Shostakovich's String Quartet No.5 blends its form into a unitary structure with no division between movements, reflecting his absorption in Bach's music during the early 1950s.
Compositional Technique
Shostakovich used the musical motif DSCH, a tetrachord based on his initials, to represent himself in his music, notably appearing in String Quartet No.7 and No.8.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Shostakovich turned to chamber music, writing twelve quartets between 1949 and 1974, for greater expressive freedom, unhampered by the rhetorical implications of symphonic music.
Performer Biography
Quartetto Noûs, formed in 2011, has quickly become a notable chamber music ensemble, having studied with distinguished quartets like the Quartetto di Cremona and the Alban Berg Quartet.
Composition History
Shostakovich initially added programmatic titles to the movements of his String Quartet No.3, such as 'Tranquil unawareness of the future cataclysm,' to avoid accusations of lacking patriotic spirit.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich dedicated his String Quartet No.7 to the memory of his first wife, Nina Vazar, and String Quartet No.9 to his third wife, Irina Antonovna Supinskaya.
Recording & Production
This album is part of a new project by Quartetto Noûs for Brilliant Classics to record all of Shostakovich's String Quartets, which began in 2021.
