Dr Daniel Elphick, Lecturer in Musicology in the Department of Music, appeared as a guest expert on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on 12 May 2026.

During a live broadcast, Dr Elphick discussed the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony, a milestone in 20th-century musical history. He also enriched the segment by playing selected excerpts from the score at the piano, offering listeners a live illustration of the work’s distinctive musical language.

Shostakovich composed the symphony in his late teens. Its successful premiere in 1926 propelled the young composer to international fame, and throughout the rest of his life, he marked 12 May as a kind of “second birthday”, celebrating with an annual party for friends and family.

Speaking with the Today programme hosts, Dr Elphick explained that while the symphony’s musical language proved thoroughly challenging for Shostakovich’s tutors at the Leningrad Conservatoire, the work remains firmly couched within the 19th-century Russian tradition. This combination of innovation and inheritance, he noted, is key to understanding the work’s lasting impact.

Listen again

You can hear the segment on BBC Sounds. The discussion begins at 1:42:00:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002w5t3

About Dr Daniel Elphick

Dr Daniel Elphick is a Lecturer in Musicology whose research specialises in the politics and analysis of music from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. His publications include Music Behind the Iron Curtain and the recently released Constructing Polish Musical Identities Outside Poland since 1880: Sounding Polish, co-edited with the department’s Professor Stephen Downes.

Dan is also a convenor of the Slavonic and Eastern European Music study group for BASEES (British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies) and serves on the editorial board of DSCH, the Shostakovich journal. At Royal Holloway, his teaching includes the modules ‘The String Quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich’ and ‘Russian Music, Literature, and Film’.