109. When personal pain becomes universal: Shostakovich, String Quartet No.8

How is it that when an artist shares their pain we can all feel it? And how does listening to music full of suffering make us feel better? I don't know how or why, but I know that it does. Dmitri Shostakovich knew all about war, loss, and suffering. His 8th string quartet is desperate but defiant and deeply moving, bleak but often beautiful and whilst it doesn't provide any answers it somehow gives consolation to us all. Listening time 28 mins (podcast 8', music 20')

 

Music here youtube, and then here on Spotify or Apple Music. If you use Spotify with adverts I'd avoid it for this piece, because this is really a piece you don't want interrupted! 

 

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