Seventh Symphony in Leningrad 1942

Shostakovich began his Seventh Symphony in Leningrad, in the late summer of 1941, and completed it about six months later in evacuation. Owing to a series of radio interviews with the composer, the Symphony became famous even before it was finished. It quickly became a symbol of the Leningraders’ resistance and played a role in harnessing the support of the Allies. But how much of the symphony was really heard and understood by those who were exposed to it? In this talk, Marina Frolova-Walker will unravel the secrets of the Symphony’s political and artistic impact and its longevity on the concert stage.

Marina Frolova-Walker is Reader in Music History and a Fellow of Clare College, where she is also Director of Studies in Music. She is the author of Russian Music and Nationalism from Glinka to Stalin (Yale University Press, 2007) and Music and Soviet Power, 1917-32 (with Jonathan Walker) (The Boydell Press, 2012).