Podcast appearances and mentions of marina frolova walker

Marina Frolova-Walker's recommendation for Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Marina Frolova-Walker's recommendation for Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture.

Watch the Q&A session here:  https://youtu.be/f6Z9L2dnxSAThis lecture explores the emergence of the "femme au piano" genre in 19th-century French painting, depicted by artists like Renoir, Van Gogh, and Matisse. What suddenly made this topic so popular, and what does it tell us about the role of women in music-making at the time? Tracing the genre's roots from the Italian Renaissance clavichord depictions to Vermeer's Dutch domestic scenes, and 18th-century harpsichord portraits. Discover how the piano became a middle-class status symbol and how modernists of the 1910s-20s reinterpreted it. Presented from the perspective of a music historian, this lecture will delve into the roots of the “Women at the Piano” genre and reveal how these paintings offer a window onto women's music-making.This lecture was recorded by Marina Frolova-Walker  on 10th December 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.Marina is Gresham Emerita Professor of Music.Marina Frolova-Walker, a Russian-born British musicologist and music historian, was Visiting Gresham Professor of Russian Music in 2018-19 and Gresham Professor of Music 2019-23. She is Professor of Music History and Director of Studies in Music at Clare College, Cambridge. She is a specialist in the Russian music of the 19th and 20th centuries. She has published extensively on Russian music and is a well-known lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. Among her many awards and appointments, she is a Fellow of the British Academy and was awarded the Edward Dent Medal in 2015 by the Royal Musical Association for her achievements in musicology.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-pianoGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

Samira celebrates the music and life of Sergei Rachmaninoff. With pianist Kirill Gerstein, who has released a new recording of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, Marina Frolova-Walker, Professor of Music at Cambridge, pianist Lucy Parham, who has created a Composer Portrait concert about Rachmaninoff that she is currently touring across the UK. Plus film historian and composer Neil Brand discusses the use of Rachmaninoff's music in film classics such as Brief Encounter.First broadcast on 1 May 2023.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the return of pianist Peter Donohoe to the label following his acclaimed complete survey of Mozart's Piano Sonatas with a dazzling new recital coupling Rachmaninoff – on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 1873 – and Chopin.“Rachmaninoff is unimaginable without Chopin,” asserts Russian music expert Marina Frolova-Walker in authoritative booklet notes that point to Rachmaninoff's long engagement with Chopin's music in the concert hall and recording studio.TracksSergei RachmaninoffVariations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22 (28:57) Theme, Variations 1-10 (6:29) Variations 11-14 (6:33) Variations 15-18 (5:03) Variations 19-21 (5:01) Variation 22 (5:48) Frédéric ChopinPiano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35 (25:31) I. Grave – Doppio movimento (8:19) II. Scherzo (6:35) III. Marche funèbre: Lento (8:53) IV. Finale: Presto (1:43) Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58 (26:56) I. Allegro maestoso (9:29) II. Scherzo: Molto vivace (2:36) III. Largo (9:22) IV. Finale: Presto non tanto (5:27) Help support our show by purchasing this album  at:Downloads (classicalmusicdiscoveries.store) Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by Uber. @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.

Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite version of Schumann's Piano Quartet, Op.47

In the early 20th century, the system of tonal harmony started to break down. The vertical accumulations of notes became too complex for our powers of memory and recognition, and some have suggested that this led to a loss of meaning and even humanity in music.In this lecture we will discuss expressive uses of atonality, and also the return of familiar chords to music, but outside the grammar that used to give them their logic.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker recorded on 18 May 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/atonal-musicGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Samira celebrates the music and life of Sergei Rachmaninoff to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. With pianist Kirill Gerstein, who has just released a new recording of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, Marina Frolova-Walker, Professor of Music at Cambridge, pianist Lucy Parham, who has created a Composer Portrait concert about Rachmaninoff that she is currently touring across the UK. Plus film historian and composer Neil Brand discusses the use of Rachmaninoff's music in film classics such as Brief Encounter. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Timothy Prosser

In this lecture, we shall explore a colourful collection of chords that have all acquired their own special, non-technical names. We will consider the Neapolitan Chord, that mainstay of Spanish (!) music, the Tristan Chord, The Petrushka Chord, The Mystic Chord and several others, with names that are sometimes helpful, and sometimes misleading or downright silly, looking at how such a thing as a chord could acquire a kind of fame, and how each entered popular culture.This lecture will feature the pianist Peter Donohoe.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohue recorded on 30 March 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/famous-chordsGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite recording of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

In this lecture, we will delve into the history of opera because that is where the diminished seventh-chord gradually accumulated its expressive power as a chord for dramatic climaxes, demonic intrusions and generally for shock and horror of any kind. The augmented triad came to be used for the mysterious and supernatural. The symmetrical structure of these two chords allowed composers to veer off into unexpected keys or create new scales which have not shed their strangeness, even today.  With Pianist Peter Donohoe CBEA lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker recorded on 09 February 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/diminished-augmentedGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Composers of tonal music, from the 17th century through to the latest jazz tune or film score, think mainly in terms of how their chords succeed each other, rather than taking chords in isolation.We will investigate the most important succession of chords in Western music, the cadence. Cadences are a kind of punctuation, dividing music into sentences or periods. They are also responsible for creating a sense of relief or suspense.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker recorded on 26 January 2023 at LSO St Luke's, London.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/musical-cadencesGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Kate Molleson speaks to Irish soprano Ailish Tynan at home with her dog. She reminisces about growing up in Ireland, learning her craft as a young artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and working with students at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in Greenwich where she has been recently announced as International Artist in Voice. Kate travels to rehearsals to meet members of the Glasgow Senior Citizens Orchestra where she finds them preparing for their next concert; and she talks to music therapist, Grace Meadows from the Utley Foundation and David Cutler Director of the Baring Foundation about the benefits music brings to older people. Author Frederick W. Skinner introduces his new book 'Beethoven in Russia: Music and Politics' which explores how the composer's music interfaced with politics in Russia and the revolutionary struggle that culminated in the Revolution of 1917. Marina Frolova-Walker, Professor of Music History and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge sets the context and describes the current musical climate in Russia. Plus, Kate speaks to Ammo Talwar from UK Music about their newly published Diversity Report. And Charisse Beaumont joins us from Black Lives in Music to explain some of the findings of the report. Produced by Marie-Claire Doris.

Tom Service is joined by Russian music and history expert, Marina Frolova-Walker and BBC journalist, Olga Ivshina to discuss the effect the war in Ukraine is having on Russian music and culture. Clarinettist and conductor, Martin Fröst talks to Tom about reshaping the classical musical arena through multi-media spectacular as he prepares to launch his newest project, Xodus. Singers, Jess Dandy and Joanna Harries take Tom on a musical walk through a woodland in south east London ahead of their "SongPath" at RSPB St Aidan's nature reserve near Leeds this week. They immerse themselves in the sounds of birds, rain and song as they talk about the benefits connections through nature and music have on mental health. And Tom visits the Coronet Theatre in London where the theatre company, Gare St Lazare Ireland begins rehearsals for a production of Samuel Beckett's novel, "How It Is." One of Beckett's most experimental and beautiful works, "How it is" is an extraordinary exploration of language and this production explores the beauty, sound, rhythm and meaning of the words while the strains of the Irish Gamelan Orchestra enhance the dystopian atmosphere of Beckett's writing. Tom is joined by director, Judy Hegarty Lovett; composer and sound designer, Mel Mercier, and performers, Stephen Dillane, and Conor Lovett.

This lecture focuses on one of the watershed moments of Soviet music history: the censure of Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and the composer's path through reform to rehabilitation. The Shostakovich story was only the tip of the iceberg, and almost all Soviet composers had to adjust their aesthetic and style at this point, unless they were prepared to languish in obscurity and poverty.Shostakovich's Songs on the Texts of English Poets is performed by Bass Ed Hawkins and the pianist Ceri Owen.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker with performances from Ed Hawkins (Bass) and Ceri Owen (Piano)The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shostakovich-trialGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.ukTwitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Marina Frolova-Walker recommends a version of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony in Building a Library. Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No 5 in B-flat major in just a month in the summer of 1944 during World War II. He intended it as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit." The 1945 premiere was conducted by Prokofiev himself and the symphony has remained one of the composer's most popular works.

At one point in his life, Shostakovich considered the career of a concert pianist. He was talented enough to become a Soviet competitor at the international Chopin Competition of 1927, but he was struck down with acute appendicitis, and he had to leave with only a diploma rather than a major prize. Whether his pain and disappointment soured his relations with the piano we cannot be sure, it is astonishing that his piano music studiously avoids the virtuosity he had assiduously cultivated as a young performer. Almost all his piano writing is in some way experimental, conceptual, challenging the pianist to make sense of piano writing that often seems ungrateful, not unlike Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which we heard in the first lecture of this series. Even so, Shostakovich's monumental cycle of Preludes and Fugues stands at the very core of his output. Written "for the desk drawer" in his most difficult years, following a second round of official criticism, it often rejoices in the very "formalism" he was accused of. Following the example of J.S. Bach, Shostakovich offers us twenty-four strictly constructed fugues in all the keys, each preceded by a free-flowing prelude. The set takes us on a fascinating journey, beginning with near-pastiches of Bach, into a world where Russian folk song can meet Jewish cantillation, and where Baroque idioms meet modernism, with extremes of emotion that can rival any of Shostakovich's symphonies.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter DonohueThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shostakovich-pianoGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

As we commemorate 50 years of the death of Igor Stravinsky, Tom Service explores how his music continues to resonate in today's world, how his legacy has been in effect reinvented, from contemporary composition to film scores, from digital sampling in pop to the language of jazz, and also in the world of dance. With contributions from the composers George Benjamin, Anders Hillborg, Shiva Feshareki and Helen Grime, explaining how Stravinsky's music has shaped their work and their lives; from the musicologists Marina Frolova-Walker, Robert Fink and Jonathan Cross, who elaborate on how Stravinsky has been reinvented on many different contexts since his death; and we also hear from the dancer and choreographer Seeta Patel, who reinterpreted the iconic ballet 'Rite of Spring' within South Indian classical dance traditions. Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Prokofiev followed in the footsteps of Rachmaninov and Scriabin as a joint graduate in piano and composition, but his final graduation performance made an even greater splash, since he dared to present his own new modernist Piano Concerto (No.1) before his examiners. This distinguished panel of judges had cultivated nationalist and late-romantic styles in their own music, and they were not well pleased by the work of a self-declared "anti-Romantic" who delighted in harsh, provocative dissonances that called for a new manner of playing that was metronomic rather than flexibly expressive, with a drier, more percussive approach. When Prokofiev moved abroad after the Revolution, his brilliant performances of his own works made a deep impression on a wide range of composers, from Rachmaninov to Stravinsky, and French composers from Ravel to Poulenc. It seemed that Prokofiev had invented a way of making music that matched the new era: its dynamism was compared to sport ("football music"), and its grinding repeated patterns to industrial sounds ("machine music"). The prime exhibit in this lecture is Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, a masterwork in which his youthful provocations meet the perfectionism of the mature and experienced artist. The sonata also reveals the warm lyricism that is a crucial facet of Prokofiev's art, but which is often overlooked, since it seems at odds with his modernism.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohue CBE, 25 MarchThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prokofiev-pianoGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Stravinsky's solo piano output may be modest in size, but it contains one of the absolute pinnacles of piano virtuosity, the Three Pieces from Petrushka. To call these pieces "arrangements" from the ballet score would be true, but misleading: they are brilliant recompositions from the ballet's material, stranger and more elusive, and with the added dimension of extreme virtuosity (he was never brave enough to give a public performance himself). Unlike many composers, Stravinsky always wrote his music at the piano, and the feel of chords-under-fingers, pushing against each other, overlapping and colliding goes a long way towards explaining the unique harmonic imagination that still has an international influence that stretches far beyond the confines of modernist classical music. Where the Romantics had turned the piano from a complex machine into a living, breathing musical being, Stravinsky wanted to unpick the illusion, and bring the mechanical aspects to the fore. He often sought to bypass the pianist's predilection for "expression", and even turned to pianolas for a time, which dispense with the need for a performer altogether. The clockwork character of his writing tends to dehumanise his source materials, whether these happen to be Russian folksongs, Baroque and Classical idioms or the latest jazz. Where does this leave a pianist who is prepared to meet this challenge?A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 26 FebruaryThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/stravinsky-pianoGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

In 1942, the city we now call St Petersburg had been under siege by Nazi troops for months. With hundreds of thousands starving to death and the prospect of victory looking bleak, Soviet leaders tried what might now seem an unlikely attempt to salvage morale: they commissioned Dmitri Shostakovich to compose a grand symphony. The jaw-dropping true story of how Shostakovich's seventh symphony was eventually performed is brought to life by Marina Frolova-Walker, a professor of music history at the University of Cambridge. The Russian music journalist and academic Artemy Troitsky goes on to recount how the triumph of the so-called Leningrad Symphony against all odds has today become a key part of Vladimir Putin's mythology for Russia

Scriabin was Rachmaninov's classmate at the Moscow Conservatoire, and he likewise received a Gold Medal for his combined studies in piano and composition. His commitment was also as unswerving as Rachmaninov's, and yet public knowledge of his music remains hazy, especially outside of Russia, and it still has an esoteric and forbidding aura. Scriabin's starting point was Chopin, but where others were content to pay reverent homage to that earlier master, Scriabin took him as inspiration for bold experiments in his preludes, études and above all in his great series of ten sonatas, which span his career. Working within the loose artistic movement known as "Symbolism", his ambitions were fuelled by theosophy and his own syncretism of mystical ideas. For him, some of his later projects stretched far beyond the normal limits of art, and one partially written piece was designed to bring about the dissolution of the universe into nothingness. The Sonatas take us on a journey from his early post-Chopin soundworld through to refined sensations and rarefied sounds of his later Symbolism, and although his ideas descended through decadence to insanity, his musical judgement never left him.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohoe OBE 21 JanuaryThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scriabin-pianoGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

There is no need to introduce Rachmaninov, considered by many to be the greatest composer-pianist in history and the creator of several famous items on the "classical hit parade". But his very popularity has always detracted from the value of his music in the eyes of scholars, who tend to view his music as merely middlebrow. This is a serious misunderstanding of his art, and has left the complexity and subtlety of his music underappreciated. The secrets of his immersive and compelling music still have to be uncovered, even if their effects are well known to an adoring public. Taking a selection from Rachmaninov's Preludes, we will concentrate on three crucial aspects of his piano music: the "Russianness" of his materials (whether real or imagined), the complexity of his scoring (how much can a pair of hands manage, or the human ear digest?), and the art of dramatic timing (how does he construct a climax, and how does he descend from the peak?). The exploration of these three elements helps to understand the extraordinary artistry and technique behind this music's irresistible appeal.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohoe CBE 26 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rachmaninov-pianoGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

In the midst of the awards season for classical music recordings, this week I am joined by Marina Frolova-Walker, a Russian-born British musicologist and music historian, to discuss the subject of her 2016 book Stalin's Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics. Marina specialises in German Romanticism, Russian and Soviet music, and nationalism in music, and is Professor of Music History and Director of Studies in Music at Clare College, Cambridge. Its a great chat, taking in some of the less well known Russian composers like Myaskovsky, Weinberg and Kabalevsky as well as the two titans, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.You can listen to the podcast right here on this page, or click on the links in the player (via the symbol of the box with the arrow coming out of the top) to find it in Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and other popular podcast apps, where you will be able to subscribe and receive notifications when new episodes become available in the future.We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future topics, and guests who you would like us to talk to. Please email us at info@prestomusic.com

Marina Frolova-Walker recommends recordings of Schumann's 3rd symphony "Rhenish"

Musorgsky was a proficient, but not virtuosic pianist: in his youth, he entertained society ladies with popular marches and quadrilles, and in his last years, he toured as an accompanist in song recitals. On the basis of these modest exploits, no one could have predicted his Pictures at an Exhibition. This cycle of piano pieces is a kind of travelogue, following a Russian at home and abroad. We tour around the Russian Empire and beyond, and we are also invited to contemplate the drawings of Musorgsky's friend Victor Hartmann (the work stands as a touching memorial to his art). Drawing inspiration from the Romanticism of Schumann and Liszt, Musorgsky filtered their ideas through his own Russian Realist aesthetic, and attempted to create accurate and convincing depictions of his subjects, with their distinctive voices, behaviour and locations. His piano writing is idiosyncratic, and sometimes even awkward, but it conveys his thoughts effectively in a riot of colour and contrasts. His instinctive, empirical approach to harmony was a formative influence for Debussy, the first of the great post-Romantic piano composers.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 22 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/musorgsky-pianoGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Dette er Third Ears anden udgivelse i serien Afgørende Øjeblikke, lavet i samarbejde med Copenhagen Phil. I denne episode dykker Tim Hinman ned i nogle af de teorier og fortællinger der er opstået i kølvandet på den store komponist Tjajkovskijs død. Vi undersøger hans livshistorie gennem en række breve fra komponistens egen hånd, og vi prøver at finde nogle dybere forbindelser mellem hans liv og musikken. Vi får hjælp af Lars Mikkelsens stemme, pianist Maria Bundgård, musikhistoriker Marina Frolova Walker fra Cambridge University og forhenværende assisterende direktør fra Mariinskij Balletten, Pavel Gezenzhov. Musikken i denne episode er bl.a. uddrag fra Tjajkovskijs 6. symfoni, spillet af ingen ringere end Copenhagen Phil.Afgørende øjeblikke støttes af Augustinus Fonden, William Demant Fonden, Spar Nord Fonden og Statens Kunstfond.

Dette er Third Ears anden udgivelse i serien Afgørende Øjeblikke, lavet i samarbejde med Copenhagen Phil. I denne episode dykker Tim Hinman ned i nogle af de teorier og fortællinger der er opstået i kølvandet på den store komponist Tjajkovskijs død. Vi undersøger hans livshistorie gennem en række breve fra komponistens egen hånd, og vi prøver at finde nogle dybere forbindelser mellem hans liv og musikken. Vi får hjælp af Lars Mikkelsens stemme, pianist Maria Bundgård, musikhistoriker Marina Frolova Walker fra Cambridge University og forhenværende assisterende direktør fra Mariinskij Balletten, Pavel Gezenzhov. Musikken i denne episode er bl.a. uddrag fra Tjajkovskijs 6. symfoni, spillet af ingen ringere end Copenhagen Phil - se mere på deres hjemmeside.Afgørende øjeblikke støttes af Augustinus Fonden, William Demant Fonden, Spar Nord Fonden og Statens Kunstfond.

Diaghilev would often look at past art and then do the opposite. He playfully abandoned plot, elaborate costumes, emotional expression, and even meaning, but reinstating them whenever he felt like it - this was his undogmatic approach to modernism. In this final lecture, we will focus on one of the best-preserved Diaghilev productions, The Prodigal Son, a strikingly beautiful ballet by Prokofiev/Balanchine/Rouault. It could have been a new beginning, but it became Diaghilev's final word when he died in the summer of 1929.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 12 MayThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diaghilev-prokofievGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Modernity kept seeping into ballet, a genre that had traditionally looked to a distant, mythical or magical past. First, the tutu gave way to an everyday tennis costume in Jeux by Debussy/Nijinsky, then ragtime rang out in Parade by Satie/Picasso, and in the 1920s Diaghilev decided staged a series of ballets drawn from contemporary life, and in particular, the French high society in which Diaghilev moved. Milhaud and Poulenc provided the sparkling scores, while Coco Chanel added her sparkling costumes.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 7 AprilThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ballets-russes-turning-frenchGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Diaghilev seemed to be the nemesis of traditional ballet, but he was ready to draw on the rigorous classical schooling of his dancers whenever it suited him. Once ugliness had been established as a legitimate option, he was happy to bring back beauty on many occasions alongside the new neoclassical music that he had begun to promote. Stravinsky and Balanchine's Apollo was one such ballet, which also managed to give Greek antiquity the new solemnity, stripped of the exoticism of earlier "Greek" ballets.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 18 FebruaryThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ballets-russesGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

The Rite of Spring was the startling result of a collaboration between Stravinsky, Nijinsky (choreography) and Roerich (sets and costumes). In the immediate aftermath, it seemed to be a fiasco because of its riotous reception, but it proved to be the successful introduction of a new modernist aesthetic that cultivated ugliness and machine-like movements. We will trace the musical, visual and choreographical consequences of this new trend through several later Diaghilev ballets: Parade (Satie/Picasso), Chout (Prokofiev/Larionov), Le Pas d'Acier (Prokofiev/Yakulov).A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 21 JanuaryThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rite-of-springGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Diaghilev found that the Oriental style that had been cultivated by Russian composers was a perfect match for the Parisians' love of exoticism, and he started to commission new ballets for this market niche. These were so successful that even Parisian women's fashions came under their influence. But Russian folk art and music had the same exotic appeal in Paris, and Diaghilev discovered that Stravinsky was the man to turn this new 'product' into great art that was also modernist and attention-grabbing.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Gresham Professor of Music 29 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ballets-russes-exoticGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Marina Frolova-Walker recommends recordings of Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No 1

The great Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev didn't have the talents to become an artist or the money to become a patron. His gift was to inspire, facilitate and market artistic projects that were highly colourful and distinctive. In this lecture we follow his early years, when he published The World of Art, a provocative Russian journal, exhibited Russian visual art in Paris, and then brought Russian music there, culminating in his production of Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Gresham Professor of Music 24 September 2019The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diaghilevs-beginningsGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace (1953) was an adaptation of Tolstoy's novel begun during WWII. He saw it as a personal interpretation of the novel, but as soon as it went forward for production, the Soviet authorities realised that this was the perfect opportunity for creating a rousing epic wartime drama. A succession of cultural officials left their imprint on the work, requiring Prokofiev to make hundreds of changes and write new scenes. The composer did not live to see a complete performance on stage.A lecture by Marina Frolova Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 21 May 2019The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prokofiev-war-peaceGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1932) was more a personal than a political drama. All was well for the first two years after the opera's première in 1934, but shortly after Stalin went to a performance, it was vigorously condemned in the state press. The pretext was the opera's music, but it is more likely that the plot and especially the staging offended against the conservative turn in the social morality now promoted by the state. When a revival became possible, Shostakovich chose to rework the opera, renaming it Katerina Izmailova.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 26 March 2019The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shostakovich-lady-macbeth-mtsenskGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov (1872) is set in the 'Time of Troubles', using Pushkin's incisive verse tragedy on the chaotic period preceding the establishment of the Romanovs. Such a work was bound to draw the attention of the censors, and Musorgsky's two versions of the opera also led to various 'improved' versions that conflated scenes from each. Despite all the interference it has suffered, in any of its forms it remains a formidable exploration of power, as well as a highly moving personal drama.A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 22 January 2019The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/musorgsky-boris-godunovGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Marina Frolova-Walker recommends recordings of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto

Think of The Nutcracker as a super-saccharine classic for the feel-good season? Think again. Is everything really all sweetness and light in the world of sugar-plum fairy? No! But don't let the tale's dark undertones spoil your enjoyment of the wonderful music. Tom Service tears the gaudy wrapping paper from Tchaikovsky's balletic masterpiece to remind us you don't always get what you want. Behind the tinsel and fluffy snowflakes lies a story imbued with darkness and death. But maybe that is the secret of its unfading allure and beauty. Tom is joined by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peggy Reynolds to crack the most popular nut in the repertoire.

The rousing finale of Mikhail Glinka's patriotic A Life for the Tsar (1836) guaranteed it a place as the traditional season opener in Russian opera houses. A Life was a powerful and attractive presentation of the Romanov dynasty's foundation myth, but it is also considered the first true Russian opera, since its predecessors relied heavily on foreign models. A century later, with a modified libretto and a new title, it was given a new lease on life as an equally patriotic Soviet opera, Ivan Susanin (1939).A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 20 November 2018The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/glinka-life-for-the-tsarGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Marina Frolova-Walker recommends recordings of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Voices of Revolution: Russia 1917 Series Advisor Martin Sixsmith speaks to musicologist Marina Frolova-Walker about the different ways Soviet era composers navigated an increasingly volatile system, one that could be unpredictable, especially when it came to evaluating music.  Profiling composers featured in the Philharmonia Orchestra's Royal Festival Hall concert on 22 March 2018, Sixsmith and Frolova-Walker explore how Sergei Prokofiev was lured back to Russia with flattery; how Alexander Mosolov ended up in the Gulag; and how Reinhold Glière managed to work the system to his advantage by producing beautiful, accessible music.  Works discussed:  Mosolov: Iron Foundry Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 Glière: Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra, The Red Poppy Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London. Philharmonia Orchestra's 'Voices of Revolution' series continues in March 2018. https://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/series/68/voices_of_revolution_russia_1917 

“In Russian music you have a very different portrayal of Russia [from the one you find in literature], which has very strong rhythms, very festive images. It's very bright, very… Read More Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald and Marina Frolova-Walker look at the lives and masterpieces of the musicians.

Donald and Marina Frolova-Walker look at the lives and masterpieces of the musicians.

Marina Frolova-Walker recommends a recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6, 'Pathétique'

Marina Frolova-Walker makes a recommendation from the available recordings of Tchaikovsky's ballet, Swan Lake.

In this podcast we journey to Russia in the 1820s, the setting for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s tale of love and loss, Eugene Onegin. The opera was drawn almost verbatim from the novel of the same title by Alexander Pushkin, one of the great works of Russian literature. Here Glyndebourne’s dramaturg Cori Ellison and Marina Frolova-Walker, a specialist in Russian Music at the University of Cambridge, discuss the rich material on offer to Tchaikovsky within the novel and consider how the composer found his own voice with which to tell the story. In addition, baritone Richard Stilwell, who has portrayed Onegin many times, including at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1975, talks about what it’s like to play this not entirely likeable character. Produced for Festival 2014

“In Russian music you have a very different portrayal of Russia [from the one you find in literature], which has very strong rhythms, very festive images. It’s very bright, very colourful, very, very different from the melancholy Russian soul.” Writing of Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar after its premiere in 1836, one Russian critic boldly predicted that ‘Europe will be amazed’. Surely Europeans would now want to ‘take advantage of the new ideas developed by our maestro’? Yet this opera, which is regarded as the very foundation of Russian music in its home country, is little known abroad, its composer (the ‘great father of Russian music’) merely another name in the long list of half-neglected nineteenth-century Russian composers. Marina Frolova-Walker, a Russian-born musicologist now based in Cambridge, set out to do something much more ambitious than explain the neglect of certain Russian composers. She wanted to examine the whole notion of ‘Russianness’ in Russian music, a story which starts with Glinka. What did Russianness consist of? How did it come about? What changing …