Recovered Voices Symposium October 2016 Ignat Solzhenitsyn

Ignat Solzhenitsyn
Lecture: The Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich: Re-Visiting Absolute Music, Historical Memory, and the Concretization of Experience
Few composers have engendered so much debate in the West as Dmitri Shostakovich, regarding both the intrinsic value of his music and whether it can ever be divorced from its cultural-historical significance. Indeed, the tragic life-circumstances of Shostakovich have provided an excuse to those who would label or explain away his music in a manner which would be deemed shamelessly superficial or condescending, if employed in a discussion of any other great composer. In this lecture, I revisit that most familiar of masterworks, the Fifth Symphony, in the light of its initial reception as well as the unpredictable evolutions of response up to our day. I also ask: What did this music mean for its creator? What can it mean for us? Must it ever remain a terrifying reflection of its time, or has it carved out its own space in the sphere of universal art?
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The Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School