Shostakovich withheld his Fourth String Quartet until after Stalin's death, and it was only premiered in December 1953 by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow.
Cultural Impact
The second movement of Tchaikovsky's First String Quartet, 'Andante cantabile', is so popular that it is often played as an encore, and it is said to have moved the Russian author Leo Tolstoy to tears.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich considered the string quartet 'one of the most difficult musical genres' but composed fifteen of them between 1938 and 1974.
Compositional Technique
The main theme of the 'Andante cantabile' movement in Tchaikovsky's First String Quartet is a Russian folksong, notated with alternating 2/4 and 3/4 meters.
Historical Context
Shostakovich's Fourth String Quartet was composed in 1949, a period when he faced repression from the Stalinist regime, leading him to focus on chamber music as a more private form of expression.
Composition History
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's First String Quartet was composed in 1871 due to financial problems, as he aimed to improve his economic situation with a concert featuring his own works.
Composition History
The miniatures by Sergei Prokofiev on this album are selections from his piano cycle Visions fugitives, Op. 22, which were adapted for string quartet by Russian cellist Sergei Samsonov in 1994/95.
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