The Finnish string quartet Meta4 won First Prize at the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow in 2004, and also received a special prize for the best interpretation of a Shostakovich string quartet.
Composer Biography
The Soviet pianist Konstantin Igumnov described Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer of these string quartets, as someone who "sees and feels life a thousand times more profoundly than all of us other musicians together."
Composition History
String Quartet No. 7 is dedicated to Shostakovich's first wife, Nina Verushka, who died in 1954.
Composition History
Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 3 was premiered on December 16, 1946, by its dedicatees, the Beethoven Quartet, in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Shostakovich used his chamber music, especially the string quartet, as a means of private remarks that were nonetheless intended for the public.
Instruments
The members of Meta4 play valuable historical instruments, including a 1770 Bellosio violin, a 1780 cello by Lorenzo Storioni, a 1702 Stradivarius violin, and a 1737 Guidantus viola.
Composition History
Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 4, written three years after the Third, was premiered on December 3, 1953, by the Beethoven Quartet, after Stalin's death.
