READING

Sevastopol’s Wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin - Major General (Ret’d) Mungo Melvin CB OBE

Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

Lenin on the Train - Catherine Merridale

The White Guard - Mikhail Bulgakov

Bulgakov - Lesley Milne

A people's Tragedy. The Russian Revolution 1891 to 1924 - Orlando Figes

Revolutionary Russia (1891-1991) - Orlando Figes

Natasha's Dance - Orlando Figes

The Eastern Front - Norman Stone

Former People - Douglas Smith

Laughter and War - Lesley Milne

Red Cavalry - Isaac Babel

1917 - Short Story Collection - ed. Boris Drayluk

Mikhail Bulgakov - J.A.E. Curtis

Russian Emigre Stories from Bunin to Yanovsky - ed. Bryan Karetnyk

1917: Sories and Poems from the Russian Revolution - ed. Boris Dralyuk

The Moscow Eccentric - Andrei Bely (trans. Brendan Kieran)

Labour and the Gulag - Giles Udy

The Vanishing Futurist - Charlotte Hobson

Why the Bear Has No Tail and other Russian folk tales - Elena Polenova

Russia In Revolution 1890 to 1928 - S.A. Smith

Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea - Teffi

The Man Who Loved Dogs - Leonardo Padura

Black Night White Snow - Harrison Salisbury

Speak Clearly into the Chandelier: Cultural Politics between Britain and Russia 1973-2000 - JCQ Roberts (REVIEW)

Russian Requiem  1895 to 1920 - Ivan Bunin

Cursed Days - Ivan Bunin

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LISTENING

(click on the underlined title to listen)

Horowitz playing Scriabin 12 Etudes Opus 8 No.12

Solomon plays Scriabin Concerto in F sharp minor Op. 20

The Rite of Spring - Stravinsky

Berceuse - Stravinsky

Le chant du rossignol - Stravinsky

Cinq pieces faciles - Stravinsky

Ovsen from Podblyudniye - Stravinsky

Song of the Volga Boatmen - Stravinsky

Study for pianola- Stravinsky

Valse pour les enfants - Stravinsky

Piano Concerto No.2 - Glazunov

Violin Concerto No.1 - Prokofiev

Igrok (Opera, The Gambler) - Prokofiev

Mimoletnosti, 20 Pieces for Piano - Prokofiev

Piano Sonata No.3 - Prokofiev

Piano Sonata No.4 - Prokofiev

Symphony No.1 (Classical Symphony) - Prokofiev

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POETRY

Anything by Mayakovsky or Blok. Especially The Twelve

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PLACES TO VISIT

Everyone interested in revolution should visit the late Ian Hamilton-Finlay’s ‘garden- poem’, Little Sparta, at Dunsyre, south Lanarkshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Sparta . This has been voted the most important work of Scottish art.  Sculptures in the garden reflect Hamilton-Finlay’s quizzical interest in the French revolution and war generally, including a bird table in the shape of an aircraft carrier and quotations from St Just.

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THINGS TO SEE/HEAR

2017 London Proms Season

Highlights of 'Revolutionary Music' at this year's Proms  include a number of Shostakovich’s symphonies, as well as his symphonic poem October and excerpts from his Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets. Prokofiev’s Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution is performed, as well as his rarely heard cantata Seven, They Are Seven*, alongside Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil (Vespers), written just before the composer left Russia in the wake of the Revolution.

 

*Seven, They Are Seven (Russian: Семеро их) (op. 30) is a cantata by Sergei Prokofievcomposed in 1917 for large orchestra, chorus, and dramatic tenor soloist. It was composed in Yessentuki and Kislovodsk, and the words are taken from the poem Ancient Calls (Зовы древности) by Konstantin Balmont.[1] It was revised by Prokofiev in 1933.

The work was composed in the year that the Russian tsar, Nicholas II of Russia, was overthrown. This was followed by the Russian Civil War, and Seven, They Are Seven was not performed until 1924 in Paris, and was directed by Serge Koussevitzky.[2] It was first performed in Russia in 1956, after Prokofiev had died.

The poem that the work was composed to is a Russian translation of a cuneiform in a Mesopotamian temple from the third millennium BC. It describes seven demonic gods who have power over the elements, and also describes the power of these gods.[2] There is an English translation of this poem included in the 1982 poetry anthology "The Rattle Bag," edited by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney [Faber, 1982].