Ukraine – Martin Stringer Quartet

Learning from the Chaos of 1919-1923

I have been reading Robert Gerwarth’s The Vanquished on the recommendation of a friend. We had been talking about some of the reading I have done recently focused on the Caucuses and Eastern Turkey and how I had come to realise that my knowledge of what was happening in this part of the world followingContinue reading “Learning from the Chaos of 1919-1923”

Shostakovich, Leningrad and Ukraine

I first heard Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony at about the age of twelve, played by the Halle orchestra on one of their seasons of concerts in Sheffield City Hall. I was absolutely bowled over, particularly by the first movement and when visiting Bedales, the public school attended by Princess Margaret’s children, as part of a schoolContinue reading “Shostakovich, Leningrad and Ukraine”