Attention, comrades!

This Thursday morning on WPRB, we mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution with music by heroes, villains and victims of the mercurial Soviet system.

Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturian, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Vissarion Shebalin, Gavriil Popov, Alexander Mosolov, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, and Alfred Schnittke – none of them escaped censure, even as they were held up to the West as superior artists. We’ll hear a mix of their music, along with that of one of their primary antagonists, Tikhon Krennikov, who, in his role as Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, was responsible for much suffering.

The threat of imprisonment or even death hung over many of them, as they struggled to create great art in an environment of confusion and fear.

What a revolting development! We remember the Russian Revolution this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Wakers of the world unite, on Classic Ross Amico!