Robert Greenberg — Great Masters: Shostakovich—His Life and Music: The Eighth String Quartet

Excerpt from The Great Courses — Great Masters: Shostakovich — His Life and Music: Lecture 7: “The Thaw”

Discover the extraordinary life, times, and art of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975), great musical master and flawed but faithful witness to the survival of the human spirit under totalitarianism. He is without a doubt one of the absolutely central composers of the 20th century. His symphonies and string quartets are mainstays of the repertoire.

But Shostakovich is also a figure whose story raises challenging and exciting issues that go far beyond music: They touch on questions of conscience, of the moral role of the artist, of the plight of humanity in the face of total war and mass oppression, and of the inner life of history's bloodiest century.

[mawreena-]

I just cried my eyes out.... like boi... this man is so relatable

[AskAScreenwriter]

It would be fascinating to see a course, similar to the "Music as a Mirror of History, " of how the arts have been used by authorities, subtly or overtly, directly or indirectly, to forward social, political, or religious philosophies.