Posted by Kloi
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This Week: Today marks the conclusion (Part 3 of 3) of “The Tale of Two Sergei’s,: honoring the April birthdays of Sergei Rachmaninoff (April 1, 1873) and Sergei Prokofief (April 23, 1891) with a comparison of their fates in the 1930s. The Ukrainian-born Prokofiev oddly elected to return to the Soviet Union in 1933, just after Stalin’s cruel but under-reported murder of eight million Ukrainians through forced starvation, and just before his massive purges and show trials. After composing gorgeous show and ballet music like “Peter and the Wolf” and “Romeo and Juliet,” Prokofief was brought under the censor’s thumb for his more adventurous music. Meanwhile, Rachmaninov continued composing his romantic works, like “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” (1934) in America. In the end, the older Sergei became a hero in Russia by donating his capitalist profits to relief of the war wounded there.

Tune in live:
https://player.streamguys.com/kloi/sgplayer/player.php