
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Ahead of Radio 3's 'Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture' season, Tom Service unlocks the mysteries of Shostakovich's baffling late masterpiece, his Symphony No. 15. Why does Shostakovich create a nightmarish toy shop soundscape in the opening movement? What compelled him to include musical quotations from Rossini and Wagner? And how does that final movement represent perhaps the greatest act of nihilism in musical history? To answer these questions Tom is joined by this week's Listening Service witness, the music historian David Metzer.
By BBC Radio 34.1
5555 ratings
Ahead of Radio 3's 'Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture' season, Tom Service unlocks the mysteries of Shostakovich's baffling late masterpiece, his Symphony No. 15. Why does Shostakovich create a nightmarish toy shop soundscape in the opening movement? What compelled him to include musical quotations from Rossini and Wagner? And how does that final movement represent perhaps the greatest act of nihilism in musical history? To answer these questions Tom is joined by this week's Listening Service witness, the music historian David Metzer.

43,837 Listeners

7,913 Listeners

1,067 Listeners

5,576 Listeners

1,808 Listeners

977 Listeners

1,729 Listeners

1,018 Listeners

1,952 Listeners

428 Listeners

52 Listeners

74 Listeners

52 Listeners

2,191 Listeners

1,015 Listeners

4,186 Listeners

230 Listeners

3,245 Listeners

779 Listeners

15,506 Listeners

16,525 Listeners

3,858 Listeners

851 Listeners

907 Listeners