Politics in Classical Music
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
4.9 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Classical music and politics have never been easy bedfellows. Composers and performers throughout history have relied on patronage and support from wealthy sources in order to keep their dreams afloat, and so unlike many other forms of music, classical music often has the reputation of being a politics-free zone. But the truth is that there is a whole repertoire of classical music that is infused with politics, and not just music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Today, with the American election looming just around the corner, we'll explore a series of pieces that all had political messages, the stories behind them, the motivations of the composers who wrote these pieces, and of course, the music itself. We'll be covering music by Haydn, Smyth, Shostakovich, Verdi, Adams, and much more today - join us!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua |
| 0:18.1 | Weilerstein. I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Orchestra Nacional de Lille, and the chief conductor of the Allborg Symphony. This podcast |
| 0:25.2 | is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive |
| 0:29.7 | in to this amazing world of incredible music. Before we get started, I want to thank my new |
| 0:34.3 | Patreon sponsors, Paul, Taylor, and Chris, and all of my other |
| 0:38.8 | Patreon sponsors for making Season 10 possible. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to |
| 0:43.7 | Patreon.com slash Sticky Notes podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment |
| 0:48.8 | to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated. |
| 1:00.9 | I am in Cologne this week with the amazing Gertznych Symphony Orchestra, doing Dvorzak's seventh symphony, Pabalhasa's Study for Strings, and Bartok's Second Violin Concerto with the legendary |
| 1:06.8 | Midori. I can't really think of a program that I would appeal to myself more, and I, you know, |
| 1:12.2 | I've really had had such a wonderful time with the orchestra this week. For this week's |
| 1:15.9 | episode, I realized I actually ran out of time with the American series, because this is an |
| 1:20.0 | episode that I've been wanting to put out for a long time. This was an episode I made, |
| 1:24.6 | actually, in 2020, before the 2020 election on political classical music. |
| 1:29.4 | And I wanted to put it out before this year's election because I took a little bit of heat from some listeners about doing this fundraiser last month. |
| 1:37.9 | And I, you know, I really get that. |
| 1:39.4 | It's a very heated, polarized time in the United States and really all over the world. |
| 1:44.4 | And a lot of people just wanted a break from talking about politics, hearing about politics, |
| 1:48.9 | especially contemporary modern politics. |
| 1:51.6 | And again, I really understand that I tried to sort of address that by not talking about the fundraiser at all on the show |
| 1:57.0 | after we did it and also really not mentioning it much during the show. |
| 2:02.1 | But again, I really do understand that and I take that very seriously. But with that said, I did want to explore |
... |
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