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Our discussion group this term focuses on Soviet influences on music in Britain in the 1930s, focusing particularly on composer and communist Alan Bush (1900-1995) and his work with choirs and working-class organisations. We examine two documents from 1936: firstly, a review of a concert performance of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District which took place on 18 March 1936 at the Queen’s Hall, London; secondly, an unpublished article by Alan Bush outlining his aesthetics and practice of workers’ music. We will discuss the extent to which British artists were properly aware of fast-moving developments in the Soviet Union, and how Soviet influences shaped performance practice as much – if not more – than composition.
