works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Dmitri Shostakovich, Giacomo Puccini, George Gershwin, Ferde Grofé, P.D.Q. Bach, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 140 Minutes – Week of 2024 April 15
La memoria. Charan Ranganath "Por Qué Recordamos"."Felices Ellos", microrrelato de Amado Gómez Ugarte.Beatriz Herráez, directora de Artium Museoa, en A Tres Bandas con Arantxa Urretabizkaia.Pauxa y los besos.Gorka Belamendia nos presenta el Aguila Culebrera Europea.Joan-Ramón Laporte "Crónica de una Sociedad Intoxicada". "El Salto" de Benito Zambrano.Iñigo Alberdi con Dmitri Shostakovich.Oscar Lage y las recomendaciones con las contraseñas.Desde Monzón, Xabier Gutiérrez prepara Arándanos Txokolateados....
Doug Gaddy and his wife, Annie, own and operate Absolute Vinyl Records & Stereo, which is currently celebrating its 15th year in Boulder County. Doug and I chatted at a Longmont hotel recently for this episode of Mile High Stash, and his five choices were:1. Herbie Nichols 2. Dmitri Shostakovich 3. Wayne Shorter 4. Jade Warrior5. Willie Weeks
No episódio de estreia do Foice & Martelo, o podcast da Organização Comunista Internacionalista (Esquerda Marxista), André Mainardi traz a primeira parte de uma introdução ao estudo de "O Estado e a Revolução", obra seminal da literatura marxista e uma das principais elaborações teóricas de Vladimir Ilich Lênin, comemorando o legado desse grande revolucionário na ocasião do 100 anos de sua morte. Leia mais: Lênin e a atualidade de seu legado - Michel Goulart da Silva EXPEDIENTE: Apresentacão, produção musical, gravação e edição de áudio: André Mainardi. Técnica e streaming: Mateus Tavares Arte: Evandro Colzani e Miguel Tuma Comissão Nacional de Comunicação (OCI) : Evandro Colzani, Michel Goulart, André Mainardi, Francine Hellman, Mateus Tavares, Rannah Brasil, Bruna Heser e Gustavo Nenevê Trilha Sonora: Sinfonia nº 12 opus 112 em D menor - "O Ano de 1917" - Dmitri Shostakovich
Reno Phil music director and conductor Laura Jackson, composer Paul Novak, violin soloist Charlotte Marckx, and Tacie Moessner of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development speak with Chris Morrison about the Reno Phil's concerts "Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony" on February 24 and 25, 2024. The concerts include longing is an aviary by Paul Novak, the Violin Concerto No. 4 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the Symphony No. 5 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who came to international attention when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Still only 24, he has performed at a series of high profile locations including the Hollywood Bowl and Downing Street. Last year he was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms. Sheku was brought up in Nottingham along with his six siblings who are also extremely talented musicians. At six-years-old he went to a concert by the Nottingham Youth Orchestra where he was transfixed by the cello section. He started having lessons not long afterwards and by the age of nine he'd completed all of his music grades – receiving the highest marks in the country. At 17 he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and made his debut at the BBC Proms as a soloist with the Chineke! Orchestra in 2017.In 2020 he was appointed an MBE for services to music and two years later became the Royal Academy of Music's first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring.DISC ONE: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 - 1st movement: Adagio – Moderato. Composed by Edward Elgar and performed by Jacqueline du Pré, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli DISC TWO: Rivers of Babylon -The Melodians DISC THREE: Dat - Pluto Shervington DISC FOUR: String Quartet in C major, Op 20 No. 2, Capriccio: Adagio. Composed by Joseph Haydn and performed by The London Haydn Quartet DISC FIVE: Chances Are - Bob Marley DISC SIX: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir DISC SEVEN: Symphony No.11 'The Year 1905' - II. The 9th January; Adagio. Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich and performed by The Moscow Philharmonic, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin DISC EIGHT: Largo from Organ Sonata No.5 in C major, BWV 529. Composed by Johan Sebastian Bach and performed by Samuel FeinbergBook: The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman Luxury: A cello and strings CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi ChoirPresenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley
Welcome to 'The Adams Archive,' where host Austin Adams takes you on an enlightening journey into the heart of global conspiracies, cultural enigmas, and political intrigue. This podcast series sheds light on the most thought-provoking and underreported stories, exploring the unseen forces shaping our society and global politics. Unravel the complex narrative of Taylor Swift's alleged involvement in psychological operations, diving into the blurred lines between celebrity influence and political media manipulation. Explore the mystery of underground tunnels beneath a New York synagogue, probing their origins and potential purposes. Analyze the intricate dynamics of recent U.S.-UK joint military operations, uncovering their geopolitical motivations and strategic implications on a global scale. Dive into the art of media manipulation, examining historical and contemporary methods used to control public perception. Discover the profound influence of music and arts in shaping cultural narratives, reflecting on how artistic expression has been employed for political messaging and propaganda. Join 'The Adams Archive' for episodes that challenge perceptions and reveal the hidden truths behind current events and historical narratives. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, follow our YouTube channel for engaging visual content, and get exclusive insights through our Substack newsletter. Participate in our dynamic social media community for ongoing discussions. Whether you're a conspiracy enthusiast, a curious observer, or a seeker of deeper understanding, this podcast is your portal to the untold stories of our world. Tune in, subscribe, and be part of our journey to uncover the hidden truths beneath the surface. All Links: https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams Substack: https://austinadams.substack.com/ ----more---- Full Transcription Hello, you beautiful people and welcome to the Adams archive. My name is Austin Adams. And thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we have some wild topics to get through. And I'm excited for it. So the very first topic that we're going to talk about today is going to be that the Pentagon actually responded to the idea that Taylor Swift Is a PSYOP. So we'll look at what the response was. And that will actually look at the history of this because the fundamental idea around that is that there's a, uh, forces that be within our government that want to manipulate the art within our culture in order to influence the culture itself. And so we'll look at the history of that, whether it be Operation Mockingbird by the CIA, whether it be the CIA teaming up with certain artists during the cold war era, we'll look at all of that together. Then. We'll jump into the next topic, which is going to be that there was some pretty shady stuff found in New York, which actually ended up being an underground tunnel underneath a Jewish synagogue, I believe. So. We'll look at that and why it's pretty, pretty crazy stuff. So there's a couple of theories on it. We'll actually dive into the history of the specific group, because the specific group that we're talking about is a little bit different than your average, uh, Practicer of Judaism. Um, so we will look at that as well. And then we will dive into some breaking news here, which is that the United States. In hand in hand with the, uh, with Britain have the UK have actually, uh, conducted operations overseas against Houthi rebels, which some believe may be the spark of a war against. So we'll look at the history of that as well. So all of that more, but first I need you to go ahead and subscribe. If this is your first time, I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart, subscribe. And if you are here for your second time, third time around. 100th time, whatever, because we're actually about to hit that 100th episode. I believe we're on episode 96 right now, which is pretty wild. But thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I love doing this for you guys. Uh, we'll have some cool stuff coming up. Some interviews, some really awesome things that I am working on in the background. So thank you for being here. Leave a five star review and let's jump into it. The Adams archive. Alright, so the very first topic that we're going to discuss today is going to be that the Pentagon actually responded to the idea that Taylor Swift is a PSYOP. Now personally. I think this probably couldn't be more accurate. And so the reason that I think this, I think this is actually a lot of a part of the public psyche today surrounding Taylor Swift. We see everything that's happening with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey and Pfizer and her recently saying that she believes that Joe Biden has done a great job and will continue to do a great job. And he's exactly what our country needs right now to stop the divisiveness like That the only way that you are saying such a thing, even if you voted for Biden and you wholeheartedly believed in him at the very beginning of this, uh, I don't think there's a person out there who is not either protecting their, their ego by, you know, not admitting that they are wrong or, uh, or Are being paid off and the likelihood that you're being paid off if you're a multi whatever billionaire this Taylor Swift is at this time and a super famous actor, actress, musician, artist, whatever is probably pretty, pretty high if you're still sitting there banging the drum of Joe Biden, or you're just worried about not getting another job again. So you don't have to worry You go along with the, the river that is Hollywood. So it's, it's, it's crazy to see how far these people can go. So here we go. Let's go ahead and read this article. This article comes from the Post Millennial and it is titled, let me go ahead and pull it up here for you. It is titled, Pentagon Claims Taylor Swift PSYOP Speculation is a Conspiracy Theory. Hmm. Okay, you have my back. Attention. All right. This article says after Jesse water show on Tuesday, where he said the government has been turning Taylor Swift into an asset through a Psy op Pentagon spokesperson, Sabrina sign has denied the claim. An idea that first came from human events, senior editor, Jack Posobiec quoting from one of Swift songs and the statement to politics sign said, as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off. Wow, catchy. She continued to make other Taylor Swift puns in her statement, which stated, but that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve other supplemental budget requests as Swift Lee as possible so that we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns. Haha. On December 6th, 2023. Right after Taylor Swift won the Time's Person of the Year award, Posobiec posted to Axe, the Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated in her hand selected vaccine show boyfriend to dink lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights. It's all coming. Uh, and that was in response to the Time Person of the Year being Taylor Swift. And I'm pretty sure that used to be Man of the Year? And now it's person of the year. I don't know. Pretty sure I heard that following the post ax Posobiec had Evita Duffy on his show, where they talked about why Swift could rally support for president Joe Biden in the 2024 election year. She's a girl boss. She has lots of failed relationships where she blames the man every time. Duffy then asked, why are we pushing Taylor Swift? Here comes a clip from Jack Posobiec. Uh, and let's go ahead and watch it here. Evita Duffy from the Federalists joins us now. Evita, they've just named Taylor Swift the, uh, you know, she's, that's basically her song that was used for that ad, which is a mix of Taylor Swift and Barbie, just named Taylor Swift times person of the year, uh, I was out about a month ago. You had a great show where he talked about the Taylor Swift army coming online for the 2024 election. Is this at what we're seeing now? Are they activating The Taylor Swift psyop. Yeah, it's not. It's not just happening now. This has been happening for pretty much a year. They've been pushing Taylor Swift on us. The corporate media has these articles fawning over her. She's like the greatest thing that's ever happened to humanity. Meanwhile, her music's pretty mid. Um, if you, it's actually something actually to break down of her music and, uh, the melodies, she has like the same melody progressions over 20, over 20 different songs. Um, she's always complaining about the same melodies. Okay, I'm going to have to question how old this girl is. If you're going to use the word mid, you better have been born pre or post 2000. You better be under the age of 23. If you're going to use the word mid, I'll just leave it at that. Anyways, I actually agree with it. So so if you understand what tick tock did when tick tock First started, TikTok artificially inflated the views, at least this is the idea that people have been talking about, is it took a few select amount of influencers and it artificially inflated the views that they were getting on the platform. Those people then, who felt like they were a big deal, went and talked to people about it and told people how many views they were getting on TikTok. As a result, a bunch of people fled into TikTok. And so. What they've and they cared about the original a few official people that got their views artificially inflated I think one of the names of the girls is I don't know There was one girl that started tick tock as like the tick tock girl and now nobody really cares about her, right? She just did like a dance and whatever and then all of a sudden she got like a billion views And so the way that they did that is they artificially inflated the views they artificially created celebrity And then they made those celebrities influence Be valued by the mass public, right? And so I think that that's exactly what happens with Taylor Swift here, I believe, because Her music to be fair is pretty mid. Although I am cannot say that with a straight face and never will But Taylor Swift's music is garbage. It's terrible. She's a great Performer and by performer, I mean she has a great team of people around her with fireworks and laser shows and All of that, but I did Taylor Swift is a very Un impressive musician, completely unimpressive to me in the fact that she is the single most. highest earning musician, music, musician of all musicians is astounding to me because she's just a performer. Anyways, so that to me lends into the idea. The same way that we will look at this in a minute is they artificially inflate these people's viewership. They, they get the mainstream media, the mainstream radio stations, the mainstream award shows to all. Pump these people up, pump them up, pump them up. Meanwhile, these people are just puppets for whatever they say, from the powers that be, goes. And so that's where this idea of it being a PSYOP comes from. So let's finish out this clip, if we can, tolerate this girl's vocabulary, and then we'll continue on. In breakups over and over again, these songs, Jake Gyllenhaal, somebody who she wrote the song all too well about, which is like a 10 minute song where she complains about a man that she dated for no joke, three months. This is not a musical mastermind. The media is pushing her on us constantly. And if you say anything negative about Taylor, the media, the Swifties and Taylor Swift herself. Okay. I think I know what she's going to say. A misogynist. And here's why I think that is. Taylor Swift is the perfect. Okay, Taylor Swift's music is absolute trash. So the only way that she got into the position that she's in is if she's working with the government. So here's the, here's the rest of the article. And it says, and this was December 6th that this conversation happened on Real America's Voice. But it says, uh, Waters posted a clip of his segment to Axe on Wednesday where he had, uh, he said an idea was floated at a NATO meeting in 2019 where Swift could combat online misinformation. So maybe here's some actual evidence of this potential Taylor Swift's the biggest star in the world. Sorry, Gutfeld. She's been blanketed across the sports media entertainment atmosphere. The New York Times just speculated she's a lesbian. And last year's tour broke Ticketmaster, a tour that's revenue tops the GDP of 50 countries. Wow, I like her music. She's all right. But I mean, have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this? Well, around four years ago. The Pentagon's Psychological Operations Unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psy op for combating online misinformation. Listen. You came in here wanting to understand how you just go out there and counter an information operation. The idea is that social influence can help, uh, It can help, uh, encourage or, uh, promote behavior change, so potentially as like a peaceful information operation. I include Taylor Swift in here because she's, um, you know, she's a fairly influential online person. I don't know if you've heard of her. Yeah, that's real. The Pentagon's PSYOP unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset for combating misinformation online. This is nothing new. In the 1950s, the government strong armed Louis Armstrong into doing propaganda tours across Africa. The CIA did the same thing with jazz singer Nina Simone, except they did it without her really knowing. In the 70s, Nixon enlisted Elvis in his war on drugs. He gave the king a badge and named him a covert federal law enforcement agent. Michael Jackson was tapped by Reagan, using his song Beat It and his public service campaigns against teen drinking and driving. Michael Jackson persuading minors not to drink, anyway. So is Swift a front for a covert political agenda? Primetime obviously has no evidence. If we did, we'd share it. But we're curious. Because the pop star who endorsed Biden is urging millions of her followers to vote. She's sharing links. And her boyfriend, Travis Kelty, sponsored by Pfizer? And their relationships boosted the NFL ratings this season, bringing in a whole new demographic. So how's the PSYOP going? Well, as usual, Biden's not calling the shots because he doesn't even know who Taylor Swift is. He's confused her with Britney Spears and Beyoncé. You could say even this harder than getting a ticket to the renaissance tour or, or, or Britney's tour. She's down in, it's kind of warm in Brazil right now. Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan. Wow, that is brutal. Stuart, is this feasible? Jesse, the deployment of a PSYOP in the United States in this day and age is still illegal. Um, the national security law prohibits the deployment of PSYOPs or using an operative for psychological warfare. However, if I was running Biden's management perception team, I would identify someone who would align themselves with my agenda, such 600 million followers. I would target her, I would engage her, and I would get her what, get her to do what we used to see as like public service announcements, and that type of enlistment, that type of solicitation is analogous to the old days of deployment of a PSYOP. And so in modern times, with these people having such influence and such, you know, immeasurable amount of followers. She can potentially, single handedly, swing voters because of just the amount of followers that she potentially can influence. So the answer is yes, Jesse. Wow. And I completely agree, right? We see even back historically between Elvis and Louis Armstrong, this has been done before. This isn't a new tactic. And so as we go on, we'll see. And I wanted to kind of Preempt this for you. And he talked about it a little bit with Travis Kelsey, all of, and even behind that was the tick tock. There was a whole trend around the Travis Kelsey, Taylor Swift relationship situation on tick tock, right? People were going crazy. Girls were making jokes to their, their husbands and their boyfriends. And those were going viral. And I talked about this last time is If anything is going quote unquote viral and you think it's organic, the likelihood of that is probably low. If it's the number one most, most popular trend at the time, it's very likely that that was at least in some way, shape, or form even allowed, potentially, if that's the word you want to use, instead of being stifled, they at least allow it to happen because it fits their agenda. And if it didn't fit their agenda, they would slap it with a big misinformation, disinformation, or at the very least, they would shadow ban the content. And so we know that at this point, and as we start to look at more around this, I guess there's even more. situations, but it says, uh, and I wonder if we can look at the response, but that was crazy. The fact that the Pentagon PSYOP organization within the Pentagon actually came and pitched the idea. They pitched the idea that they could use Taylor Swift to conduct a PSYOP against the American people. That's an, that's actual footage available right now. I had no idea before watching that. And that is. Just crazy. So as we go back in history, I wanted to start to have a discussion surrounding this and see historically what ways has art and Culture been manipulated by governmental forces to align their agenda with yours. And so we can go back and we can look at this in a few different ways. And historically there has been not only Elvis and Louis Armstrong, but historically there's been many. Many governments that have done this from Nazi Germany. And I listed a few here after doing some research and under Adolf Hitler, the Nazi regime used music as a propaganda tool to reinforce its ideologies and suppress any opposing or non Germanic. cultural expressions. Jewish musicians and composers were not only banned from performing, but many were also persecuted and sent to concentration camps. The regime particularly promoted classical composers like Richard Wagner and Ludwig van van van Beethoven, who were seen as epitomizing Aryan and Germanic culture. Music played a pivotal role in Nazi rallies and events being used to evoke emotions of pride and nationalistic fervor among the masses. Hitler Youth was also heavily indoctrinated with music that promoted Nazi ideology. So there's one. The Soviet government, under Joseph Stalin, reinforced strict control over the arts, including music. Composers like, forgive me, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev faced severe restrictions and were often compelled to adapt their compositions to fit the state's demands for music that glorified socialism and the Soviet state. The government established the Union of Soviet Composers, which played a key role in censoring music and ensuring it adhered to the principles of socialist realism. Music that was considered formalist or bourgeoisie I don't know if I pronounced that right at all, was condemned and composers risked persecution if their work did not align with state ideologies. You even go back to Footloose, right? If you eliminate music, it has an effect. There's a reason that we sing in church. There's a reason that every religion across every country, across every historical timeframe ever incorporates music because music influences. And so if you can make one person the most influential musician in the world and then utilize them as a puppet to parrot the opinions that you want them to hold that align with your agenda, why wouldn't you do that? The Cultural Revolution in China is another example. Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution sought to eradicate Chinese traditional culture, including its rich musical heritage. Western classical music was also banned. Instead, the government promoted revolutionary music, particularly the eight model operas that were sanctioned by Zhang Qing, Mao's wife. Those operas and revolutionary songs were designed to glorify the Communist Party, Mao Zedong's leadership, and the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people. This was part of a broader attempt to reshape Chinese culture and align it with the Maoist ideology. In another example, people have talked about this before, I'm not sure if there's any evidence of this, just the same way that we can't say there's any evidence of the Taylor Swift Society, but people have talked about how when it comes to black culture in the Late 1980s talking about how rap music and not particularly any type of rap music, but well, I guess particularly a type of rap music, which was the, uh, you know, the violent and drug riddled gang, uh, promoting. type of rap that became popular. And we even see this today with the Travis Scotts, how much Satanism is incorporated into our music scene today. It's bizarre, but it's not bizarre because it's intentional. And so when you go back to the 80s, even the times where the government was literally pushing crack cocaine into the ghetto areas, low income black communities, the very same time that rap music became what it was, and I love rap. I even love late 90s or early 90s rap about gangster shit and drugs and gang stuff. But like, it, you can't deny the fact that it influences culture. It influences how people act. It influences how people want to be when they grow up. How do, how, what makes them cool? What type of clothes should they wear? What should they aspire to? Well When all you hear about in music is selling drugs, making a bunch of money, how good they make you feel and the type of girls that you get when you do it. What do you think you're going to do? Right? It goes hand in hand. Culture is music and music creates culture. And so, um, this goes on and on. I have other ones which talks about the apartheid South of South Africa. During the apartheid era, the South African government used music as a tool to support its racial segregation policies. Cambodia used it, Iran after the 1979 revolution, North Korea, and North Korea music is used as a tool of state propaganda to an extreme degree. All music in the country is strictly controlled by the government. Why? Why would they do that? They wouldn't. And of course they wouldn't do that here in the United States of America with us free people. Right? Our government would never do that. Songs are written in North Korea to glorify The Kim family, and the Workers Party of Korea, often incorporating themes of loyalty, patriotism, and devotion to the leaders. Music is used in schools, workplaces, and public events to instill loyalty to the regime and reinforce its ideologies. There is virtually no exposure at all to international music, and creating or listening to non state approved music can result in severe penalties. And when we talk about severe penalties in North Korea, we're talking about generational imprisonment. Not just you go to jail. Your sister, your brother, your mother, and your next three generations go to jail. Like, horrible, horrible stuff. And so Music has always been utilized as a weapon by governments, always, and to assume that we're just so far along that our government would never do that, they would never utilize our culture, our music, our art, our movies, against us in a way that would not be in our best interest? No, they just let us do whatever, and wherever our culture goes, they're perfectly okay with it. Yeah, okay. And, and again, this is going to be an unraveling for everybody, and I think this is maybe a really good next one that we can get into as a society, as we've already unraveled the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industrial complex, the government, the politicians, the big money, the lobbying funds, all of that has happened. Now, as a society, I think it's time for us to realize that our culture has been infiltrated for decades. The music you listen to, the movies that you watch, the TV shows on Netflix, the articles that you read, the news media that you take in, every single piece of it, the art that you consume, the art on your walls, all of it. The most famous artists have historically, in some way, shape, or form, and we go back to even the, the, the idea of post modernism. Post modernism is a somewhat new artistic theme, and we're seeing that artistic theme. Play out today in our own culture, culture is shaped by art. So that's where they start, right? Postmodernism is the idea that there is no true reality. You have your truth. I have my truth and there's no two plus two equals five. And so when you realize that that's what they want to instill in your subconscious so that consciously you accept it when they tell you that a male is not a male. A male is a floating soul with no gender binary, and women are just women, and you can just declare it by standing on top of a desk and saying, I'm a woman now, even if you don't have ovaries or the ability to reproduce. So that's postmodernism in action, and that's one way that they took art and implemented That subliminal idea into your subconscious so that later it can be activated and weaponized against you. And so you could say, okay, I don't know any examples of that, Austin. I couldn't imagine our CIA working alongside artists. Well, let me clue you in, my friend. For decades in art circles, it was either a rumor or a joke, but now it is confirmed as fact. The CIA used American modern art, including the works of such artists as such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, William de Kooning, and Mark Rothko, right? Oh, a Rothko, right? You know, like the pretty sure that's like the square and a circle or whatever, as a weapon. In the Cold War. Interesting. In the manner of a renaissance prince, except that it acted secretly, the CIA fostered and promoted American abstract expressionist paintings around the world for more than 20 years. The connection is improbable. This was a period in the 1950s and 60s when the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art. President Truman summed up a popular view when he said, If that's art, then I'm a Hot, hot and taught. What is a hot and taught as for the artists themselves, many were ex communists, barely acceptable in the American, in the America of the McCarthy era, and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive us government backing. Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the United States. Russian art strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket could not compete. So basically what the idea was that our artists, the way of capitalism is just so much better than everything else. This free expression, the environment of freedom and democracy and all of this stuff is so amazing that we just allow brains to thrive. And artistic expression is just so much better here in the United States. And so they took Upwards of 20, what are they? It's 20 million and purchased this art specifically to prop up. It's like if you, if they funneled money into us companies. Through shell companies so that they could say that, Oh, but look at our democracy. Our organizations, our shell companies are so much more successful than Russian companies, because look at how much money they have. Well, you gave them the money so you could make that argument. That's the whole point. The existence of the policy rumored and disputed for many years has now been confirmed by the, for the first time by former CIA officials, unknown to the artists, the new American art was secretly promoted under a policy known as the long. leash arrangement, similar in some ways to the indirect CIA backing of the journal encounter edited by Steven Spender. The decision to include culture and art in the U S cold war arsenal was taken as soon as the CIA was founded in 1947. This made that the appeal communism still have for many intellectuals and artists in the West, the new agency set up a division, the propaganda assets. Inventory, which at its peak could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines, and public information organizations. They joked that it was like a Wurlitzer jukebox. When the CIA pushed a button, it could hear whatever tune it wanted to play across the entire. The next key step came in 1950 when the international organizations division was set up under Tom Brayden. It was this office, which subsidized the animated version of George Orwell's Animal Farm, which sponsored American jazz artists. Opera recitals, the Boston symphonies, orchestra, international touring program. It's agents were placed in the film industry in publishing houses, even as travel writers for the celebrated photo guides. And we now know it promoted the America's anarchic avant garde movement. Abstract. Expressionism. Initially, more open attempts were made to support the new American art. In 1947, the State Department organized and paid for a touring international exhibition called Advancing American Art, which the aim of rebuting Soviet suggestions that America was a cultural desert. But the show caused outrage at home, prompting Truman to make his hot and taut remark in one bitter congressman to declare, I am just a dumb American who pays taxes. For this kind of trash, the tour had to be canceled. The U S government now faced a dilemma. The fill in the fill Philistinism combined with Joseph McCarthy's hysterical denunciations of all that was avant garde or unorthodox was deeply embarrassing. It discredited the idea that America was sophisticated, culturally rich democracy. It also prevented the U S government from consolidating the shift in cultural supremacy from Paris to New York since the 1930s. To resolve the CIA to resolve the dilemma. The CIA was brought in. Hmm. Very interesting Now this goes on and on and on. This is an article written by independent Independent dot co dot UK and the title of it is modern art was CIA Weapon and it was written written on Sunday the 22nd October of 1995 Super interesting article, I absolutely think that you could dive into more of the history of that, but I just want to give you that background. That's just one aspect of it, where our CIA has been a part of influencing culture through art. Now we can go into the next part of this, which is called Operation Mockingbird. And Operation Mockingbird was the hand in hand CIA operation between journalists, news networks, and Hollywood. And I myself need to do a deeper dive into this, but I had just recalled about this when talking about the Taylor Swift conversation and honestly, I didn't think this conversation would go that long. I usually have some warm up articles sometimes before I get into the deep stuff, but man, this is so interesting to me that I think we could probably sit here for five hours and talk about this. But it really is a culture death. You go back and listen to music, go back and listen to Led Zeppelin, go listen to a CDC, go listen to any of the, the great musicians of the 1970s and early eighties before the, the, the, the fingertips of the CIA started to get into our music and. We have done nothing but go downhill as a society musically. There's very few examples that you can give me that would even rival any of that. The very first, I'll give you a side story, go down the memory lane real quick. When I was maybe, oh, I don't know, 8 years old, 8 to 10 years old probably, my grandparents, Took me on a train ride to Chicago from Detroit to go see my cousins And I had just gotten for the train ride a new Walkman. I believe it was a gray Sony Walkman and My dad took me to go get my very first CD for my Walkman and I ended up getting the Led Zeppelin discography So all I listened to for probably Six months was every Led Zeppelin song ever and that is still to this day my favorite album I have the vinyl upstairs right now that I listen to greatest band of all time in my opinion anyways Trip down memory lane, so We have had a cultural death an artistic death here in the United States that has been unfolding for decades you even want to talk about architecture and I would love to do an interview with somebody who could speak more on this because I'm not an architect and I don't know the history of architecture But to me you go back and you look at even go back and look at Roman times Greek times go back and look at the Gothic eras and and go back and look at Pyramids like there go back and look at any history of time in the last 2000 years, and you will see if you took a time machine every 100 years, you would see beautiful architecture, cathedrals, and and political buildings and and courthouses and schools and all of these things are so beautifully created because when people used to create architecture, they used to do it to, to please the gods. They used to do it because there's a frequency within the building that you're in. And when you walk up to it and go through that door, there's a feeling that should be associated with that. And that is dead in the United States. Go drive your car around and the only thing you're going to see is a box and a box and a bigger box and a taller box and a wider box and you drive your box by the boxes and you see the boxes and you walk home to your box and you open up the box door to get into your box room to go into your box kitchen to create something in your box oven and pull something out of the box fridge to It's an endless cycle of squares in, in our culture, in our architecture. And it's, it's so sad to me to see that we just, that that's what we live in today. And so when we look at whether it's Project Mockingbird, whether we look at the CIA working hand in hand with the art within the Cold War, whether we talk about the, the historical aspects of music. There has been nothing but death of creativity in the United States. Every piece of culture that has been brought here has slowly dwindled and died, and it seems to me like it died at the hands of the organizations that are being funded by our tax dollars so that they can diminish our creativity, and so that they can control You are subconscious, and I think bringing it full circle back around to Taylor Swift is that's exactly what has happened. Here and now I do have a full article on the project Mockingbird. Let's see how far into this Well, we did 38 minutes on Taylor Swift So I think we can move on but I did find a substack article because it was actually a little bit interesting It's called a media manipulation the operation Mockingbird. It was written October 14th 2024 and it is from the reveal revealed. I Substack so revealed I dot substack. com and it looks like they do a pretty I don't know decent breakdown I haven't read through it all yet, but I think 38 minutes on on Media manipulation and Taylor Swift is probably a good start. So On your own time, feel free to go watch that. Here's a quick video on Project Mockingbird. Then we'll move on real concern That planted story is intended to serve a national purpose abroad Came home And were circulated here, and believed here. Because, uh, this would mean that the CIA could manipulate the news in the United States by channeling it through some foreign country. And we're looking at that very carefully. Do you have any people being paid by the CIA who are contributing to a major circulation American journal? We do have people who submit pieces to other, to American journals. Do you have any people paid by the CIA who are working for television networks? This, I think, gets into the kind of, uh, getting into the details, Mr. Chairman, that I'd like to get into in an executive session. Uh, at CBS, uh, we, uh, Had been contacted by the CIA. As a matter of fact, by the time I became the head of the whole news and public affairs operation in 1954. Ships had been established and I was told about them and asked if I'd carry on with them. We have quite a lot of detailed information, uh, and we will evaluate it and we will include any, um, evidence of wrongdoing or any evidence of impropriety in our final report and make recommendations. Do you have any people being paid by the CIA who are contributing to the National News Services, AP and UPI? Well, again, I think we're getting into the kind of detail, Mr. Chairman, that I'd prefer to handle in an executive session. Senator, do you think you named the new plan? So the answer is yes. Uh, that remains to be decided. I think it was entirely in order for our correspondents at that time, uh, to make use of, uh, C. I. A. agent, uh, chiefs, uh, of station and other members of the executive staff of C. I. A. as source. Alright, so there you have it. You can go, uh, read it through the article there, um, find it on Substack, uh, reveal. i. substack. com. Alright, so, let's move on. on from that into the next topic, which is going to be that in New York over the past few days, there has been a A bit of a debacle and one specifically between the Hasidic Jewish community in New York and the New York police. So the New York police showed up to a synagogue in, let's see here, let me go ahead and pull it up. All right. Basically what happened is the police showed up and they decided that they needed to shut down a underground. Tunnel system in New York, underneath a place of worship where these Hasidic Jews would go and congregate. And the idea behind this, the mainstream narrative is that the secret underground synagogue tunnels were causing destabilization of the buildings that were surrounding it. So that's the mainstream narrative that's come out in the last day or so. And nine of these Jews were arrested. And now I do want to preempt this with. Love my Jewish family. I'm not Jewish, so I don't technically have Jewish family, but you know what I mean? Love Jewish people. I love Christian people. I love Muslim people. I have no affinity towards any one class over the other. I have my own personal spiritual beliefs. I don't think that any religious beliefs in and of themselves make you a great or a bad person. I believe that there's Terrible people who are Jewish, and there's great people that are Jewish, there's terrible people who are Christians, there's great people that are Christians, there's terrible people who are Muslims, and there's great people who are Muslims. I've met them all. Mostly good people across the board. I can't even look at one and be like, Hey, I've met a bunch of people in this. No, every religion has bad apples. Just like you can say, you know, there's a bunch of people who say, Oh, police are bad. No, they're not bad. There's bad people everywhere in every occupation, religion, uh, country, uh, whatever it is. There's bad people everywhere, in every type of thing, but mostly people are good, mostly people intend good, and I, so, there's your disclaimer, as we go into this, because it's a very, um, very sensitive time, for this specific culture, and I get that, and so, I'm just going to preempt that. There's your disclaimer. All right. Now, everything from here forward is just me talking, but, uh, understand it from that framework. Um, so just as we were discussing, there has been a Jewish synagogue. That was creating underground tunnels. They were digging, digging, digging underground tunnels. And so the idea from the Jewish community that was there, and this is a very specific Jewish community. It's the Hasidic Jews, the, uh, I can see if I can pull up the exact names of them here for you. Cause it, it does matter because the specific culture is known for having to deal with some very specific, uh, um, pushback in certain situations in this small area. So this specific. Uh, Jewish culture, I believe is a, um, more Orthodox culture and I actually have a whole thing here, but to me, it's of Russian descent and So here's the general idea is that they were digging these holes and they claim that they were digging these holes because they were six. They started digging these holes six months ago because of the COVID restrictions or they dug them during COVID because they wanted to Uh, congregate and practice their faith during a time where they were being told, no, you cannot do that. Okay. Now there's a secondary theory, which is that they are digging these tunnels because the person that they, the, the, the Messiah, I believe that they believe in says that you have to consistently expand your place of worship. And maybe I'm getting that wrong because we'll get into a thread here in just a moment. Um, but let's, let's dive into the timeline of this. So on January 8th, videos circulated that showed a tunnel network under the Lubavitch, that's the specific one, the Lubavitch HQ in Crown Heights and several Jewish men being arrested. More videos show another Jewish man escaping through another tunnel and a group. resisting officers. The building was shut down afterwards. Initially, the claim was that the tunnels were made to pray during COVID. This, according to this thread, okay, and this thread is not, this is not CNN. This is not Fox. This is not, um, it's not a news organization. So In, I guess, everything you hear from every organization because I'm talking about those two, too. I wouldn't believe Fox or CNN on everything either, but this is the individual account on X, so take it with a grain of salt, but this seemed to be the most, uh, factually and organized article that I could find on this. It says initially the claim was the tunnels were made to pray during COVID. This is most likely false. Neighbor with Mikva access, as of six months ago, no work on the tunnel had begun. Since renovation was the main reason the tunnels were noticed, they could have Um, and now they add some receipts here, which says that the tunnel found burrowed under the women's section of 770, possibly destabilizing the building. And there's three, four other articles that are attached to this to back up the idea that they were just stating there. And so the next thing that it states here as we go into that, and so that's the, the general idea is that they were saying, Oh, we were doing this. During COVID because we weren't allowed to worship. Well, it seems to be that that was according to this false because these tunnels weren't started, but six months ago now where it really started to get some fuel on the fire is during one of these videos, as these people are. Resisting arrest. There was a, quite the scene. They're flipping over pews and creating these wall barriers as the police are grabbing them and they're pushing back and forth. And like this, this, the whole chaos ensuing inside of the synagogue. And as that's happening, a guy is breaking down the walls and like a police officer is like, or is breaking down the walls and starting to pull people out of it. And one of the, the, um, Jewish people that are there pull out a mattress and on this mattress, this is a soiled mattress that looks to be whether it's old blood or, uh, feces or something that's on this mattress. And it seems to be a small mattress. Um, Uh, that some people were saying was meant for, uh, a child and that's kind of what it looks like. Okay. But we won't make any assumptions yet, but that's, that's what's probably one of the biggest fuels of the fire. Now, the other thing that was very questionable about the situation is one of the people, one of the Jewish guys was escaping and he went through the tunnel system and he came up, right? Next to a child's museum. Hmm. Now that's not to say that there's children in the museum, but it is to say that the museum is meant for children. And so there has been theories that these individuals were using this for some sort of human trafficking. Okay. Now again, unfounded, a couple of weird coincidences and. Here's the side part. If these people were just digging tunnels so that they could pray during COVID, more power to them. That's awesome. You should do that. Fuck the government. They can't tell you what you can and cannot do, especially when it comes to your religious practices. So, wholeheartedly believe that. If that's what they were doing, awesome. They should do it. Um, but, there's a lot of skepticism around maybe some more nefarious reasons why this was happening. And so, as we go deeper into this thread and deeper into this article, It starts to talk about some of those things. It talks about the mattress, talks about the, um, the pushing and shoving that ensued, I believe nine people total were arrested that were a part of this synagogue. so the next portion of this says, The contents of the tunnel are very disturbing and don't seem like items extremists students would keep. A mattress with a dark stain was found. A baby high chair? Was found as well. So that's a weird one. The crowd protecting the tunnels isn't small. They are also aren't of student age. Here's the full video of the tunnel network that we have access to. The video shows passageways that extend that aren't explored. It's unclear whether the other passages might contain does this tunnel network look like something done in six months? So it's absolutely does not look like something done in six months. So let me share this with you here. Um, this is. It looks old, almost, to me. It looks like it's been used. There's, there's like, old chipped paint hanging off of door frames, and there's a big, uh, like, sand Let me go ahead and expand this for you here, but there's the, the high chair, there's what looks like some wheel barrels, a bunch of just stuff thrown around, cinder blocks thrown around some carved little tunnel doorways that they're crawling into now with a flashlight. And so as they walk back, it's just a crawl space now, essentially from the more. Substantial part of it that is where could have been where that person came up into that right right outside of that Children's Museum. So that's bizarre. I don't think this was built six months ago. Again, I'm not a archaeologist or whatever the hell you need to be to date that stuff. But it says where does the tunnel exit to using geomapping one of the tunnels exit near the local Children's Museum. It's also unclear how large the tunnel network is and where the other passages lead. As more information comes in, we will know how extensive the network is. And they show you the photos as to how they know this. This is where the video where the guy came out of it. This is the photo where they actually found that same portion of it. Um, discussion of the tunnels online has been avoided by many accounts. Some accounts claimed the tunnels were even fake. Israel War Room labeled such discussions of the tunnel anti Semitic. They claim that it's just a simple building code violation. Hmm, then why are we getting in, like, fights and arrested over building code violations? You get a fine for that. You don't get arrested. You don't get into pushing, shoving matches with the police over building codes. It says the label conspiracy theorist has been applied to people who believe tunnels could have been used to harm kids. No explanation has been given for the stained mattress and baby high chair in the tunnels. Is the conspiracy or is there more to the Brooklyn community? Research reveals a dark history of sexual assault in the Brooklyn area. If you do speak out about it, you are shunned from the community and harassed. Disturbing testimony in the article speculates that the number of young boys sexually assaulted could be as high as 50%. The community is, and there's four different articles that it attaches there. The community is very secretive and will oftentimes cover up or silence people who have been assaulted. The community is very religious and strict. If you go against the grain, the community turns against you. Hmm. And they have a video about this specific here with a religious look at the Satmar sect. John, good morning. Good morning. Fascinating case. And it's a case that's being watched closely Anthony, not just because of the allegation that a trusted community leader sexually abused a young girl. He was assigned to help, but also because the trial has. Hmm. Okay. So it sounded like maybe a different name of a different sect. That he was mentioning here, but within the Brooklyn area, a specific Jewish Pull back the veil, concealing the inner workings of a closed community. The trial of the Alright. So, here's shuns those who have been traumatized. They send threats to the survivors, harass them, and have total control over their lives. Police confirm it is very tough to get convictions and to have victims. While we wait for more information, here are some of the questions I and many others have about the tunnels. What was the liquid on the stained mattress? Why was there a baby high chair in the tunnel? Has a full forensic analysis been performed in the area? Where does the tunnels lead? Hmm. All good questions. Do any security cameras have clear view of entrances to the tunnels? If so, have they been subpoenaed? Have there been any people who reported this before the renovations in December 2023? Who anonymously tipped off the fire department? Who used the tunnels? How many minors entered the tunnels? Have any minors displayed behavior of a survivor upon exiting the tunnels? Okay, this is like, it's very specific. So, there's, there's the thread for you. Now, as we go into the culture surrounding this community that we are referencing here, which again is not just the normal Orthodox Judaism, it's not, um, it's a specific religious sect within Brooklyn. It's a very small, tight knit community, um, that are, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hasidic, uh, Yadkivik, right? Is that the name of it? So, very specific, uh, religious sect. So it says, okay. Once upon a time, it says, okay, for real. Once upon a time in Eastern Europe, a movement called Shabbat was founded. Its founder was Rabbi Schnur Zalman of Laity. This was in 1812. He was many things, among them a genius, Talmudist, and rabbi, the Kalbalist and mystic, and the rarest of things, a true original thinker. A Kabbalist, sorry, a Talmudist, meaning he follows the Talmud, um, and a rabbi and a Kabbalist and a mystic. So, there is a really interesting conversation surrounding the mystical Judaism, uh, there is a whole subsection of, of Judaism, uh, and historically much more prevalent. Back then, but that believed in mysticism and there is certain sections of this that still do, but like literal magic, um, while a true original of, and one of, in my opinion, the greatest philosophers and theologians in the history of humankind, he was also profoundly devoted to his own teachers in the Hasidic tradition and saw himself as the natural successor. The Hasidic tradition was founded a couple of generations earlier, and one of the prophecies is connection and devotion to a master in Hasidic parlance above all. Hasidism love and devote themselves to their rabbi as the one who helps connect the soul of the Jew with godliness. Okay, sounds a little bit like Catholicism, right? The aspect of Hasidic Judaism made into a lesser extent continues to make some people nervous. However, it has also been extremely thoroughly defended and broadly accepted as a legitimate manifestation of Judaism, which always has its Moses, Rabbi Akiva, and Vilna. And again, this is a single account. This isn't a religious text. This isn't a official person that is sitting here giving me this information, but it is, seems to be pretty legit to me. Um, but I haven't done a ton of research on the theology behind Hasidic mystic Judaism. Um, Rabbi, Rabbi Schnur Shabbat, uh, Rabbi Schnur Zalman Shabbat movement. So it's the Shabbat. Hasidic Judaism is one movement within a much broader Hasidic world full of dynasties of Rees, which each of their own rich traditions in ways, and it's R-E-B-B-E-S, not rabbis, although it is not a widely studied, they're al always emphasized point has has Hasidism Hasidism as part of their devotion. Generally see their rabbi as a Masonic figure. The word is loaded and makes people extremely uncomfortable. It may worth pausing briefly to explain that Hasidism is seen by, um, the founding of the movement as a redemptive revelation of Torah, a movement whose original Geist is to raise the Jewish people from the spiritual and physical malaise of exile and return them to their deepest soul and identity, a holy nation. with God. The more that holiness and redemptive soul is brought into the world, the more the time of the general redemption, the macronism of that inner redemption draws near. The rabbi is a Torah of flesh and blood, that general reality in state instantiated in a holy and saintly individual. Uh, so much for the brief explanation. They said fast forward to the 20th century, the descendant of Rabbi Schnur Zalman, Rabbi Joseph Yitzhak of Lubavitch survives imprisonment. and near execution by the KGB in the Nazi bombing of Warsaw, and after much deliberation, moves to New York City. Wow, that's wild. the known reasons for this choice are varied. Some are spiritual, New York becoming a center of influence on world Jewry. Not sure that's a word. Um, and some are very pragmatic. The Jews of the U. S. are already monetarily feeding most of the Eastern Bloc Jewry. Thus, the sixth Lubavitcher rabbi, Lubavitch is a tiny town in Belarus that has the home of the longest surviving branch of the Shabbat movement, um, comes to Brooklyn and moves into 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. The sixth rabbi passes away in 1950 and is succeeded by his son in law and distant cousin, Rabbi Menchem, Mendel Schneerson. In 1951, though he doesn't live in the building, 770 is where his office is located and remains the HQ of the Shabab movement. Now you have to understand the Shabab movement in the U. S. in 1951 can practically fit into a single small room. It is a tiny poor immigrant community, remnants of a world for that the Nazis and Bolsheviks destroyed between them. They had nothing, no resources, no connections, barely any English, a tiny immigrant community in what was then a prestigious middle class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. What they got in 1951, however, was capital L leadership. Not sure what that means. The 7th Rebbi, henceforth the Rebbi, declares in his first official speech as Rebbi that this is the generation that will bring a final end to exile and usher in the messianic age. He declares this about a long room full of people. He then sets about changing world Jewry. Again, don't know if that's a word. Books could be written about the Rebbi and have been, but suffice to say the Rebbi creates from nothing a mass movement devoting to hunting down and love the Jews that Hitler hunted and hatred. I'm not going to read all of it. hunting down in love, the Jews that hunter, that Hitler hunted in hatred with bringing Torah and mitzvoth, in love. The commandments to every single Jew. Shabbat centers, so it sounds like they're trying to just expand among all of the Jewish people. Shabbat centers with no central funding whatsoever, by the way, are opened all over the world. The rabbi pushes and pushes for a single Jew to perform a single commandment. He seeks to revive a broken and orphaned generation. He expands Shabbat and massive global movement. All of this is just an atheist, know nothing All of this is just what an atheist know nothing can appreciate about the Rebbe. He barely slept and was totally publicly devoted to other people for decades. Stories of Jews and non Jews meeting with him are countless, and always he emphases the imminent redemption and how to get there. Okay, now it says we get to the sensitive part of the story, but I'm going to try to stick to simple public fact. The Rebbe's emphasis on, um, The Messiah grows greater and greater in his final years of leadership. The Rebbe passes away in 1994. The Rebbe's Hasidism very much believed, and believe, that if anyone in this generation was a candidate to become the final Redeemer according to Jewish law and tradition, it was and is the Lubavitcher Rebbe. However, following the Rebbe's passing, as the dust settles, there is a bit of a split. Some hedonism fervently believe that spreading the awareness of the Rebbe as the Redeemer is a core part of bringing about the Redemption. They are the Masik, Mes, Mesh, Ikitism. M E S H I C H I S T I M. Their flag is yellow and ubiquitous. The majority of Hasidism and ever growing consolidated core of Shabbat official organs believe that this is not the Rebbe's will. Okay. Um. Now another issue, 770, the home and place, let's see if there's anything specific we want to get into here. Uh, now you know a lot about a certain subsection of Jewish culture that you probably never needed to know so much about. Um, another thing you should know is that even beyond the, by now, old distinction between, uh, the maschicatism and the anti S, as they are known, Shabbat is highly decentralized and full of typical politics. Territorialism fights over money and all sorts of very human issues. Okay, uh, let's see what else. Um, this person is very thorough in their study of this. Um, and so, to the current contremps, you have a global, decentralized, massively successful organization that runs charities and synagogues and helps Jews with problems, physical and spiritual, all over the world with an official HQ partially occupied by something like a street gang. Sounds like we missed that part, but I'm not going to go back for you. Um, and so, uh, This basically just says they're not above violence to claim their own turf. There's a big turf war between that split off between one subsection of this and the other subsection. In any case, this week, the actual ownership of 7770 called the cement trucks to repair this damage and stop the progress on the expansionism. Um Interesting. Uh, basically it says that as a result of this expansionism and taking over this territory, they wanted to, uh, start breaking into, uh, the, the, so basically one portion of this subsection lives in the top floor and one portion lives on the bottom floor. And so, uh, you have a global decentralized, right? Like a streaking. This, uh, Fat Tim. have taken upon themselves in recent months unilaterally to expand 770. Their way was doing was starting to break into an adjoining basement. The main synagogue of 770 is in the basement and old decommissioned ritual bath. Or mitzvah. 770 is indeed, which a mikvah is basically where you're supposed to go bath, bathe yourselves. Women are supposed to go there before they have their period. Men are supposed to go there before and after they have sex. It's like a, it's like you cleanse yourself in this area. Um, 770 is, Uh, is indeed far too small for the massive number of people who wish to pray there, study there, or something that more and more Hasidism have been seeking a proper solution to for years. However, a bunch of teenagers breaking down walls in their free time, you be the judge. In any case, this week, the actual ownership of 770 called in the cement trucks to repair this damage and stop the progress on the expansion. Um, the Fatim responded territorially, the police became involved, and you have videos of Yeshiva students escaping arrest through sewer gates. I think that's most of the factual context. You're welcome. Wow! Uh, okay. Super super interesting. Uh, if you wish to read more about these topics, here are some good books. The Philosophy of Shabbat by Rabbi Nisan Mindel, The Rebbe's Army by Sue Fishcough, and Rebbe by Josef Tolskien. Hmmm. Very interesting. Uh, the broad interest in this story on Twitter and beyond is largely antisemitic with filth like this, uh, is a dime a dozen. Looks like something was, uh, deleted there. Um, interesting. Okay. So this makes much more sense to me and I think was probably. important to actually get into the details on, uh, then, uh, then long term human trafficking under the streets of New York. Uh, so we have come to a conclusion and that is I vote. Not human trafficking. That is my, that is my conclusion here. I have debunked this, uh, maybe not completely, but it seems much more likely that that was the case, is that there's a bunch of territorial, uh, Jew fights going on and they're fighting over territory and expanding their territory and the landlord called on them and they were digging into the basement and now we see what we have. A little weird that there was a high chair. There, so there's your competing threads, I guess, and one thread being these, uh, this Jewish sect is creating underground tunnels for human trafficking, the other one being this is a territory war between very somewhat poor, um, and, uh, emotionally charged organizations for territory. Um, so that, that seems to make a lot more sense to me guys than, than underground human trafficking. Jewish rabbis. I don't know. Um, but there is some articles out there of, of, you know, just as you can find for Christians and Catholics of wrongdoings, which if that's the, the ruler that you measure everybody's affiliations by, then you can basically say that everybody is running a human trafficking organization then, I guess. All right, so let's move on. The last thing that we're going to talk about, and we're going to talk about this somewhat briefly, is the fact that, uh, and let me go ahead and actually just pull this article up, because I haven't been, I haven't had time to read through this completely yet, because this just happened. So, this is breaking news, is the fact that the United States and the UK coalition conducted a strike on Houthi rebels. A joint strike, and So, as this article loads, we'll learn more and more, but I guess the, the, uh, the concern around this is that the reason that, the concern around this is obviously that the Houthi rebels are backed by Iran. Right? So, this is, this comes from Fox News, and it says, hold this over a little bit. Alright, this comes from Fox News, where it says, as it loaded and unloaded on me, um, That the U. S. and U. K. coalition strike Iran backed Houthi targets in Yemen after spat of ship attacks in the Red Sea. So you've been hearing this back and forth, right? The drone strikes, and the aircraft carriers shooting down the drones, and all of this has been going on with these rebel militants that are backed by Iran. And so what I think is interesting is it's always Iran backed militants. Is, is, are Ukraine, in every article by Russia, U. S. backed? Ukrainian militants? Do they? I'm sure they understand the proxy war just as much there as we do here, right? So if we're calling that every single thing, it's not it's not a war with Houthi rebels. It's a war with Iran. And that's what they're preempting for us. And that's that's what the priming that we're seeing here is before they put Houthi, they put Iran backed and that's for a reason. So Yemen's Iran backed Houthi militants have stepped up attacks or commercial on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and It says the United States and Britain carried out a series of strikes on military organizations and locations belonging to Iran backed Houthis in Yemen early Friday in response to militant groups ongoing attacks on vessels traveling through the Red Sea. Fox News is told that there were attacks on more than a dozen Houthi targets by air, surface, and subsurface platforms. The attacks were carried out with support from Australia, Netherlands, Iran and Canada, a U. S. defense official says the U. K. contributed aircraft. President Biden said he'd authorize strikes in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against the International Maritime Vessels in the Red Sea, including the use of anti ship ballistic missiles for the very first time in history. These Houthi attacks, Biden said, have endangered U. S. personnel and its allies and have threatened freedom of navigation. These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes. I would love to hear President Biden say imperil freedom of navigation together. That would be impressive. I will not hesitate. He said to direct further measurements to protect our people. And the free flow of international commerce as necessary. The strikes came shortly after the White House called a lid on President Biden's engagements for the evening as he was not expected to discuss the matter publicly. It follows news that the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had not notified the President or other officials of his whereabouts for several days. Okay. A joint statement from the government
fWotD Episode 2439: Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Monday, 8 January 2024 is Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp..Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. is a landmark 1948 New York Supreme Court decision that was the first case in United States copyright law to recognize moral rights in authorship. The Shostakovich case was brought following the United States premiere of The Iron Curtain, a 1948 spy film and the first anti-Soviet Hollywood film of the Cold War era. The film featured the music of several Soviet composers: Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Sergei Prokofiev, and Nikolai Myaskovsky.The composers—as nominal plaintiffs standing in for the Soviet government, according to some scholars—sued the film's distributor, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, in the New York Supreme Court, the state's trial court. Conceding that their compositions were in the public domain under United States law, the composers sought an injunction prohibiting further distribution of the film. The composers relied on several legal theories, most notably that they had moral rights in authorship preventing the misuse of their works in a manner that contradicted their beliefs. The court rejected the composers' arguments, holding that the standard for adjudicating moral rights was not settled law and that, in any event, moral rights conflict with the right of the public to use public domain works. The Soviet government continued to press the composers' moral rights case before the French courts, which ruled in their favor in Société Le Chant du Monde v. Société Fox Europe and Société Fox Americaine Twentieth Century.Legal commenters have described the case as a landmark decision and noted that it is representative of United States' courts reactions to moral rights. The decision has been criticized as a misunderstanding of moral rights and praised for upholding the right of the public to use public domain works over the rights of authors to censor uses that they disagree with.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:26 UTC on Monday, 8 January 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Brian Neural.
As a music lover, you may be familiar with Melvin Chen for his recordings of piano music by Dmitri Shostakovich or Ludwig van Beethoven. He put his double degrees from The Juilliard School to work as Professor in the Practice of Piano at Yale School of Music and is Director of Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, which is Yale's Summer School of Music. Melvin Chen arrived at his career in music after earning degrees in chemistry and physics from Yale and Harvard. He spoke with Suzanne about how he has allowed his passion, energy, and curiosity steer his many diverse interests.
SynopsisIn 1974, St. Petersburg was still called “Leningrad” and still part of what we now call the “former Soviet Union.” Back then, the most famous living Soviet composer was Dmitri Shostakovich, whose health was rapidly failing from the cancer that would claim his life the following year.On today's date in 1974, Shostakovich's final string quartet, his Fifteenth, was given its premiere performance by the Taneyev Quartet. The work was supposed to have been premiered by the Beethoven Quartet, but its cellist died unexpectedly, and, mindful of his own mortality, Shostakovich was reluctant to postpone the scheduled premiere. After all, he might not be around by the time the Beethoven Quartet found a replacement cellist.When his String Quartet No. 1 had premiered in 1938, Shostakovich had described that work as “joyful, merry, lyrical” and “springlike.” His Fifteenth Quartet, on the other hand, is obviously a “winter work,” written by someone who knows he might never see another spring.If Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies represent the “public” side of a Soviet composer, his fifteen string quartets might be described as chronicling his “private” inner world of hopes, fears and dreams.Music Played in Today's ProgramDmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) String Quartet No. 15; Emerson String Quartet DG 463 284
Jeremy Eichler's new book, Time's Echo, just out from Faber (HB; £25) tangles with memory – what we choose to remember, what to forget – as history takes hold, and he argues that music can become in many ways the most powerful form of memorial. To illustrate this argument, he engages with works by Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten. James Jolly caught up with him recently to talk about the book. The musical excerpts which appear on the podcast, with kind permission, are: Shostakovich Symphony No 13, 'Babi Yar' Nikita Storojev; CBSO & Choir / Okko Kamu (Chandos) Schoenberg A Survivor or from Warsaw Franz Mazura; CBSO & Chorus / Simon Rattle (Warner Classics) R Strauss Metamorphosen Sinfonia of London / John Wilson (Chandos) Britten War Requiem Soloists; Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral; LSO & Chorus / Richard Hickox (Chandos) This Gramophone Podcast is published in association with Wigmore Hall. Visit Wigmore Hall's webite for full details of this week's events.
The latest in our series of composer podcasts focusses on Dmitri Shostakovich. Edward Seckerson joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford to share his insights with us into one of the greatest of 20th-century musical figures, with a particular focus on his extraordinary symphonies and what they reveal about his life.
Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996) was one of the most prolific composers of the Soviet era. He enjoyed a period of popularity in Russia during the 1960s (he called them his ‘starry years'), but his music has only been widely heard in the West since a revival of interest in the second decade of the 21st century. Weinberg was born in Warsaw, to a musical Jewish family. His early life, and his musical outlook, were shaped by his experiences during the Second World War. In 1939, the year he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, Weinberg led Poland ahead of the German invasion—all of his immediate family perished in the Holocaust. He moved to Minsk but was soon evacuated by the Soviet authorities to Tashkent. From there, he made contact with Dmitri Shostakovich, who was impressed with Weinberg's music, and the two composers became lifelong friends. Shostakovich facilitated Weinberg's move to Moscow in 1943, where he resided until his death.Serenade for Orchestra, Op. 47 No. 41 I. Allegretto 5:462 II. Allegro molto 4:453 III. Adagio 4:244 IV. Allegro giocoso 5:56USSR State Radio OrchestraAlexander Gauk, conductorString Quartet No. 7 in C Major, Op. 595 I. Adagio 8:026 II. Allegretto 5:467 III. Adagio – Allegro moderato 11:58String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 668 String Quartet No. 8 (in one movement) 15:31Borodin String Quartet Sinfonietta No. 2, Op. 749 I. Allegro 3:2810 II. Allegretto 4:0411 III. Adagio 4:0412 IV. Andantino 5:09Moscow Chamber OrchestraRudolf Barshai, conductor Help support our show by purchasing this album at:Downloads (classicalmusicdiscoveries.store) Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by Uber and Apple Classical. @CMDHedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber#AppleClassical Please consider supporting our show, thank you!Donate (classicalmusicdiscoveries.store) staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcast with the permission of Sean Dacy from Rosebrook Media.
Eleanor Wachtel has spoken to the award-winning English writer Julian Barnes many times over the course of his lengthy career. In June 2016, he joined her onstage at the Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library to talk about his love of music, his novel The Noise of Time, about the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and dealing with death. *Please note this episode contains some discussion of suicide.
Jess Gillam and percussionist Sehyogue Aulakh share some of the music that they love, from Aretha Franklin to Dmitri Shostakovich, JS Bach and Seckou Keita. Sehyogue's Playlist: SHOSTAKOVICH – Symphony No. 5 in D Minor Op. 47: I. Moderato (Royal Concertegabouw Orchestra, Bernard Haiktink) MOBY – Porcelain COUPERIN arr. Ades – Les Baricades misterieuses (Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon) ARETHA FRANKLN – (You make me feel like a) Natural Woman SECKOU KEITA - Sakiliba COLERIDGE-TAYLOR – Ballade in A Minor Op. 33: I. Allegro energetico, ma non troppo presto (Chineke! Orchestra, Kalena Bovell SIMON MOULLIER - Acceptance (Simon Moullier - Vibraphone, Balafon, Percussions, Synths; Dayna Stephens - Saxophone ; Simon Chivallon – Piano; Luca Alemanno – Bass; Jongkuk Kim - Drums)
Synopsis Back in Bach's day, there were churchmen aghast at the thought that composers were trying to sneak flashy opera music into Sunday services. Church music was meant to be simple, austere, and, well , not “operatic.” So what would they have made of the three “church parables” – mini-operas, really, composed in the 20th century by the great English composer Benjamin Britten? The third of these, The Prodigal Son, debuted on today's date in 1968 at St. Bartholomew's Church in Orford, England. All three impart Christian values and were meant for church performance – scored for a handful of soloists, modest choir, and a small ensemble that would fit in front of and on either side of a church altar where church music was normally performed. But operas they are, and Britten himself let the “o” word slip when he commented in a 1967 interview that he was (quote), “doing another church opera to go with the other two, Curlew River and The Burning Fiery Furnace, to make a kind of trilogy.'” Britten took these mini-operas seriously, and dedicated The Prodigal Son to his new friend, the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who in turn would dedicate his 14th Symphony to Britten. Music Played in Today's Program Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976) The Prodigal Son Peter Pears, tenor; John Shirley-Quirk, baritone; Robert Tear, tenor; Bryan Drake, baritone; English Opera Group Orchestra; Benjamin Britten, conductor. Decca 425713 On This Day Births 1904 - German-born American musical composer Frederick Loewe, in Berlin; 1913 - Soviet composer Tikhon Khrennikov, in Elets (Julian date: May 28); 1960 - English composer Mark Anthony Turnage, in Grays, Essex; Deaths 1899 - French composer Ernest Chausson, age 44, after a bicycle accident near Limay; 1918 - Italian opera composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, age 76, in Milan; 1934 - British composer Frederick Delius, age 72, in Grez-sur-Loing, France; 1964 - American composer Louis Gruenberg, age 75, in Los Angeles; Premieres 1732 - Handel: opera "Acis and Galetea" (in an English/Italian version), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket, at the request of Princess Anne (Gregorian date: June 21); 1865 - Wagner: opera "Tristan and Isolde," in Munich at the Hoftheater, conducted by Hans von Bülow; 1921 - Stravinsky: "Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (in memory of Claude Debussy), in London at Queen's Hall, with Serge Kousevitzky conducting; Three days earlier, on June 7, 1921, Stravinsky had attended the British premiere of the concert version of his ballet score "The Rite of Spring," also at Queen's Hall, with Eugene Goossens conducting; 1939 - Bliss: Piano Concerto (with Solomon the soloist) and Vaughan Williams: "Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus," at Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic, with Sir Adrian Boult conducting; These works (Along with Bax's Seventh Symphony, which premiered the previous day) were all commissioned by the British Council as part of the British Exhibition at 1939 World's Fair; 1941 - Poulenc: first public performance of Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani, in Paris; 1968 - Britten: church opera "The Prodigal Son," in Orford Church, near Aldeburgh. Links and Resources On Britten
What did Dmitri Shostakovich intend to portray in his music? There is probably no more debated a question in all of 20th century Western Classica lMusic than this one. On the surface, it seems to have an easy answer. Shostakovich portrayed his own thoughts and feelings in his music, just as any other composer would. And that is certainly true. Shostakovich, above anything else, was truly one of the great composers in history. HIs mastery of form, meldoy, strcuture, pacing, and his ability to find a near universal expression of grief and passion is practically unparalelled among composers. That much is clear to those of us who love Shostakovich's music. But everything else, including that thorny question of what his music MEANS, is much, much, much less clear. Practically Shostakovich's entire life was lived under the shadow of Soviet Russia, and naturally his musical career was lived under that shadow as well. This means that a sometimes impenetrable layer of secrecy, mystery, and doubt always lies under the surface of Shostakovich's music. In 1960, Kruschev, who had been loudly trumpetting Shostakovich's name to Western Press as an example of a free Soviet artist post the excesses of the Stalin regime, decided that Shostakovich should be the new head of the Russian Union of Composers. The catch was that Shostakovich would need to join the Communist Party in order to take the job. Shostakovich, who had long resisted becoming a full Party member, agreed. Shostakovich was clearly disappointed in himself, as his friend Lev Lebedinsky wrote this: “I will never forget some of the things he said that night [before his induction into the Party], sobbing hysterically: ‘I'm scared to death of them.' Why does all this matter? Because just a few days after joining the Commhnist party and after meeting with his friends Isaac Glikman and Lev Lebedinsky, Shostakovich traveled to East Germany -- specifically to Dresden — to work on a film which would commemorate the destruction of the city during World War II. He was supposed to write music for this film, but instead, Shostakovich sat down, and in THREE DAYS, he wrote his 8th string quartet. He would later write to Glikman: “However much I've tried to draft my obligations for the film, I just couldn't do it. Instead I wrote an ideologically deficient quartet that nobody needs. I reflected that if I die it's not likely anyone will write a quartet dedicated to my memory. So I decided to write it myself. You could even write on the cover: ‘Dedicated to the memory of the composer of this quartet.” Today on the show we're going to explore this remarkable piece together - join us!
Excuse me! Would you like to hear twice as many podcasts and longer editions of these ones, and support our print magazine? Then join the WSC Supporters' Club! Sign up here: www.patreon.com/whensaturdaycomesTaking a break from reading the match reports of Dmitri Shostakovich, magazine editor Andy Lyons, writer Harry Pearson and host Daniel Gray discuss Last Days and Season Ends, from Basque delight to flip flops in Paisley, via the bonkers Bundesliga of 1999. Record Breakers brings a West Flanders wonder, WSC Deputy Editor Ffion Thomas takes us inside the pages of magazine issue 431 and we continue our giddy feature, The Final Third, in which a guest contributes a match, a player and an object to the WSC Museum of Football. Joining Dan as our visiting curator this time is The Times newspaper's Scottish football correspondent, and author of Fergie Rises, Michael Grant.Support the show
Synopsis It's all a matter of timing. In 1942, the Soviet Union was America's wartime ally, and the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich made the cover of TIME magazine. Seven years later, the war was over, but the Cold War was on – with a vengeance. On March 25, 1949, Shostakovich arrived in New York for his first visit to America as part of the Soviet delegation to a “Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace.” By then the anti-Communist tide of American public opinion resulted in pickets and protests. Those who spoke at the congress, including the American composer Aaron Copland, felt compelled to preface their comments with unambiguously anti-Communist manifestos. Shostakovich nervously read the equally unambiguous speech prepared for him by his Soviet minders, attacking American imperialism in general and the expatriate Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, in particular. It was embarrassing for everyone concerned. But while he was in New York, Shostakovich got to play a piano reduction of the Scherzo from his Fifth Symphony for a huge crowd at Madison Square Garden. That, at least, resulted in a big ovation – and maybe that was how he privately approached the whole, sad affair – as a kind of grim scherzo, or joke. Music Played in Today's Program Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) Symphony No. 5 USSR Cultural Ministry Symphony; Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor. MCA 32128
Soviet-Russian Dmitri Shostakovich composed symphonies in times of war and strife. Learn about the politics, subversion and emotion behind his music.
Synopsis It's strange to read the doubts Tchaikovsky expressed in letters about many of his greatest musical works, which he first would dismiss as failures, only to change his mind completely a few weeks later. Take, for example, his ballet The Nutcracker, which had its premiere performance on this day in 1892 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Tchaikovsky described working on the ballet as a "dread-inspiring, feverish nightmare, so abominable that I don't think I have the strength to put it into words." At the time, Tchaikovsky was MUCH more optimistic about an opera he was writing titled Yolanta—only to abruptly changed his mind, writing "Now I think that the ballet is good and the opera nothing special." This time, Tchaikovsky got it right—although initially the opera DID prove more popular than the ballet. Another—and deliberately nightmarish—Russian composition had its first performance on this same day 70 years later. This was the Symphony No. 13 by Dmitri Shostakovich, subtitled Babi Yar, based on poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This choral symphony was first heard on today's date in 1962 at the Moscow Conservatory, but was quickly banned by the Soviet authorities. Its title poem, Babi Yar, called attention to Soviet indifference to the Holocaust and persistent anti-Semitism in Soviet society. Yevtushenko later softened these lines so the symphony could be performed in the U.S.S.R. Music Played in Today's Program Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) The Nutcracker Ballet, Op. 71 Kirov Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, cond. Philips 462 114 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Symphony No. 13, Op. 113 (Babi Yar) Nicola Ghiuselev, bass; Choral Arts Society of Washington; National Symphony; Mstislav Rostropovich, cond. Erato 85529
Dmitri Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony was inspired by an unflinching poem about the ‘Holocaust of Bullets' at Babi Yar in Ukraine, one of the biggest massacres of World War Two. Lucy Ash 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: the composer's son Maxim Shostakovich, the poet's sister, Elena Yevtushenko and the music critic Iosif Raiskin. One March day in 1962, the young Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko got an unexpected phone call. Dmitri Shostakovich was on the line asking if he had permission to set one of his verses to music. The poem, Babi Yar, denounces the massacre of 34,000 Jews in a ravine near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. It condemned not only Nazi atrocities, but also the Soviet Union's state-sanctioned anti-Semitism. Officials responded by launching a vicious campaign against the poet and banning readings or new publications of his work. So, Yevtushenko was delighted by the famous composer's moral and artistic support. According to his sister Elena, he felt the music had “made the poem ten times stronger”. But, as Maxim Shostakovich explains, the Soviet authorities tried to prevent the symphony from ever reaching an audience. The composer's son recalls how his father was consumed with anxiety ahead of the premiere, still haunted by his narrow escape, decades earlier, from Stalin's secret police. Pauline Fairclough, author of a recent Shostakovich biography, says that, despite all the pressures, the composer never stopped experimenting with musical forms. Concert pianist Benjamin Goodman describes Shostakovich's ‘word painting' technique and the ways in which he conveys Yevtushenko's verse in music to create a sombre, chilling, but ultimately consoling choral symphony. At the Babyn Yar Memorial site in Kyiv, Lucy is shown fragments of a Russian rocket which hit a nearby apartment building last spring. In the midst of a new, 21st-century war, she reflects on the nature of artistic and political courage and parallels between the Khrushchev era and Russia under Putin today. Producer Tatyana Movshevich
Film music began as a solution to a problem. Early film projectors were really loud, therefore something was needed to cover up all the noise. In addition, silent movies apparently seemed a bit awkward without any musical accompaniment. Enter, usually, a pianist, who would improvise musical accompaniments to the events on the screen. None other than Dmitri Shostakovich got his first job as a cinema pianist, honing his improvisatory skills, and sometimes receiving cat calls and boos for his fantasy filled musings that tended to stray away from the action on the screen. Music in the silent film era had to help the audience in pointing out important moments to the audience, enhancing the emotional effects of the story, and most importantly, it had to give a certain musical line to every character, giving to them the emotional depth that the audience couldn't get since they weren't going to hear their voice. To do this, early film composers turned to the idea of the Leitmotif, an idea developed by the opera composer Richard Wagner. This idea would take hold even once "talkies" took over the screen, with composers such as Max Steiner, Charlie Chaplin, and others setting the stage for a century of brilliant music, by composers like Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Dmitri Shostakovich, Rachel Portman, Hans Zimmer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Christopher Willis, and dozens and dozens more. Today on the show we'll talk about this development of film music, and also hear some of the greatest and most recognizable film music ever written. We'll also talk about why film music is sometimes looked down upon in the classical music world, and how we might begin to change that perception. Join us!
Heralded as "[one] of the most powerful voices of our time" by the Los Angeles Times, bass-baritone Davóne Tines has come to international attention as a path-breaking artist whose work not only encompasses a diverse repertoire but also explores the social issues of today. As a Black, gay, classically trained performer at the intersection of many histories, cultures, and aesthetics, Tines is engaged in work that blends opera, art song, contemporary classical music, spirituals, gospel, and songs of protest, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity. Davóne Tines is Musical America's 2022 Vocalist of the Year. During the 2022-23 season, he continues his role as the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale's first-ever Creative Partner and, beginning in January 2023, he will serve as Brooklyn Academy of Music's first Artist in Residence in more than a decade. In addition to strategic planning, programming, and working within the community, this season Tines curates the “Artist as Human” program, exploring how each artist's subjectivity—be it their race, gender, sexuality, etc.—informs performance, and how these perspectives develop throughout their repertoire. In the fall of 2022, Tines makes a number of important debuts at prominent New York institutions, including the Park Avenue Armory, New York Philharmonic, BAM, and Carnegie Hall, continuing to establish a strong presence in the city's classical scene. He opens his season with the New York premiere of Tyshawn Sorey's Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) at the Park Avenue Armory, also doubling as Tines' Armory debut. Inspired by one of Sorey's most important influences, Morton Feldman and his work Rothko Chapel, Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) takes after Feldman's focus on expansive textures and enveloping sounds, aiming to create an all-immersive experience. Tine's solo part was written specifically for him by Sorey, marking a third collaboration between the pair; Sorey previously created arrangements for Tines' Recital No. 1: MASS and Concerto No. 2: ANTHEM. Peter Sellars directs, with whom Davóne collaborated in John Adam's opera Girls of the Golden West and Kaija Saariaho's Only the Sound Remains. Tines' engagements continue with Everything Rises, an original, evening length staged musical work he created with violinist Jennifer Koh, premiering in New York as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. Everything Rises tells the story of Tines' and Koh's artistic journeys and family histories through music, projections, and recorded interviews. As a platform, it also centers the need for artists of color to be seen and heard. Everything Rises premiered in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles in April 2022, with the LA Times commenting, “Koh and Tines' stories have made them what they are, but their art needs to be—and is—great enough to tell us who they are.” This season also has Tines making his New York Philharmonic debut performing in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, led by Jaap van Zweden. Tines returns to the New York Philharmonic in the spring to sing the Vox Christi in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, also under van Zweden. Tines is a musician who takes full agency of his work, devising performances from conception to performance. His Recital No. 1: MASS program reflects this ethos, combining traditional music with pieces by J.S. Bach, Margaret Bonds, Moses Hogan, Julius Eastman, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, and Tines. This season, he makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut performing MASS at Weill Hall, and later brings the program to the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, Baltimore's Shriver Hall, for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and as part of Boston's Celebrity Series. Concerto No. 1: SERMON is a similar artistic endeavor, combining pieces including John Adams' El Niño; Vigil, written by Tines and Igée Dieudonné with orchestration by Matthew Aucoin; “You Want the Truth, but You Don't Want to Know,” from Anthony Davis' X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X; and poems from Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and Maya Angelou into a concert performance. In May 2021, Tines performed Concerto No. 1: SERMON with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He recently premiered Concerto No. 2: ANTHEM—created by Tines with music by Michael Schachter, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, and text by Mahogany L. Browne—with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Also this season, Tines performs in El Niño with the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by composer John Adams; a concert performance of Adams' Girls of the Golden West with the Los Angeles Philharmonic also led by Adams; and a chamber music recital with the New World Symphony.Going beyond the concert hall, Davóne Tines also creates short music films that use powerful visuals to accentuate the social and poetic dimensions of the music. In September 2020, Lincoln Center presented his music film VIGIL, which pays tribute to Breonna Taylor, the EMT and aspiring nurse who was shot and killed by police in her Louisville home, and whose tragic death has fueled an international outcry. Created in collaboration with Igée Dieudonné, and Conor Hanick, the work was subsequently arranged for orchestra by Matthew Aucoin and premiered in a live-stream by Tines and the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Teddy Abrams. Aucoin's orchestration is also currently part of Tines' Concerto No. 1: SERMON. He also co-created Strange Fruit with Jennifer Koh, a film juxtaposing violence against Asian Americans with Ken Ueno's arrangement of “Strange Fruit” — which the duo perform in Everything Rises — directed by dramaturg Kee-Yoon Nahm. The work premiered virtually as part of Carnegie Hall's “Voices of Hope Series.” Additional music films include FREUDE, an acapella “mashup” of Beethoven with African-American hymns that was shot, produced, and edited by Davóne Tines at his hometown church in Warrenton, Virginia and presented virtually by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale; EASTMAN, a micro-biographical film highlighting the life and work of composer Julius Eastman; and NATIVE SON, in which Tines sings the Black national anthem, “Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,” and pays homage to the '60s Civil Rights-era motto “I am a man.” The latter film was created for the fourth annual Native Son Awards, which celebrate Black, gay excellence. Further online highlights include appearances as part of Boston Lyric Opera's new miniseries, desert in, marking his company debut; LA Opera at Home's Living Room Recitals; and the 2020 NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards.Notable performances on the opera stage the world premiere performances of Kaija Saariaho's Only the Sound Remains directed by Peter Sellars at Dutch National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Opéra national de Paris, and Teatro Real (Madrid); the world and European premieres of John Adams and Peter Sellars' Girls of the Golden West at San Francisco Opera and Dutch National Opera, respectively; the title role in a new production of Anthony Davis' X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X with the Detroit Opera (where he was Artist in Residence during the 2021-22 season) and the Boston Modern Opera Project with Odyssey Opera in Boston where it was recorded for future release; the world premiere of Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons' Fire Shut Up In My Bones at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's Crossing, directed by Diane Paulus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; a new production of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex at Lisbon's Teatro Nacional de São Carlos led by Leo Hussain; and Handel's rarely staged Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo at National Sawdust, presented in a new production by Christopher Alden. As a member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), Tines served as a co-music director of the 2022 Ojai Music Festival, and has performed in Hans Werner Henze's El Cimarrón, John Adams' Nativity Reconsidered, and Were You There in collaboration with composers Matthew Aucoin and Michael Schachter.Davóne Tines is co-creator and co-librettist of The Black Clown, a music theater experience inspired by Langston Hughes' poem of the same name. The work, which was created in collaboration with director Zack Winokur and composer Michael Schachter, expresses a Black man's resilience against America's legacy of oppression—fusing vaudeville, opera, jazz, and spirituals to bring Hughes' verse to life onstage. The world premiere was given by the American Repertory Theater in 2018, and The Black Clown was presented by Lincoln Center in summer 2019.Concert appearances have included John Adams' El Niño with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Vladimir Jurowski, Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony, Kaija Saariaho's True Fire with the Orchestre national de France conducted by Olari Elts, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the San Francisco Symphony, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Royal Swedish Orchestra, and a program spotlighting music of resistance by George Crumb, Julius Eastman, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Caroline Shaw with conductor Christian Reif and members of the San Francisco Symphony at SoundBox. He also sang works by Caroline Shaw and Kaija Saariaho alongside the Calder Quartet and International Contemporary Ensemble at the Ojai Music Festival. In May 2021, Tines sang in Tulsa Opera's concert Greenwood Overcomes, which honored the resilience of Black Tulsans and Black America one hundred years after the Tulsa Race Massacre. That event featured Tines premiering “There are Many Trails of Tears,” an aria from Anthony Davis' opera-in-progress Fire Across the Tracks: Tulsa 1921.Davóne Tines is a winner of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, recognizing extraordinary classical musicians of color who, early in their career, demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and their communities. In 2019 he was named as one of Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders. He is also the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artists Award given by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, where he teaches a semester-length course “How to be a Tool: Storytelling Across Disciplines” in collaboration with director Zack Winokur.The Truth In This ArtThe Truth In This Art is a podcast interview series supporting vibrancy and development of Baltimore & beyond's arts and culture. To find more amazing stories from the artist and entrepreneurial scenes in & around Baltimore, check out my episode directory. Stay in TouchNewsletter sign-upSupport my podcastShareable link to episode ★ Support this podcast ★
In almost every one of the past shows I've done about Shostakovich, the name Joseph Stalin is mentioned almost as much as the name Dmitri Shostakovich, and of course, there's a good reason for that. Shostakovich's life and music was inextricably linked to the Soviet dictator, and Shostakovich, like millions of Soviet citizens, lived in fear of the Stalin regime, which exiled, imprisoned, or murdered so many of Shostakovich's friends and even some family members. Post his 1936 denunciation, Shostakovich's music completely changed. Moving away from the radical experimentation he had attempted with his doomed opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, he adopted a slightly more conservative style, which he hoped would keep him in good stead with the authorities. But the piece I'm going to tell you about today, his monumental first violin concerto, is a bit different. It was written just after World War II, between 1947 and 1948. And yet, it was not performed until 8 years later. Shostakovich himself withdrew the work and kept it “in the drawer” along with his 4th string quartet and his song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry. When the piece was finally performed by its dedicatee, David Oistrakh, it was a massive success, and it remains one of the best ways to “get into” Shostakovich's music. It is a huge work, in 4 grand movements, and Shostkaocvich himself described it as a “symphony for violin solo.” It features all of the qualities that make Shostakovich's music so exciting, powerful, heartbreaking, and intense, while also allowing the listener, for the most part, to remove politics from the equation. While there are certainly encoded messages in the piece, one of which we'll get into in detail, this is a piece that is as close to pure musical expression as any of Shostakovich's post 1936 works, and so today I won't be mentioning Stalin all that much, I won't be mentioning the Soviet government every other sentence, and instead, we'll explore what makes this concerto so fantastic, so emotionally powerful, and so rousingly exciting. Join us!
This is the Danish String Quartet's fourth installment in the Prism series, the group's ongoing project that will ultimately hold five volumes of recordings linking Bach fugues with Beethoven quartets and quartets by alternating later composers. While the preceding volumes presented quartets by masters who lived to experience the 20th century – these being, in order of their appearance in the series: Dmitri Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke, and Béla Bartók – Prism IV finds the Danish musicians interpreting Felix Mendelssohn's (1809-1847) String Quartet No.2. As Paul Griffiths remarks in the liner notes, the quartet's interpretation of Mendelssohn is empowered by Beethoven's model in terms of “vivid gesture, contrapuntal energy, harmonic boldness, and formal innovation”. The piece is paired with Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 and Bach's Fugue in G minor in the arrangement of the Austrian educator and composer Emanuel Aloys Förster.Purchase the music (without talk) at:Prism IV (classicalmusicdiscoveries.store)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @CMDHedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!Donate (classicalmusicdiscoveries.store) staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Crossover Media Music Promotion (Zachary Swanson and Amanda Bloom).
Synopsis In 1939, Dale Carnegie published a self-help book entitled How to Win Friends and Influence People, suggesting you could change people's behavior to you by changing YOUR behavior toward them. We're not sure if Carnegie's book was ever translated into Russian, but we'd like to cite the case of the famous Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich as an example of one way to influence a particular composer. In Rostropovich's day, the greatest living Soviet composers were Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. In 1949 Prokofiev wrote a Cello Sonata for the 22-year old Rostropovich, and also dedicated his 1952 Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra to him. Not surprisingly, Rostropovich hoped Shostakovich might write something for him, too, and so asked that composer's wife, Nina, how to ask him. She replied the best way was NEVER to mention the idea in the presence of her husband. She knew Shostakovich was following the cellist's career with interest, and if the idea of writing something for Rostropovich was his own, rather than somebody else's, it stood a better chance of becoming reality. Rostropovich followed her advice, and – surprise surprise – on today's date in 1959, gave the premiere performance with the Leningrad Philharmonic of a brand-new cello concerto specially-written for him by Dmitri Shostakovich. Music Played in Today's Program Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Cello Concerto No. 1 in Eb, Op. 107 –Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, cond. (Sony 7858322)
Synopsis On today's date in 1966, the 60th birthday of composer Dimitri Shostakovich was celebrated at the Moscow Conservatory with a gala orchestral concert of his music. Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich gave the premiere performance of Shostakovich's brand-new Second Cello Concerto, and the composer's son, Maxim, conducted his father's youthful Symphony No. 1 from 1926. On the morning of the concert, it was announced that, for his outstanding services in the development of Soviet musical culture, the Central Committee had awarded Shostakovich the title “Hero of Socialist Labor,” along with the Order of Lenin and the gold medal “Hammer and Sickle.” Ironically, earlier that year, Shostakovich had composed a self-deprecating parody piece for voice and piano titled “Preface to the Complete Edition of My Works and a Brief Reflection apropos of This Preface,” whose text included a deadpan recitation of just a small portion of the many honorific titles he had received and the imposing but meaningless official posts with which he had been honored — and now, he found, he had been awarded several more to boot! All that must have seemed grimly comic to Shostakovich, who, some 30th years earlier, had written an opera which had so offended Joseph Stalin that the composer had come perilously close to disappearing without a trace into the Soviet prison system. Music Played in Today's Program Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 1, Op. 10 –St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Yuri Temikanov, cond. (BMG 68844) Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Cello concerto No. 2. Op. 126 –Msistislav Rostropovich, cello; Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa, cond. (DG 437 952)
City Ballet The Podcast returns for another season of deep dives and candid conversations, beginning with an episode of See the Music devoted to the score for Alexei Ratmansky's 2008 ballet Concerto DSCH. Musical Director Andrew Litton takes us on a tour through the many in-jokes, historical references, and musical cryptograms in Dmitri Shostakovich's “uncharacteristically cheerful” Piano Concerto No. 2. As he demonstrates in various excerpts, the piece is a powerful yet playful love letter between father and son. (21:46) Music: Symphony in Three Movements (1945) by Igor Stravinsky Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102 (1957) by Dmitri Shostakovich
Synopsis Decades after their deaths, Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich still remain politically controversial. Strauss worked in Nazi Germany under Hitler, and Shostakovich in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Was their art compromised by politics – and should that influence how we hear their music today? In July of 1935, Strauss pleaded with Hitler for a personal meeting to explain his resignation as President of Germany's office of musical affairs. He needn't have bothered: the Gestapo had intercepted a letter Strauss had sent to the Jewish writer, Stefan Zweig, the Austrian librettist of Strauss' latest opera. In that letter, Strauss mocked the Nazi's obsession with race and urged Zweig to continue to work with him, even if they would have to meet in secret. Strauss was asked to resign, and, anxious to avoid further trouble for himself and his family, appealed directly to Hitler, who never responded. Dmitri Shostakovich also ran afoul of his dictator when, in 1936, Stalin attended Shostakovich's opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and hated it. The next day, Shostakovich was harshly condemned in the official press, and lived in terror for the rest of Stalin's reign, redirecting his music according to Party line and making obsequious political utterances whenever asked. Even so, many today claim to hear both terror AND heroic – if coded – resistance in Shostakovich's best scores. Music Played in Today's Program Richard Strauss (1864-1949) – Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (Daniel Majeske, violin; Cleveland Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim, cond.) London 414 292 Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) – Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk excerpts (Scottish National Orchestra; Neeme Jarvi, cond.) Chandos 8587
Synopsis There are dozens of famous cello concertos that get performed in concert halls these days, ranging from 18th century works by the Italian Baroque master Antonio Vivaldi to dramatic 20th century works of the Russian modernist Dmitri Shostakovich. In 2007, the American composer Sean Hickey was commissioned by Russian cellist Dmitry Kouzov to write a new concerto, which received its premiere performance on today's date two years later, in 2009. “In this work,” Hickey recalled, “I wanted to fuse my interest in neo-classical clarity and design with the songful, heroic nature of the greatest cello concerto literature … My Cello Concerto had its Russian premiere at the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, a neo-Baroque edifice on the banks of the Fontanka River in Saint Petersburg … [It] was then recorded in the legendary Melodiya Studios on Vasilevsky Island in St. Petersburg, known from Soviet times as producing recordings from the likes of Shostakovich, Rostropovich, Mravinsky, and many others. “One moment of personal satisfaction came when the Russian orchestra, after rehearsing the piece for days, picked up on a buried quotation from Shostakovich's Seventh, his ‘Leningrad Symphony' in the final pages of my piece. It's easy to forget in the glittering and watery metropolis, which rivals any European city for beauty and culture, that St. Petersburg is a city full of ghosts.” Music Played in Today's Program Sean Hickey (b. 1970) –Cello Concerto (Dmitry Kouzov, vcl; St. Petersburg State Symphony; Vladimir Lande, cond.) Delos 3448
It's very easy to compare Sergei Prokofiev to Dmitri Shostakovich. They are the two most famous representatives of Soviet and Russian music of the 20th century, they lived around the same time, and their music even has some similarities, but at their core, you almost couldn't find more different people than Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Shostakovich was neurotic, nervous, and timid. Prokofiev was confident and cool. Shostakovich was tortured by the Soviet government, and while Prokofiev certainly had his runins with Stalin and his crones , his life wasn't so inextricably linked to the Soviet Union, besides the fact that he had the bad luck to die on the same day as Joseph Stalin, which made it so that there were no flowers available for his funeral. Prokofiev was able to travel, and see the world, generally without nearly as much interference as Shostakovich faced. These two lives are reflected in two very different musical approaches. Shostakovich's wartime symphonies are full of terror and violence, whlie Prokofiev wrote that his 5th symphony was a hymn to the human spirit. We don't know how much that reflects his true feelings, but its undeniable that there is a certain "optimism" to this symphony that both thrills and unsettles listeners to this day. It is also filled with traademark Prokofiev cynicism and sarcasm, and so we are left, as always, with a contradiction. What did Prokofiev mean with this symphony? Join us as we try to find out!
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