We have another special episode for our subscribers, a recording of the pre-concert talk by musicologist Simon Morrison at our concert of the complete piano sonatas of 20th century Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya, performed by Conor Hanick. Born in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1919, Galina Ustvolskaya’s expressive and vigorous music was deemed problematic in the USSR early in her career and did not receive widespread attention in her home country until the 1960s and 70s, and abroad only in the late 1980s. She taught at the Leningrad Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music from 1947-1977 and over the past three decades her music has experienced an increasing amount of performances and acclaim in the West.

Simon Morrison is a Professor of Music at Princeton University specializing in 20th-century Russian and Soviet music. In the recording, you’ll hear Morrison discuss Ustvolskaya’s life, her relationships with her contemporaries, and her six piano sonatas, composed between 1947 and 1988. After the episode, head over to otherminds.org, where you can watch a video of Conor Hanick’s performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s piano sonatas at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California.

Music: Excerpts from Piano Sonatas 1–6 by Galina Ustvolskaya, performed by Conor Hanick

Click here to watch Conor Hanicks’s performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonatas 1–6 at Other Minds.

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The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian.