Shostakovich turned to the string quartet as a safer outlet for his inner world after his music, particularly his opera Lady Macbeth, was brutally condemned by the Communist Party in 1936.
Composition History
Shostakovich's String Quartet No.14 includes a musical cryptography of the name 'Serëža' (Sergei), a friendly form of the cellist Sergei Sirinsky, to whom the work is dedicated.
Composition History
Shostakovich's last work, String Quartet No.15, was completed in hospital in May 1974 and reflects his obsession with death, a central theme in his final compositions.
Compositional Technique
Shostakovich's String Quartet No.13, dedicated to violist Vadim Borisovsky, features one of the most demanding viola parts in quartet literature.
Performer Biography
Quartetto Noûs, formed in 2011, has established itself as a leading chamber music ensemble, studying with renowned quartets like the Quartetto di Cremona and the Alban Berg Quartet.
Compositional Technique
The String Quartet No.13 by Shostakovich uses a twelve-tone series in its opening theme, but the composer adapted this technique to maintain a strong tonal center, rather than adopting Schoenberg's method.
Composition History
When Shostakovich began his First String Quartet in 1938, he did not anticipate writing fourteen more, as chamber music was then considered a minor genre in Russia.
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The Soviet Experience Volume 1: String Quartets by Dimitri Shostakovich and His Comtemporaries
