The Wayward Prokofiev #55. A docudrama about one of the most prominent and independent composers of the 20th century.
On June 22, 1941, the Germans invaded Russia. It all happened very quickly and by August they were already 40 km from Leningrad. Shostakovich was then writing his seventh symphony (Leningrad). It is a bombastic, patriotic work full of optimism. Did Shostakovich then know how miserable it would all become and how long it would last! Prokofiev lived in those months in Kratovo on the outskirts of Moscow with his new wife Mira Mendelson, he worked on some orchestral pieces but mainly his new ballet Cinderella received his attention, which we will of course hear more about later.
Dmitri Shostakovich. Symphony No. 7, Op. 60 in C major (1941) performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.
