Tikhon Khrennikov, in his role as Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, made life miserable for many of his more talented colleagues, especially Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. In fact, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who was a big man, once stormed into Khrennikov’s office and gave him a good shaking by his lapels for being such an A-one a-hole.

But Khrennikov was also one of the great survivors. Following the death of Stalin in 1953, he managed to ride out each successive regime for four more decades, holding on to his influential post until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

There were some who claimed that Khrennikov was actually quite the sensitive fellow, who used his influence to quietly protect some of his more vulnerable colleagues. Whether or not that is true, I cannot say. He was a controversial figure, no doubt.

Just because Khrennikov was an artist doesn’t mean he was a nice person. All the same, I hope you’ll join me as I sample some of his music this afternoon, alongside that of his fellow birthday celebrants Heinrich von Herzogenberg and Frederick Loewe.

We’ll be seeing Red, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Khrennikov talks; Shostakovich listens