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Sofia Gubaidulina is encouraged by Shostakovich to follow her own convictions as a young composer. With Donald Macleod and Gerard McBurney.

To mark Sofia Gubaidulina’s ninetieth birthday, Donald Macleod and Gerard McBurney explore five different aspects of her progressive and distinctive music. Gubaidulina has been living in Germany since 1992 and is still busy composing today. When she was born in 1931 in Tatarstan, the Soviet Union was under Stalinist rule. Up until her emigration, she worked as a composer under the strictly regulated conditions determined by Soviet cultural policies. Across the week we get an insight into the life of a composer behind the Iron Curtain, as Gubaidulina developed her own creative path, un-swayed by any hint of ideological pressure.

Today: as a small child Gubaidulina found her imagination and music could free her from a life in poverty in Tartarstan. Spotted by a delegation of talent scouts, years of training followed at the prestigious Moscow Conservatory. It was a thorough grounding, which failed to repress her inquisitive and independent mind.

Musical Toys
Magical Accordion
Mei Yi Foo, piano

Allegro rustic for flute and piano
Jordi Palau, flute
Gennady Dzubenko, piano

Offertorium
Oleg Kagan, violin
Ministry of Culture Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor

Piano sonata
I: Allegro
Diana Baker, piano

Pantomime for Double Bass and piano
Daniele Roccato, double bass
Fabrizio Ottaviucci, piano

Producer: Johannah Smith