In the Shadow of the October Revolution

The year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. The revolution of 1917 changed the world forever and shaped the lives of millions of people. And with them the work of three important Russian composers of the 20th century.

Dmitri Shostakovich, who could never escape the reach of the Soviet state; the returnee Sergei Prokofiev, who claimed to have recognised the challenges of the new circumstances far too late; and Sergei Rachmaninoff, who used a concert tour to Sweden to flee Russia and was never to see his homeland again.

The film “In the Shadow of Red October. One Revolution – Three Musical Destinies” tells of the three geniuses of Russian music history in the shadow of hammer and sickle, of their working and living conditions after the Bolshevik Revolution and later under Stalin’s regime. And of what remains of them 100 years after the October Revolution and 90 years after Stalin’s absolute seizure of power: a spectrum spanning highly complex composition, parallels in their lives, differences and points of intersection. They are the musical chroniclers of an era whose revolutionary ideals ended in totalitarian oppression.

The film examines how the political upheavals influenced the work and lives of the three composers, and how over decades they positioned themselves in relation to the dictatorship of the Soviet state – between conformity and emigration, both inner and outer.

arte.tv/…