Sergei Slonimsky (1932-2020), one of the foremost Soviet composers, was Jewish by heritage and empathy. He wrote against official Soviet doctrines, often using 12-tone and atonal techniques. Like all Soviet Jews who survived Hitler’s invasion, he had much to mourn.
The Syracuse Opera Company has filed for bankruptcy,…
A barely recognisable version of Puccini’s last opera…
Fans have uploaded a performance of Schubert’s four-hand…
This is the forbidding Erich Leinsdorf, conducting the…
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We seem to forget about the roughly 5 million non-Jewish Soviets who perished at the hands of the Third Reich.
Why, pray tell, the thumbs down? Very telling…
And yet, he wrote a “Russian Toccata” for harp that is practically pure folk music.
“He wrote against official Soviet doctrines, often using 12-tone and atonal techniques.”
I guess we have the Soviets to thank for serialism being identified as “brave stand against oppression” instead of as the feeble musical practice it really is.
The musical value of it is vanishingly thin… yet it seems to have persisted on its non-musical associations.