RECOMMENDED READING/LISTENING FROM THE PERIOD
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
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
POETRY
Anything by Mayakovsky or Blok. Especially The Twelve
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.
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].