# Shostakovich's String Quartets, a listening log



## thejewk

About a month ago I ordered a copy of the Shostakovich Quartets by the Borodin Quartet (Original Members) on Chandos after reading some positive comments. In the space of a few days I listened to it back to front a number of times, ordered a copy of his Symphonies, and became well and truly hooked. I have since also added the Shostakovich Quartet's complete cycle, and most recently the Fitzwilliam Quartet's cycle as well.

Having been through everything listed above a few times now, I decided to do some comparative listening and note taking to see if I could hone my thoughts a little better. Then I thought, why not post them here and see what other people think at the same time?

Here's a good website pointed out to me by another member here, and might be a useful point of reference: http://www.quartets.de/

The first quartet starts with a lovely light and fresh Moderato that to me sounds very classical and balanced, with moments of tension and drama seemingly used for contrast rather than as any sort of expression of serious angst or other emotion. An example of 'pure music' if you will.

The Fitzwilliams are a fair bit slower in this movement than the other two, more luxuriant and well mannered, while the Borodins are more romantic and expressive, with the Shostakovich keeping the middle ground. All are well worth hearing.

The second movement, also Moderato, starts with one of my favourite folk like themes in the set, played first on the viola, with pizzicato underpinning by the cello to wonderful effect, and is then passed over to the violins. Like the first movement, it feels very classically conventional in structure, with a series of variations on the theme shifting the mood throughout. For my tastes, the Borodin wins the day here, as they do with most of the more folk-like movements throughout. Their ability to dig in and shape the phrasing is a step above the others, but only slightly in this case.

The third movement, marked Allegro Molto is brisk and sprightly in the opening, a little spiky. It's not long until we're back to the mood of the first two movements, however, with the second theme, and then before we know it we're into the brief coda and out. The Shostakovich Quartet have this one for me, but again it's close. They make the most of the opening's bristling, but effortlessly switch moods when required.

The fourth and final movement, an Allegro, builds off the opening of the third movement's busy feel and whips along. It's feels like it's over before it has begun, but remains enjoyable throughout and is a fitting conclusion. I have no strong feeling towards any particular performance with this one.

Overall, I think the first quartet is often damned with faint praise. To my ears, it's a perfectly executed piece with some excellent earworm melodies, and a constantly well judged feeling of support and exchange amongst the instruments. I don't think it is anywhere near as accomplished as many of the later pieces in the cycle, but I certainly wouldn't be without it.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the first quartet, and I will be moving on to the second shortly.


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## Littlephrase

The First Quartet is a mature Shostakovich masterpiece, a magnificent prelude to what is perhaps, along with Bartok, the greatest cycle of string quartets in the 20th century. I liked your descriptions of the individual movements. The second movement is a favorite of mine, the folk-like melody vaguely reminds me of the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Quartet.


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## thejewk

The Second Quartet, written 6 years and 3 symphonies after the first, is a very different beast compared to the first. Firstly, it is considerably longer, with a run time of around 33-35 minutes, and it is almost symphonic in scope.

The first movement, described as an Overture, Moderato con moto, is a rather complex sonata form, the first theme being bright but forceful, and the second much more sinister and densely written. Whereas the first quartet relied mostly on supportive ensemble playing, to my ears this first movement of the second has much more contrapuntal interest. Around half way through, we reach a lovely and delicate pizzicato section, followed by some exploratory variations that wrench about and stretch the themes beautifully. There's also plenty of 'oom-pah' feeling in the accompaniment, continuing the folky theme of the first quartet. In my opinion, this movement is a real tour de force.

The second movement, marked a Recitative and Romance, Adagio, opens with a real gut wrenching violin recitation with a drone held in the lower registers which breaks only at about 1.30 with the violin's last few weeping notes. Silence, then a more consonant drone supports a more hopeful mood, which explores, and then is reset again. It's very introspective and sparse, a definite contrast. Finally at around the 4 minute mark, the cello moves from the drone to provide a melancholy backdrop for a beautiful elegiac lament. This movement is, for me, a clear indication of what Shostakovich would turn to in the later quartets, with incredibly sparse textures, although here still very lyrical and less abstract. For the close of the movement, around 3 minutes, the drones encroach back in for a recapitulation of the opening themes, complete with brief silences and small dramatic gestures. It goes off, softly.

The third movement, a relatively brief and macabre waltz, foreshadows a lot of similar movements in quartets to come. Enchanting, sinister and, again, folkish in phrasing. There is a wonderful passage about mid way through in which the cello plays rapid and busy runs which propel everything into a frenzied dance, before the opening theme is then picked up from the cello and passed around.

The final movement, a Theme and variations, takes a lovely singsong melody and passes it through a kaleidoscope of moods. In my view, this last movement begins a pattern used by Shostakovich often in the future, where the focus is to tie together thematically all of the previous ideas and moods of the first three movements. We move through the excited polyphony of the first movement, the lamenting style of the second, into the demented dance of the third, switching effortlessly. Finally we switch into the recitation mood of the second movement, but more romantic and poignant, with a very minor key tonality.

I'm less experienced with Shostakovich's symphonies, but for my tastes, this beats any of his symphonies written up to this point. It's a real journey.

With regards to the recordings, I don't find much to choose between them, but think the Shostakovich Quartet just edge out the competition. Lots of fire and expressivity when needed, not too languorous, and the excellent sound makes it more enjoyable to track the individual voices compared to the limited sonic palate of the Borodins. The Fitzwilliams are also excellent, and the Borodins too, so it's a roll of the dice in truth.


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## EdwardBast

I'm reading your log with interest and will jump in later when you get to those I know and love best.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Thanks for this thread; I was contemplating starting a listen-through of the exact same kind. I did want to do the Beethoven quartets first because the Beethoven anniversary year is drawing to a close, but I just haven't been in the mood for his music.


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## thejewk

I'd follow a similar listen-through for Beethoven for sure Allegro Con Brio, I am almost completely unfamiliar with them but excited to get to know them. I have only listened to a handful of them last month, but decided to take one thing at a time and stick with DSCH until I feel like I know my way around them sufficiently well.

Littlephrase and EdwardBast, thanks for the comments and I look forward to your future contributions.


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## Barbebleu

Shostakovich’s SQs are among the greatest ever written by anybody. His whole heart and soul is imbued in every one. My own favourite ensembles are the Fitzwilliam (my first), the Borodin, the Shostakovich and the Pacifica. I like this thread.


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## Merl

Nice thread, Jewky. I'm a big fan of the Pacifica, Borodins and Fitzwilliams here too but as I found out, from the weekly SQ thread, there are some excellent single performances elsewhere, too. I particularly enjoy the 3rd and 4th movements of the 1st quartet. Its a lovely piece though and I much prefer his quartets to his symphonies (should that comment be in the 'unpopular opinions' thread - Lol)?


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## thejewk

Merl said:


> Nice thread, Jewky. I'm a big fan of the Pacifica, Borodins and Fitzwilliams here too but as I found out, from the weekly SQ thread, there are some excellent single performances elsewhere, too. I particularly enjoy the 3rd and 4th movements of the 1st quartet. Its a lovely piece though and I much prefer his quartets to his symphonies (should that comment be in the 'unpopular opinions' thread - Lol)?


Well, so far, and I've admittedly only had a cursory look, I agree with you completely. I feel like I'm wading through soup a bit with symphonies, but there's barely a moment of respite in the quartets, with nothing really wasted at all. Might change down the line, but I think I'm more of a chamber and solo man than a lover of the grand orchestra gestures, as a general rule.


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## Barbebleu

I love the symphonies too but not with the same passion that I reserve for the SQs. The symphonies require a lot more listening overall particularly the 10th which I personally find his most difficult. Not impenetrable but difficult! Basically I find little to dislike about Shostakovich’s music. I have recently started listening to his songs, courtesy of the recommendation of some kind soul on another thread. So far, so delighted!


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## SearsPoncho

I'm happy with the Borodin Qt. and the Fitzwilliam Qt. The Brodsky Qt. also made some good Shosty recordings. It's pretty intense stuff.


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## thejewk

The Third Quartet, written in 1946, is a masterpiece. It also has some odd and rather unexplainable baggage. There exists a list of programmatic descriptions which, to my ears, don't match the music particularly, and were never printed on any edition. The piece was also premiered by the Beethoven Quartet as usual, and then withdrawn without any sort of explanation. I don't know how relevant these things really are to my project, but I thought them worth mentioning.

The first movement, marked Allegretto, always feels a little schizophrenic to me. The opening theme is very jolly and skipping, but seems to me to be somehow unbalanced, and the end of each phrase seems to teeter on the edge like it might become hysterical at any moment. It's also an ear worm that has almost rotted my brain, and my wife is tired of me nervously humming it at every opportunity. The second theme, is delightful and light, with a wonderful stable harmony, pizzicato chords and reserved bowed backup, until the hysteria returns with the reintroduction of the first theme. The highlight of the movement comes with the main theme being played in canon between the instruments, creating a disorientating whirling of figures, revealing for certain the tension noted in the beginning of the piece. It all whips around until, in what seems to me to be a rather funny climax, a bright and conclusive duh duh is sounded, as if announcing how much of a lovely time we've all had. The Fitzwilliams best capture the unstable and variable tone of the piece of the three groups in consideration. 

The second movement, Moderato con moto, is straightforwardly a more tense and sinister affair. The first theme feel like a sinister waltz of some advancing force, which then breaks down into a tip toeing, sneaking staccato advance. In the Borodin Quartet, there's an odd percussive quality to these staccato passages, almost like someone is banging on the side of their instrument while playing. It is very effective, and almost wins over the others for this reason alone. There is real beauty in the variations of the themes that follow, languorous and slow towards the end.

The third movement, Allegro mon troppo, is startling and hard, Guilliam Tell possessed. Lots of danse macabre vibes drench the central section, with hard pizzicato driving and dynamic shifts promising relief and then blasting off without mercy. The Fitzwilliams take it again for their sheer drive and power. 

The fourth movement, Adagio, opens with a recitation in unison between the cello and violin, dramatic and stirring, but which is interrupted several times by a beautiful and somewhat glacial melody high in the violins, and it all gives way to slow and sweeping explorations of the opening material. There's something of a funereal march about the whole thing, and the feeling of grief is palpable. As it continues, it becomes more and more sparse, with long pauses and slow repetitions of three notes which continue directly into...

The fifth and final movement, Moderato-Adagio, which begins with a meditation in the cello, and then jumps into an exploration of everything that has gone before. it reminds me of a fairground ride at times, but a melancholy one that keeps getting stuck on certain phrases and ideas before sliding back into life for another reminiscence. Guilliame Tell returns then, but bright and skipping, like we've turned a corner, but it's not long before we're yanked back to the Adagio of the previous movement, and things are stripped away and stumble to a stop with a repeated cello plaint. Themes from the previous movements appear and are discarded, until we reach a resigned and lovely sustained drone atop which a violin weeps its way out of sight, and three distant strums strings, like a palm muted guitar, mark a close.

Remarkable.


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## sbmonty

I'm following this thread with interest. Very interesting posts. I'm feeling the urge to revisit these one by one. I did that a few years ago, using this book by Wendy Lesser as a companion guide. Thought you might be interested. A really enjoyable read.


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## EdwardBast

A few random remarks on the Third Quartet:

The Third is a tough nut for me, odd in several ways. Most notably, the first movement is the only one that isn't oppressively dark. The first theme has a scherzando feel to it. Every note in the development section is part of a fugue on the first theme.

The fourth movement is a set of variations on two ideas, the two the OP described above. The first is treated like a passacaglia theme, the second more freely. Both of these ideas are taken up in the finale.

The finale starts in the minor mode and ends in the major, but the final tonic harmony, which is sustained for ages, is discolored by three notes outside the mode, Gb, Db, and B-natural, all in the first violin, all in quotations of the opening theme in F minor. 

This quartet explores some narrative/structural ideas that I think are more cogently treated in the Tenth Quartet. In both quartets the finale brings back the theme of the preceding passacaglia, assaults it with quotations from a relentlessly aggressive scherzo (the third movement in this case), and then ends in a subdued and unquiet coda.


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## thejewk

Apologies for the lack of posts, I had an influx of synth gear this week and the setup has taken most of my time and attention. MIDI and CV puzzles boggle my brain.

Thanks for the comments EdwardBast, I think you highlight one of my weaknesses in my attempts to describe what I am hearing; a lack of ability to describe the technical forms being used with the necessary precision. It makes me realise that I need a resource which fully explains and explores with examples what, for example, is meant by the terms fugue and scherzando, beyond what something like Wikipedia can tell me. Something to work on, I think.

On to the fourth quartet.

The first movement, Allegretto, opens with a beautifully lush theme, with swirling figures in the first violin on top of a churning drone. The harmony feels unsteady and rises to an uneasy and very dissonant climax, before falling back down to a genuinely pretty second theme. Much of this quartet feels to me to be a conversation between the first violin and the cello, with a harmonic backdrop provided by the other two voices. The cello often drops to a drone to sustain the violin, and then reaches back up to support and comment on the melodic material. The movement ends with a brief one note return to a major feeling, after spending most of the movement in a rather more minor mood, but that won't last long.

The second movement, andantino, is understated and mournful in the opening. The viola and second violin offer a quiet and meditative support with the repetition of two note phrases while the first violin weeps, and then after some time the cello finally enters. I love this movement, because whereas so many other movements in Shostakovich's quartets vacillate between moods at a breakneck pace, this one takes its time and simply explores its own melancholy mood for the duration. If I were asked to present the one most beautiful movements in his quartets, this would be a contender.

The third movement, allegretto, brings back the Jewish folk music feelings from parts of the previous quartets. The arrangement continues the same feeling of the previous movements, tonally ambiguous much of the time, with several lovely passages of unison playing between the cello and violin, and the return of oom-pah feeling from previous quartets pre-empting the final movement.

The final movement, again allegretto, flows beautifully from the previous movement, and is the highlight of the quartet. The Jewish folk themes storm to the front, and personally, I find it impossible not dance in my seat to the mournful, yet seductive, snap and push of the rhythms. The dissonance builds and builds, but always snaps back to one of the many wonderful melodic themes used throughout. The viola steals the show at around the 6.30 mark, and then we take a slow morendo decline into silence.

For my preferred performance, it would be the Borodins on Chandos if not for the sound problems. This is clearly mastered from noisy vinyl, and the dissonant peaks that arise at multiple points in the work distort the sound terribly. It's actually uncomfortable to listen to on decent headphones. Thankfully, the Fitzwilliams do a superb job, without any of the problems of the Borodins, but don't quite capture the exquisite phrasing in a few sections of the fourth movement that the Borodins seem to effortlessly nail. The Shostakovich quartet, for me, are good until the final movement, where they just don't quite get there. It is nowhere near as hypnotic and engaging.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> Thanks for the comments EdwardBast, I think you highlight one of my weaknesses in my attempts to describe what I am hearing; a lack of ability to describe the technical forms being used with the necessary precision. It makes me realise that I need a resource which fully explains and explores with examples what, for example, is meant by the terms fugue and scherzando, beyond what something like Wikipedia can tell me. Something to work on, I think.


Nothing you wrote was incorrect and there's no reason everyone needs to use technical language. The canonic entrances you noted in the first movement are indeed there. (Fugues tend to begin with strict (canonic) imitation of a subject). I don't think of scherzando as a technical term. Its just a way of saying the opening theme has a humorous or jocular tone. In any case, I'll try to respond in a less technical way - and please just carry on as you have been. It's fun to share impressions.

I love the way the first movement of the Fourth Quartet begins so tranquilly and harmoniously, the violins blending sweetly with the steady drones on D in the cello and viola, but then steadily adding notes outside of the home key until the tension becomes unbearable. And then it collapses into sweetness again when the drone finally changes to G and then E. I don't know any other movement that works this way.

The second movement is Shostakovich at his most lyrical. Gorgeous melody. Sounds youthful and sincere to me.

In general, the Fourth Quartet strikes me as softer, less stressful than the ones before and after it. I think Shostakovich was conscious of trying to vary the quartets (and symphonies) in this way, just as Beethoven was with his symphonies and sonatas.


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## thejewk

EdwardBast said:


> Nothing you wrote was incorrect and there's no reason everyone needs to use technical language. The canonic entrances you noted in the first movement are indeed there. (Fugues tend to begin with strict (canonic) imitation of a subject). I don't think of scherzando as a technical term. Its just a way of saying the opening theme has a humorous or jocular tone. In any case, I'll try to respond in a less technical way - and please just carry on as you have been. It's fun to share impressions.
> 
> I love the way the first movement of the Fourth Quartet begins so tranquilly and harmoniously, the violins blending sweetly with the steady drones on D in the cello and viola, but then steadily adding notes outside of the home key until the tension becomes unbearable. And then it collapses into sweetness again when the drone finally changes to G and then E. I don't know any other movement that works this way.
> 
> The second movement is Shostakovich at his most lyrical. Gorgeous melody. Sounds youthful and sincere to me.
> 
> In general, the Fourth Quartet strikes me as softer, less stressful than the ones before and after it. I think Shostakovich was conscious of trying to vary the quartets (and symphonies) in this way, just as Beethoven was with his symphonies and sonatas.


No no, please do continue to respond in a technical way, because it can only help improve my vocabulary as I go back to the pieces with your notes. I think improved vocabulary well understood necessarily improves thinking and appreciation. My comment was not meant as a criticism at all, just a note to myself that I have (as always in everything) room to improve.

I think you are completely correct when you say that the fourth is softer and less stressful. The moments of climax and dissonance seem to give way more easily in this one to moments of beauty. I really love it, but I do admit I crave some of the more knotty moments of the third. Thankfully we can have both.


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## thejewk

I've started writing this post multiple times this week, but I've been struggling to get my thoughts in order. Primarily, I think it presents performance problems that none of the recordings that I have manage to navigate perfectly.

The first movement, allegro mon troppo, is oddly off kilter. It starts with a theme that reminds me somewhat of the first theme of the 3rd quartet, but then quickly jumps into what I can only describe as a heavy metal riff on the cello, before returning to the first theme and variations. Soon however we're into a new and lovely sweet theme in 3/4 which gets a brief, I think, passacaglia treatment, before we're thrown back to the beginning for a run through of the opening themes with variations. This pattern repeats, returning again to the sweet waltz, but nothing is ever left alone for long. Around the mid way point of the movement, we get some excellent variations on the first theme, with a whispering swirl as a backdrop which builds into, what sounds to me like a primordial screech through gritted teeth, with a harrying high pitched violin. The heavy metal theme is subjected to the same treatment, before we burst into a new theme high in the violins, which I believe is a quote from one of DSCH's student's compositions, and devolves into more primordial and strident screeching. More variations on the first two themes then bring us back down slowly to a lovely outro section on the waltz theme, before returning to the student theme, this time mournful and reaching ever up against pizzicato backing, and thus we move into the next movement.

Movement 2, andante, is the highlight for me. Slow and languorous, we gently float, haunted by the student theme, with variations on its tonality which tease us and then vanish. This sparse and swelling sea of sound, without any of the rhythmic force and drive of the first movement, almost completely foretells DSCH's last few quartets in the way that it avoids any feeling of sentimentality until we finally reach the beautifully romantic reading of the student theme, and then we are plummeted into a despairing and slow crawl to the conclusion.

Movement 3, marked moderato - allegretto - andante, immediately runs on from the previous movement, and continues the mood, but at a brisker pace, as if gathering resolve, until bursting into a sort of wizened reflection on the erratic feel of the first movement. I try to avoid the urge to tell narratives from music, but the arc of the piece until this point practically begs for it. Was the first movement a mad frenzy of passion, ending in rejection, with second movement malaise and a final movement as a representation of experienced if damaged resolve? Is so, then we soon build back up to the pitch of the first movement for some rather strident and dissonant wailing, although I think it more successful than some of the passages in the first movement, particularly those underpinned by dramatic gestures from the cello which help to ground proceedings. We begin to hear the return of the student theme again in a slow and sparse section which morphs back into the jolly themes from earlier in the movement. Like with the first movement, nothing is allowed to breathe for long, and the mood keeps switching around until we slow for some really beautiful sustained chords while the cello sweetly sings of past themes in the upper register, and everything slowly moves off into the distance.

The Shostakovich Quartet murder this quartet for me. The discordant, strident passages are frankly brutal on the ears, played without nuance. The Borodins may have sounded perfectly fine in person, but the recording renders the sound even less pleasant than the SQ performance, although they manage the second movement wonderfully. The Fitzwilliams are the best of the bunch for me, but still not without reaching into the difficult to listen to realm. It could be a personal issue, as I have some treble sensitivity, but I think I will have to hunt elsewhere for a recording which satisfies me. 

Overall, a superb quartet, but doesn't quite reach the height of 3 for me, and I find 2 and 4 much more pleasurable listening experiences.


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## Merl

Jewk, have you got the Pacifica set? If not I'd seriously suggest you invest in it. From your comments on this thread, some of the things you are missing from the performances you have discussed are in the Pacifica set.


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## thejewk

Merl said:


> Jewk, have you got the Pacifica set? If not I'd seriously suggest you invest in it. From your comments on this thread, some of the things you are missing from the performances you have discussed are in the Pacifica set.


I don't, but think I'll have to invest in it soon if that's the case. Thanks!


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## Barbebleu

Merl said:


> Jewk, have you got the Pacifica set? If not I'd seriously suggest you invest in it. From your comments on this thread, some of the things you are missing from the performances you have discussed are in the Pacifica set.


I'll second that recommendation Merl. Very pleasantly surprised by the Pacifica. The Rubio Quartet are worth a listen too.


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## Merl

Don't just take out word for it, Jewk. I know these are critic reviews but they all say much the same thing.

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/pacifica-quartets-complete-shostakovich-friends/
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cdl01003a.php
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/June/Shostakovich_quartets_BOX1003.htm


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## annaw

Merl said:


> Don't just take out word for it, Jewk. I know these are critic reviews but they all same much the same thing.
> 
> https://www.classicstoday.com/review/pacifica-quartets-complete-shostakovich-friends/
> http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cdl01003a.php
> http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/June/Shostakovich_quartets_BOX1003.htm


As much as I've heard Pacifica's recordings, they are wonderful and in great sound! I should listen to their whole cycle some time myself as well...


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## thejewk

Just listened to the Pacifica's recording of the fifth quartet, and you are right. For me, they trump those in my collection by a wide margin. Lots of control and focus on the overall mix of instruments, rather than a confrontation or competition. None of the dense sections in the first and last movements felt unfocused or messy. Superb.


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## EdwardBast

The best performance I've heard of the Fifth Quartet (by far) is by the second incarnation of the Borodin Quartet with Mikhail Kopelman, on Melodiya in the complete set - searing intensity, utter clarity.






The Fifth is a masterpiece. Composed not long after the preludes and fugues of Op. 87 and at nearly the same time as the Tenth Symphony, it is Shostakovich at the height of his contrapuntal skill and imagination. This is obvious in the quasi-symphonic drama of the development but even more so in quiet passages like the recap of the second theme, where four completely independent lines, each with a different personality, are blended and woven in sweetness and harmony. The first movement, like that of the Tenth Symphony, is a thoroughly traditional sonata structure in the Russian variant of the form where the recap of the first theme is intensified and dovetailed into the end of the development. For my money, Shostakovich never surpassed this movement for dramatic intensity and poignant contrast.

The second movement is an unquiet nocturne. The eerie mood is set by its unusual "orchestration"; The main idea is played by muted viola and doubled two octaves higher by the first violin using harmonics. Like the first movement, it too has a contrasting idea hidden away like a private joy, secretive, hushed, untouched by chaos and stress of the world outside‚ a dream within a dream.

The finale's first theme is based on free retrogrades of motives from the first movement. Ideas from the other movements return, as the OP describes, to threaten and raise tension, but the quartet ends in the tranquil dark of a final nocturne. It seems a haunted peace to me.

The Fifth might be my favorite of the quartets.


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## newyorkconversation

The current Borodin Quartet was slated to perform the entire Shostakovich cycle last fall in NYC. Alas, their performance was canceled. 

I have felt at a few different times that Shostakovich is perhaps the composer most suited to the angst of life during the pandemic and have been listening to different symphonies and quartets - love the idea of listening to the whole cycle sequentially over time!


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## thejewk

Had some time this afternoon so...

The first movement of the sixth quartet, allegretto, gives an immediate impression of a return to the bright and classical feel of the first quartet. The melodies are sweet and balanced, and after the first two themes even a switch to a minor mode and an increase in tension towards the middle of the movement feels more like an exercise in varying interest rather than a wail of serious anguish that we have heard multiple times in the previous quartets. There's some really great unison playing throughout these passages, and I think I hear a theme from the third quartet in here too. After a little turbulence and some bright variations and sprightly phrasing, we lead into a beautiful finale. 

The second movement continues the mood of the first, but moderato con moto. Particularly lovely is the passage where the first theme played on violins is passed to the cello and the violins punctuate the performance with a rhythmical monotone phrase before a small climax, which then gives way quickly to a slight restatement of the opening. The dizzying descending and then ascending scales in the violin offer the possibility of a lament which is briefly taken up in a subdued manner in the other instruments, but it's not long before the cello pizzicatos its way back to a jollier feel. There's something of a Wurlitzer about the descending and ascending scale which crops up multiple times in the following passages, but a final statement very similar to the ending of the previous movement feels like it settles matters nicely.

The third movement, lento, is a definite change of pace, and immediately may seem like a rather sombre mood, but to my ears it feels a little too contented and romantic to be so. Harmonically, there are beautiful dissonant chords across all the instruments at the end of many phrases that then resolve into something more consonant before too long. It sounds rather wistful in places. The highlight comes just over half way through with slightly melancholy sing song violin melody over slow and sustained bowed cello. The melodies in this movement are some of the best of any of the quartets so far, ravishingly lovely. After some more slow and meditative moments, we end again on a similar gesture to those of the first movements, but carry on seamlessly into the final movement.

The fourth movement, marked variously in different recordings, is described by the SQ packaging as Lento - Allegretto - Andante - Adagio. The lento doesn't last longer than a few bars, and we are back to the opening mood with bright melodies and activity and cooperative playing. Then we encounter another folk like rhythmical passage which calls back to the final movements of the third and fourth quartets, but here it's a passing section. The highlight of the movement comes when the upper strings whip into a lyrical frenzy and the cello enters, repeating the main theme of the third movement, and then the other instruments circle until the become tired and start to deflate. A brief pause heralds a return to the rhythmical folk mood which almost immediately gets subsumed back into more warm and sunny gestures and a trip through the themes of earlier movements, and a final repetition of the closing gestures of every movement of the piece.

I wouldn't class this as a heavyweight quartet in the cycle, but it's lovely and unmissable.

For the best performance, I honestly haven't found a bad one, but return most often to the Fitzwilliams for the excellent imaging of the recording and the sonority of the tone achieved. That said, I'd be happy with them all.


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## EdwardBast

I especially love the third movement of the Sixth. It's a passacaglia, beginning with several repetitions of the ground in the cello. But it also has something like the feel of a fugue because the instruments enter one by one on related ideas, with all of the players in only on the fourth repetition of the bass melody. Shostakovich was a master of this form, which he also used for slow movements in the Third and the Tenth Quartets, the Eighth and Fifteenth Symphonies, and elsewhere.

Hey jewk, you kind of downplayed what I find strangest about this quartet: All four movements end with the same strange cadencial passage with the upper voice falling by a major third to the tonic. What's up with that?  Seems like there must be some inside joke or story behind that.

"I wouldn't class this as a heavyweight quartet in the cycle, but it's lovely and unmissable."

I agree, but I think Shostakovich approached successive works in a given genre the way Beethoven tended to: following an intensely dramatic epic like the Fifth Quartet with one lighter and more lyrical, the way Beethoven did with the symphonies 3 and 4 or 5 and 6. I really like the change in style and intensity one to the next .


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## thejewk

EdwardBast, am I correct in saying that the cadenza is playing on the DSCH notes? On the quartets.de site, the author makes much of the idea of an 'alternative reading' of the third movement with a quote from a Prokofiev piece mentioned as being particularly significant, but from my layman's perspective I think a hint is being overblown into a grand statement. It would certainly make sense for this quartet, the first composed since Stalin's (and Prokofiev's) death, as well as the death of his first wife and mother, to be used to express something about these matters. However, Shosty has already shown himself quite capable of producing anguished and desolate music to express such ideas, and could easily and without consequence have produced something similar for this third movement. He doesn't. 

For the strange cadencial passages in particular, I considered them primarily as a tool used to unify the work first and foremost, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about it in more detail.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> EdwardBast, am I correct in saying that the cadenza is playing on the DSCH notes? On the quartets.de site, the author makes much of the idea of an 'alternative reading' of the third movement with a quote from a Prokofiev piece mentioned as being particularly significant, but from my layman's perspective I think a hint is being overblown into a grand statement. It would certainly make sense for this quartet, the first composed since Stalin's (and Prokofiev's) death, as well as the death of his first wife and mother, to be used to express something about these matters. However, Shosty has already shown himself quite capable of producing anguished and desolate music to express such ideas, and could easily and without consequence have produced something similar for this third movement. He doesn't.
> 
> For the strange cadencial passages in particular, I considered them primarily as a tool used to unify the work first and foremost, but *I'd love to hear your thoughts about it in more detail.*


I don't _have_ any thoughts in more detail.  It's a mystery to me. The notes don't spell anything that makes sense to me.

I missed the Prokofiev quotation in the third movement. Do you remember what piece the author meant and what passage?


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## thejewk

EdwardBast said:


> I don't _have_ any thoughts in more detail.  It's a mystery to me. The notes don't spell anything that makes sense to me.
> 
> I missed the Prokofiev quotation in the third movement. Do you remember what piece the author meant and what passage?


Here's the quote of the relevant passage:

"As mentioned above, the heart of the quartet lies in the third movement, the Lento, which is written in B flat minor "a dark key, favoured by dark Russian composers in the romantic period."8 On close inspection it does contain a disturbing feature. Between the fifth and sixth repeation of the theme [rehearsal number 59 on the score or starting at 3'31" in the YouTube example displayed above] Shostakovich shortly quotes a melody from the middle movement, the adagio, of Prokofiev's Second Quartet written fourteen years earlier in 1942 during the German invasion of Russia9. It is the first theme in this movement and Prokofiev has it played on the cello, but in Shostakovich's arrangement it is played on the first violin which soars graciously above the other instruments. Shostakovich's quotation is as brief as it is beautiful but why does he quote Prokofiev?"


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## Ras

newyorkconversation said:


> The current Borodin Quartet was slated to perform the entire Shostakovich cycle last fall in NYC. Alas, their performance was canceled.
> 
> I have felt at a few different times that Shostakovich is perhaps the composer most suited to the angst of life during the pandemic and have been listening to different symphonies and quartets - love the idea of listening to the whole cycle sequentially over time!


Their recording on Decca is good.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> Here's the quote of the relevant passage:
> 
> "As mentioned above, the heart of the quartet lies in the third movement, the Lento, which is written in B flat minor "a dark key, favoured by dark Russian composers in the romantic period."8 On close inspection it does contain a disturbing feature. Between the fifth and sixth repeation of the theme [rehearsal number 59 on the score or starting at 3'31" in the YouTube example displayed above] Shostakovich shortly quotes a melody from the middle movement, the adagio, of Prokofiev's Second Quartet written fourteen years earlier in 1942 during the German invasion of Russia9. It is the first theme in this movement and Prokofiev has it played on the cello, but in Shostakovich's arrangement it is played on the first violin which soars graciously above the other instruments. Shostakovich's quotation is as brief as it is beautiful but why does he quote Prokofiev?"


Yes, the first violin plays a snippet (eight or nine notes) that is the same as a bit of the slow movement of Prokofiev's Second Quartet. I'm not sure it's an intentional quotation, however. It's a figure Shostakovich uses elsewhere, I believe in several different works, although I can't make citations off the top of my head. Prokofiev wrote his quartet when he and the other major Russian composers, including Shostakovich, were housed together somewhere out east of the fighting during WWII. They heard each others works in progress throughout the evacuation, so it's quite likely Shostakovich would have heard Prokofiev's Second Quartet in 1942 when it was being composed.


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## newyorkconversation

Fascinating piece about Shostakovich's association with the Beethoven Quartet, who premiered a number of his works and to whom quartets no 3 and no 5 are dedicated (along with quartets 11-13 being dedicated to individual members):

https://stringsmagazine.com/the-beethoven-quartets-unique-relationship-with-shostakovich/

The 6th is not mentioned specifically in the piece - so I realize this is a bit out of sync with the current thread - but thought it might be of interest.


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## thejewk

The seventh quartet is, for me, a towering achievement, and sits amongst the best of Shostakovich's quartets. It is very brief in comparison to many of his other quartets, but the brevity ensures that there isn't a single wasted second.

The first movement, allegretto, opens with a theme which dominates the quartet, first played in rapid, disjoined triplets. It then quickly transitions into a brisk and pointed cello theme which lyrically but abruptly drives everything forwards in a controlled and masterfully executed dance. A brief swell of romantic feeling is then quickly subsumed into another attempt at the opening material, but now dominated by pizzicato and beautiful tension, leading into a slightly more expansive second theme. Before we know it, a minor reprisal of the first theme leads us into a few short formal bowed phrases as we pass into the second movement.

This movement, lento, opens with glacial arpeggio on the second violin, and a spectral high theme in the first. The cello and viola in unison enter with a startling glissando, and cello and viola play some beautiful if abortive gestures over the arpeggios until they slowly degrade to a few brief two note repeats and the cello and viola create a wonderful slow and droning backdrop in preparation for the first violin's lyrical and stunted re-entrance. The viola takes up the arpeggio and we crawl to the close.

The third movement is a shocking awakening, marked allegro - allegretto. After a quick and brutal introductory few gestures, and a pregnant pause we burst forth with unison frenzy, taking the feeling of the opening of the first movement's minimalism, and stacking the layers on top of one another to create a driving and jerky whirlwind. The same phrase repeats over and over across all the instruments almost like canons, and feels like it keeps getting stuck, like the players are trying desperately trying to burst past it. At around the two minute mark, they succeed, and ascend up the neck of their instruments until the quartet's opening theme erupts, played in unison by all four instruments, but with some added discordance which increases the tension, but before long seems to peter out. We pick back up with a gentler rendering of the phrase that was played as a canon earlier in the movement on the first violin, with delicate backing by the ensemble, and here it is allowed somewhat to develop until it morphs into a lightly bowed version of the pizzicato variety of the theme from the first movement, and then the various themes from the whole piece are combined and varied. The themes, now unstuck and finally allowed to intermingle, are given only a very brief existence before the whole thing loses momentum and stumbles to a stop.

I adore the unity of this piece, the way that everything serves a purpose, and nothing is wasted. It feels to me to be some sort of strange and tragic dance between two people unable to get past a memory that won't let go of them.

For my favoured performance, all the ones I've heard are excellent, but the Shostakovich Quartet win the day for me with the excellent instrument separation allowing me to follow the individual voices most easily, and the slightly rawer tone of the playing suiting the material perfectly.


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## EdwardBast

The Seventh is the shortest of the fifteen. It has the concision and sequence of tempi of a CPE Bach symphony or Baroque concerto. I like the way the fugue subject of the finale becomes slow, legato, and wistful toward the end.


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## thejewk

On to the big one, probably the most well known and played of Shostakovich's quartets, the eight. There's a huge amount of mythology built around this piece, claims that it is silently dedicated to 'himself' as a sort of last testament, with regular repetitions and transpositions of the opening notes of the piece which spell out DSCH in German notation. Most importantly, however, it's one of his most straight forward and lyrical quartets, while also having buckets of drama and action.

The first movement, largo, is a luxuriously slow meditation on the DSCH sequence, with variations. After the opening remarks, a beautiful recitation in the violin weeps over a drone, before the DSCH comes back and leads into one of the key melodic ideas of the quartet, a descending figure that starts out sweetly and then repeatedly delves into a minor tonality. The following passage sounds to me like a lullaby lament, before returning to the opening ideas for a solemn coda.

The second movement, allegro molto, is a jolting and desperate frenzy on the opening theme of the quartet, which suddenly burst at around the half way point into a Jewish folk song feel so often used in past quartets, but here with no restraint. We then whip up into a further frenzy with variations of the opening ideas of this movement, and are blasted into the next one.

The third movement, allegretto, opens with a dramatic gesture and quick fiddling soon moving back into klezmer territory, lots of oom-pah and dance motion, happiness and weeping simultaneously. This is restless music that is constantly varying against different supports, but changes utterly at around the half way point with a swarm of insects buzzing around the upper registers for an unsettled passage, which leads out with an uncomfortable drone held into a restatement of the first theme, with variations. These peter out into some lovely lyrical gestures which fade into...

The fourth movement, largo, which has a brutal repetition of a rising figure, followed by what can only be described as three stabs, all backed by another disturbingly held drone. This repeats a few times, and is replaced by a strikingly dramatic piece of unison playing full of resistance and bellowing surety. Then come the stabs again, but they give away to one of the most moving passages in all of music. A sweetly melancholic lament for what has come before, with the constant droning of a few tones underpinning everything. After a period of this beautiful music, it then becomes almost unbearable when the cello in its upper-most register picks up a theme from an aria from Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and sings forth sweetly a song of love against a terrible backdrop. This passage has the ability, on the right (or wrong) day to bring a tear to my eye. The lyricism tries to continue, but the stabs come back to try to stop the flow, with the sweetness trying to persist underneath.

The final movement, also largo, flows immediately out of the previous movement, and sings a wonderful lament, built on the ever present DSCH which keeps resurfacing over and over. The whole movement tonally feels like a return to the beginning of the piece, and it pushes to the point where the ear expects and wishes for a return of the sweet-to-minor descending theme I noted in the first movement, but it never arrives. Instead we are treated to a morendo fade out of existence.

My favoured interpretation is the Borodins on Chandos, by a country mile. I think probably as a result of pure bias, because it was the first I heard, and this is one of the first quartets from the cycle which grabbed me immediately. Others are probably fine too, other than the fact that the Shostakovich and Fitzwilliams take the stab passages too quickly, and no other performance manages to play so luxuriously and so raw edged simultaneously as the Borodins.


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## EdwardBast

Despite some great music, I've never really taken to the Eighth, mostly because I find the quotations from his earlier works and the supposed autobiographical dimension distracting. Quite near the end of the first movement, for example, he quotes the opening theme of his First Symphony. And the "Jewish folk song feel" in the second movement is a quotation of the finale of the Second Piano Trio, where it is scored more effectively and with greater dynamic contrast. In the third movement one finds the opening theme of the First Cello Concerto, once again more effectively scored and treated in the original. And so on.

According to Lev Lebedinsky, who seems an unreliable source to me, Shostakovich was on the verge of suicide at the time he composed the Eighth because of pressure to join the communist party, to which he soon succumbed.


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## thejewk

I knew that there were other quotes in there than the one I picked up on, but hadn't realised that there were so many. I haven't explored his other chamber music at all yet, so it will be interesting to experience the 'quotes' as original material.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> I knew that there were other quotes in there than the one I picked up on, but hadn't realised that there were so many. I haven't explored his other chamber music at all yet, so *it will be interesting to experience the 'quotes' as original material.*


Something else to look forward to!

Just by chance I happened to know most of the quoted works before I ever heard the Eighth Quartet, so I never experienced the quartet as an entirely independent statement. Perhaps that affected my appreciation of it? Anyway, the Second Piano Trio is a wonderful, intense piece. Shostakovich's First is my favorite Cello Concerto.


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## thejewk

EdwardBast said:


> Something else to look forward to!
> 
> Just by chance I happened to know most of the quoted works before I ever heard the Eighth Quartet, so I never experienced the quartet as an entirely independent statement. Perhaps that affected my appreciation of it? Anyway, the Second Piano Trio is a wonderful, intense piece. Shostakovich's First is my favorite Cello Concerto.


I can certainly imagine that being familiar with the source material first would alter the impact of the music, although your approach would be closer to the 'intended' experience, if it makes sense to talk of it in that way. My first hearing of the eighth was certainly coloured by its reputation, and was one of the first of his quartets which I considered closely due to the 'weekly string quartet' thread in this section of the forum. It immediately struck me as a driving yet lyrical piece of great power. It doesn't have the depth of writing of some of the earlier pieces for sure, but I think it's a really impressive piece of music even when stripped of all the baggage.

I am very much looking forward to exploring the other chamber pieces and concerti of Shostakovich, but I want to really explore the symphonies before I do. I must admit, however, there are far more symphonies that do nothing for me at all than those which are appealing to me. I listened to the 10th again this morning and again failed to find much worth paying attention to.


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## thejewk

On to the ninth quartet, and for me a substantial change in sound. Previous quartets have touched on the sparser sound world exemplified by the last 5 or so quartets of the cycle, but this is the first real indication of a change in direction for Shostakovich's quartet writing.

The first movement, moderato con moto, opens gently and liltingly, but with some ambiguity in the fluttering and uncertain fluctuations. The opening melody is expressive, but hardly lyrical and romantic like some of the earlier opening movements, and without the unhinged abandon of the opening of the third or seventh quartets. The second theme on the cello, backed with pizzicato, is rhythmically interesting and courtly, and soon develops into a variation on the opening theme, with a sparse accompaniment which jumps across octaves. The whole movement is very contrapuntally rich, with voices exploring the two main themes in a stately manner quite unlike the more florid feel of many of the previous quartets.

The first movement leads immediately into the second, adagio, which immediately continues the feeling of harmonic uncertainty with some lovely unison chords. There are many small chromatic movements up and down single half steps that create a sort of gentle tension. This leads into a long restrained and icy melody over a minimal backing based on the chords of the opening of the movement, which continues for most of the movement, before returning to the opening chords, and a final coda which gives a hesitant and quiet taste of the next movement, which it leads into.

The third movement, allegretto, returns to the William Tell theme that we already heard as an influence in the third quartet, and which will be used extensively in the fifteenth symphony. Here, it is far from the jolly original theme, but also not a despairing or ironic gesture. Instead we have a harmonically rich, and occasionally sparse, exploration of the propulsive rhythms. In the later half of the movement, everything gets stripped back and we hear individual melodic fragments come to the front, while unison playing swells back and forth in volume. I find it very hard to talk intelligently about the development of this movement, or to explain why I like it so much.

The fourth movement, adagio, picks up where the second movement ended, with fluctuating melodies exploring half step progressions, until harsh pizzicato chords interrupt, with cavernous space between the plucks. The opening vacillations return, before an even more sparse pizzicato passage. The final third of the movement is taken up by recitation over an icy and quiet backing, all ambiguous and unresolving, until we burst into the final movement.

The fifth and final movement, much longer than the rest, marked allegro, performs a similar role as the extended final movements of earlier quartets, with multiple discreet sections, a central fugal section on the various themes of the work, and it acts as the centrepiece of the composition. It opens with a dense and quick passage that seems to recall the central section of the first movement, but with more urgency and drive. Much of the backing feels fractured, each phrase torn off at the end. This develops into a pizzicato oom-pah-pah section, before launching into a full on klezmer passage very reminiscent of the final movement of the fourth quartet, possibly surpassing it in rhythmical expressivity. Instead of a laughing and weeping dichotomy felt in that quartet, however, here the overall tone is more ambiguous and even neutral, and it gets more sparse as it continues. Then we reach an extended fugal passage in which the themes of the quartet are explored, one after another. Unlike other similar passages in previous quartets which whip into a frenzy quickly, here everything feels slightly clipped and reserved. Everything is bowed in very short and clipped phrasing, until the cello emerges with one of my favourite bits of cello writing in the cycle. First some wonderful, expressive phrases are played in the upper register, which peter out and are replaced by an abstract chordal pizzicato section, finished off with a few fragmented bowed gestures before the pizzicato chords return across all the instruments, with deafening silence between each alienating strum. The viola picks up a few fragments from the cello's recitation, before we return to the themes of the quartet with a reserved and wonderful exploration of the third movement, overlaid with other themes that we have heard thus far. Things build up inexorably towards a magnificent climax using the octave jumping idea of the opening movement, and we finish with some triumphant gestures very much at odds with the morendo used so often in the cycle.

Another superb piece, if slightly more enigmatic than much of the earlier material.

For my favoured performance, I like the Fitzwilliams in this one very much. They strike a good tonal balance, not raw like the Shostakovich Quartet, less sonically muddy than the Borodins. I also very much like the Pacifica's reading and this performance by the Jerusalem Quartet on youtube:


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## EdwardBast

The Ninth was mysterious to me for a while. I just couldn't get how everything fit together, the main symptom being when the cheerful major-mode theme from the first movement returned at the end of the finale it sounded unmotivated to me — like it wasn't adequately prepared. On the last few times listening to it, however, I've realized that parts of all of the movements are related to that theme. Guess I should have taken Shostakovich's decision to make it continuous across movements more seriously. Thanks for getting me to think about it again! I'm going to have to listen with a score and do some analysis one of these days to get all of these new intuitions verified and sorted.

Hope you enjoy the Tenth.


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## thejewk

EdwardBast said:


> The Ninth was mysterious to me for a while. I just couldn't get how everything fit together, the main symptom being when the cheerful major-mode theme from the first movement returned at the end of the finale it sounded unmotivated to me - like it wasn't adequately prepared. On the last few times listening to it, however, I've realized that parts of all of the movements are related to that theme. Guess I should have taken Shostakovich's decision to make it continuous across movements more seriously. Thanks for getting me to think about it again! I'm going to have to listen with a score and do some analysis one of these days to get all of these new intuitions verified and sorted.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the Tenth.


If you do the analysis with a score, please do post your impressions here. I would be very interested to hear any further insights. I'm glad you found my impressions useful.

I've been through the tenth about 6 or 7 times in the last few days, and still feel like I need a few more listens before I start the write up. I initially classed in the same loose category as the sixth and the first, but the more I listen, the less sure I am of myself.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> If you do the analysis with a score, please do post your impressions here. I would be very interested to hear any further insights. I'm glad you found my impressions useful.
> 
> I've been through the tenth about 6 or 7 times in the last few days, and still feel like I need a few more listens before I start the write up. *I initially classed in the same loose category as the sixth and the first*, but the more I listen, the less sure I am of myself.


The first movement is relatively gentle to be sure, but the violence and dissonance of the scherzo and that harrowing, inward turning passacaglia are another matter. At the risk of sounding like a broken record: the Borodin Quartet's performances (both the first and second incarnations) of these movements are wonderful.


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## Guest

This is my favorite version. They play the works with astonishing ferocity, and one reviewer said he feared for the safety of their instruments!


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## thejewk

The tenth quartet has been occupying a lot of my time over the last week, and it has gone up in my estimations considerably in that time. It's the sort of piece that just keeps getting better the more familiar you get with it, to the point where I rank it now at around the same level as the third and the seventh.

The first movement, andante, is mostly gentle in feel, but is packed to the brim with gestures and themes that seem to persist throughout the whole quartet. It opens with an unaccompanied statement by the first violin with a descending figure, which moves into a lovely second theme where each instrument in turn plays three notes, and then in unison they play a harmonious but slightly unsteady, maybe a bit queasy theme. These two themes are then worked over and developed in turn until things start to stutter and we get a lovely extended cello passage with just touches of colour from the other instruments, until the violin takes up the theme and plays it out until we return to the opening themes for further development. Suddenly the luxurious feel is replaced by ghostly and scratchy skittering across strings, but only for a brief time, and we return for the final time for a restatement of the opening and a brief coda.

The second movement, allegretto furioso, is a rude jolt after the calming ending of the last movement. Fierce blasts and staccato bowing drill the opening theme into your brain. Then we hit a panicked episode where each instrument in turn seems to shout into space, backed by flurrying horror soundtrack scrabbling strings. The same two note pattern is repeated over and over with mounting tension, until the opening theme is shouted out with gusto and we are treated to possibly the most frenzied development section in any of the quartets so far. The canons shout out unrepentantly, and are occasionally replaced by a heehawing that sound like a demonic donkey.

The third movement, adagio, changes the mood again abruptly, to a mournful passacaglia, which repeats the queasy sensation I noted in the first movement over an over again with a pattern which moves an ascending four note phrase, three natural and one flat of the next note, up and down with small shifts. The flat notes are incredibly unsettling here, and in the first and third section of each pattern the ear yearns to hear the final note of the cell as a natural instead. The whole effect, along with the beautiful accompaniment of the other instruments, could continue for another half an hour and I wouldn't complain. The coda leads attacka to...

The fourth movement, allegretto - andante, to a rather jolly and sprightly theme on the cello that dances through the harmonic uncertainty of the previous movements, flirting with darkness and dancing away. Then we hear the sustained and bagpipe like drones used in the fourth quartet, along with descending triplets, which lead us back to the opening theme. This is quickly replaced by pizzicato and tip toeing music that feels somehow clandestine. The opening theme returns again, this time lower on the cello and less and less certain of itself. It then builds back to the pitch of the second movement, but with a grotesque tip toe rhythm and a haunted quality. The whole sequence is rhythmically invigorating, and suddenly the passacaglia theme bursts forth over the top of the scratchy menace. The following passages deconstruct the opening theme even further, and continue to link it to the passacaglia, as well as snatches of the first movement, and it becomes more and more sparsely instrumented as it quietly stumbles off into the night. 

The Borodins are the ones for me.


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## EdwardBast

On the Tenth Quartet

Technical:
The "ghostly and scratchy skittering" toward the end of the first movement is produced by muted strings (con sordino) played near the bridge (sul ponticello) with fast repeated notes (tremolo).

The scherzo is most similar to the scherzo of the Tenth Symphony, the one described as a portrait of Stalin by whoever spoke (or fabricated) that part of Volkov's _Testimony_.

The flatted notes you rightly call attention to in the passacaglia (chromatic _neighbor tones_, chromatic because each of them is outside of the prevailing key, minor seconds where one expects major seconds), strike me too as crucially important. But stepping away from technical issues …

… and into subjective matters of interpretation: I don't find them disturbing exactly. For me, it's more like painfully restricted(?), a turning inward, a kind of mental coiling into a fetal position - perhaps in response to the violence and distress of the second movement(?) Anyway, this is one of my favorite movements by Shostakovich in any genre.

The finale theme: "Jolly and sprightly"? Yes, I can hear that. I would perhaps say mischievous, like it has some secret purpose or business it's conducting? My interpretation of the thematic returns from earlier movements, what I hear as the narrative that pulls all of the quartet's threads together: The return of the dark material of the scherzo is the principal threat or destabilizing force. It grows more intense in the development (just as its counterparts in the Tenth Symphony do). When the passacaglia theme returns, I imagine it as the persona's* attempt to hold fast to the inner world or introversive sanctuary it created for itself in the third movement in the face of the threat. The fact that the material of the opening movement returns toward the end suggests that the crisis has been weathered or averted and whatever serenity and beauty existed at the start of the work have survived.

*The _persona_ is Edward T. Cone's term for the fictional being whose experience the music is. He uses this to avoid the unwarranted assumption that the expressive qualities of the music should or must be attributed to the composer.


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## thejewk

Penetrating comments as usual Edward, and I think we are largely on the same page with this one. I like idea of using a 'persona' while discussing a piece of music, and I've tried while writing these to avoid making the error of reading biography into every bit of turbulence in the quartets.

I'm currently working away at the 11th, which I'm enjoying very much, but health issues are preventing me from having the attention to convert thoughts into words at the length required. Soon, though.


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## Barbebleu

thejewk said:


> Penetrating comments as usual Edward, and I think we are largely on the same page with this one. I like idea of using a 'persona' while discussing a piece of music, and I've tried while writing these to avoid making the error of reading biography into every bit of turbulence in the quartets.
> 
> I'm currently working away at the 11th, which I'm enjoying very much, but health issues are preventing me from having the attention to convert thoughts into words at the length required. Soon, though.


Hope your health improves soon. I thoroughly enjoy this thread. Look after yourself. :tiphat:


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## thejewk

Barbebleu said:


> Hope your health improves soon. I thoroughly enjoy this thread. Look after yourself. :tiphat:


Thanks Barbebleu, that's appreciated. It's a long term condition that flares up when it feels like it, but I'm slowly getting a bit of energy back and should be up to it again soon.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> I'm currently working away at the 11th, which I'm enjoying very much, but health issues are preventing me from having the attention to convert thoughts into words at the length required. Soon, though.


Take it easy and get well. I look forward to the last four whenever you're up for it.


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## thejewk

The Eleventh Quartet is a grief stricken piece that marks a turning point for the cycle, far removed from the Tenth's sense of balance and its ability to blend four voices in one statement, so prevalent throughout all of the preceding quartets. Instead, for most of the Eleventh, we are limited to one or two voices at a time, with an occasional third or fourth supplying a slow and barely voicing drone. It's as if solo and duo, grief stricken people are trying to talk, to come to terms with something, but they fail over and over, and another attempt is made. It's Sam Beckett in motion, with instruments trying and failing, and then trying to 'fail better' until reaching some level of acceptance in the final movement.

The first movement, Introduction: Andantino, opens with a beguiling violin melody that circles up and down, and then is joined by a faltering cello passage that seems to circle around without being able to make progress. Around the half way point of the brief movement, the violin continues trying to progress the opening theme past the introductory material, while the other instruments repeat a stunted pattern based on the first theme of the cello. The closest we get to any real expression of feeling happens during the final attempt of the violin to make the opening theme progress, where all the instruments create a swell of sound, but it only lasts a second, and they return to a few stilted gestures and the movement leads into the next.

The second movement, Scherzo: Allegretto, starts with a faltering, stuttering theme which leads nowhere and climaxes with a haunting and weeping glissando. It appears that we are going to get a fugue on this theme when the violin joins in with the same melody, but it's a faltering and futile attempt that never seems to get underway. As things progress we get increased amounts of glissandi and more stuck gestures that repeat the same note over and over, until everything breaks down in the closing of the movement and slows down.

The third movement, Recitative: Adagio, rudely blasts out a descending phrase, followed by a braying donkey, which repeats and then gives way to what sound like it will be a romantic and swelling unison figure, but again that fails and the cello interrupts with the braying donkey idea, and everything collapses into the next movement.

The fourth movement, Etude: Allegro, burst into life with a skittering upper register violin figure that vacillates up and down a series of arpeggios, and is then joined with a unison phrase in the other instruments which reminds me of the cello from the first movement. Then, finally, all the instruments join in with a strong and clear statement, with a forward drive that seems like it will start to progress, but then again dissolves into other fractured phrases.

The fifth movement, Humoresque: Allegro, continues on directly from the last movement, and finally coheres into a group statement. The rapid arpeggios of the last movement become a constantly repeated two note phrase, and the unison theme of the last movement storms in with new confidence, but again it doesn't last long before things disintegrate again.

The sixth movement, Elegy: Adagio, opens with a strong cello and viola unison which is instantly reminiscent of the fourth movement of the third quartet. The melody that alternates with this strong and beautiful theme is finally an eloquent and fitting outpouring of grief. Everything before this point has lead to this, which is clearly the grief stricken heart of the matter. It is as if, although the instrumentation is still regularly sparse and spare, the voices are becoming one. The phrases are still rarely fully coherent in the way they are in earlier quartets, but they now are united with a common purpose.

The seventh and final movement, Finale: Moderato, works to bring together much of the material presented in all of the other brief movements, but instead of interrupting each other, the lines follow one another and flow into each other. Even the otherworldly glissandi and pizzicato sections at the half way point don't disrupt and disturb in the same way that they did before. At around the half way point, the cello returns to the opening theme of the first movement, but this time it's backed by funereal but supportive minimal playing, and this continues as we cycle through material from all throughout the piece. The violin weeps over the closing moments and finally sustains an impossibly high note while everything else slowly stumbles off.

Reading back my description, it hardly sounds like an appetising work, but the total effect is stunning. The rapidly changing moods and fractured ideas of five brutally short movements coalesce wonderfully into the longer final two, and the final impression is one of drained resignation.

With regards to the performances, I found only the Fitzwilliam really satisfied me. The Borodins suffers due to noise issues in the recording very much interrupting the sparse arrangements, and the Shostakovich Quartet's recording is ruined by really bad distortion at one point that I can't look past. I even checked the Spotify version to see if I had faulty downloads, but it is just as bad there. The balance of the Fitzwilliams and their superb control, combined with the perfectly acceptable sound quality, makes them a clear winner.


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## Barbebleu

That’s a lovely review of the eleventh, Jewk. I feel with all the quartets that we are hearing Shostakovich at his most open and vulnerable. Look after yourself.


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## EdwardBast

The Eleventh Quartet is full of incongruities. Seven movements but it's still one of the shortest. The titles suggest suite like construction (e.g. "Humoresque," "Etude," "Elegy"), which usually means relatively light content and unrelated movements. Here the tone is unremittingly dark and the interrelationships of the movements are pervasive, amounting to something close to arch form. The three middle movements (Recitative, Etude, and Humoresque) share material, the "braying" double stops Jewk describes returning in the Humoresque, and the outer movements do as well.

Technical: The glissandi in the scherzo all end with natural harmonics, usually two octaves above the open string (by dividing the string in quarters). 

About recordings: The complete quartets recorded by the second incarnation of the Borodin (Melodiya) don't have the sound problems you noted, although the Sixth and Ninth, which were recorded live, have a few annoying coughs.


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## Agamenon

Excellent thread. 

Now I´m listening to those quartets.


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## sbmonty

It certainly is! Looking forward to number 12. Listening along as well.


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## thejewk

Pleased to hear it! I'm glad others are enjoying it as much as I am.


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## thejewk

On to the twelfth quartet, a rather difficult work to talk about. If the previous quartet was an indication that we were on a new path, this is a total jolt into unfamiliar territory.

The first movement, moderato, opens with a twelve tone row in the cello, but immediately followed by a vacillating yet rising and fully tonal figure. This is accompanied by a dirge like, slow and somewhat luxurious accompaniment, and the rising figure and variations on it are passed around, frequently with chromatic chords slowly rising and falling alongside. At about the 1.30 mark, a second theme is presented which switches between the slow and dirge-like, and a pointed staccato mood. The return to the opening theme also includes the tone row as an introduction. Far from sounding like a mere piece of abstraction, the tone row is nicely nested in the tonality of the rest of the piece, and in my view starts to take on the role of a questioning voice, which is answered each time by a melodic if slightly mournful response. The later part of the movement is almost fugal, and then grows softer still, running out into a disquieting sparse held tone.

The second and final movement, marked allegro - adagio - moderato - adagio - moderato - allegretto (!), is more than three times longer than the first movement. It opens with a harsh and shocking series of descending clipped figurations in the cello, supported by wailing and dissonant accompanying figures. The instrumentation is switched around frequently, but gone is the dirge-like yet somehow comforting backdrop that supported the previous movement. A second theme, reminiscent of the climactic writing of many of the preceding quartets, full of tension and continually unresolvable, before we snap back to the opening, which trills away until things slow considerably and a new melody of very free tonality flits around and never settles. We continue to hear variations on the opening theme, and occasionally a more settled and comfortable version of the theme with full cooperative accompaniment in the other instruments threatens to rear its head, but it only lasts a few moments. 

A new theme appears around three minutes into the piece and each of the instruments swirl upwards in a legato scale, then scurry up and down in a ghostly manner. This again dies out and we return to the progressively more tonal version of the opening theme. This again keeps being interrupted before it can properly settle in, and we now hear pizzicato accompaniment which disrupts more than it drives forward the development. This pattern repeats, over and over. At around the six minute mark, the music falters and we hear a wonderful cello solo, that toys with the tone row from the first movement, but then abandons it and mournfully intones, and then is joined by some wonderful queasy chords played long and soft, and then the violin continues in the same mood as the cello. The queasy chords return and then the cello again, and then they play together, with the cello probing around the lower register. 

At around the half way point, the violin sings beautifully over a dirge, which reminds me very much of the passacaglia from the tenth, but more alienated and mournful. This falters and is taken over by some seriously spare and alienating pizzicato, which tried to develop into the developed variation of the opening theme, but it turns quickly into a horror show. It is insistent and probing and is accompanied by an even more harsh version of the trills from earlier in the movement. What follows is a shouting lament that gets repeatedly stuck and sparse until the other instruments, seemingly in sympathy, play the chordal lament.

Finally, all of a sudden, the theme we have heard over and over is integrated with the opening material from the first movement, including the tone row, and everything, for a time, sings together. The themes of the first movement fully coalesce into a coherent statement, and then after some further struggles, we get a full return of the opening material of the second movement, with the stress no longer on the other voices interrupting the work, but on the strong unison quintuplet idea that has threatened this movement constantly but never fully come together. The violin soon whips into a frenzy, however, and the theme takes on the same frenzied character in the other instruments. The cello and viola drive forward incessantly until the violin shouts the quintuplet theme triumphantly as the piece stops.

I have really struggled with this work, and in all honesty I think I admire it more than I like it. The only version that I can say I enjoy is that of the Pacifica Quartet which stresses the secondary voices as much as the primary, and sounds a lot less sparse than other performances as a result. I think my problem is mainly that the themes which are repeated and varied over and over again in this piece are not particularly interesting or attractive, and the constant interruptions of the thematic material, while tense and often alienating, don't feel to me like they add much other than tension and alienation. I think the piece has a shocking and evocative sound world, and not a great deal else.

I would be very interested to hear any comments on this. Does anyone else particularly favour this piece? What am I missing?


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## EdwardBast

The Twelfth Quartet in D-flat major has been a tough nut for me. I hear its contrast and interplay, perhaps even conflict(?), of twelve tone techniques and tonal language as the main formal problem and dynamic force in the structure. The opposition is set up immediately, with a tone row begun in the first measure and completed on the downbeat of measure two, where a fully tonal exploration of the key of D-flat, built from a rocking four-note figure that climbs the scale, follows on its heels. But in a sense one can hear the opposition within the tone row itself. The twelfth note of the row is D-flat, the tonal center of the quartet, and the two notes preceding it, Bbb and Ab, sound like the flatted-6th and 5th scale degrees, making the conclusion of the row a quintessentially tonal three-note gesture. (Note that the Bbb, borrowed from D-flat minor, is used in the first violin's counterpoint to the tonal theme, first sounding in m. 5, so there is from the start an additional tension between the major and minor modes of D-flat.) 

One might take the pattern of the tone row — starting atonal and ending tonal — as a plan for the work as a whole. A main melodic idea in the second movement is a thrice repeated note followed by a scalar descent. In the last moments of the quartet this figure resounds as mi-mi-mi-re-do, a clear assertion of the tonic key. This conclusion is particularly satisfying because nearly every other kind of three-note scalar descent has been heard earlier in the movement, usually surrounded by an atonal cloud of trills in the other strings. So the final tonal clarification has been set up and anticipated for over twenty minutes. 

Looked at more broadly, the quartet might be heard as a rational accommodation between Shostakovich's desire to dabble in twelve-tone writing and his long-term and, alas, unfulfilled goal of writing a string quartet in all of the major and minor keys.

Anyway, enough technical talk and on to thejewk's final question. I can't say I particularly favor (or even favour) this piece. But it holds my interest, especially the way the ideas in the finale are subjected to an apparently inexhaustible series of variations, each subtly different expressively, and all answered and resolved by the final tonal versions in D-flat.


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## thejewk

EdwardBast said:


> ...Anyway, enough technical talk and on to thejewk's final question. I can't say I particularly favor (or even favour) this piece. But it holds my interest, especially the way the ideas in the finale are subjected to an apparently inexhaustible series of variations, each subtly different expressively, and all answered and resolved by the final tonal versions in D-flat.


I think that sums up my thoughts well, on reflection. I was certainly engaged by it, and as you said the final tonal version of the theme has a certain amount of satisfaction, but I can't say I find the themes particularly engaging. Now I'm listening to the thirteenth, I think I can safely say that the twelfth is my least favourite of the cycle, but far from a dud.


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## EdwardBast

I've been listening to performances of the later quartets I hadn't heard before and in the process found these by the Jerusalem Quartet on youtube. These guys have consistently excellent interpretations and execution. Here is a link to the last one I listened to, the Tenth, one of my favorites. I think they did the whole cycle for the Chamber Music Society of New York:


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## thejewk

Yes, they are excellent. I've watched them a few times through now and thoroughly enjoyed them.


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## thejewk

The Thirteenth Quartet, in one movement, is a rather dark and disturbing work, and removes almost all of the propulsive elements so common in writing for string quartets to create a general atmosphere of rarely disturbed stasis.

It opens with a twelve tone row, similarly to the twelfth quartet, and is the first of a number used throughout the work, although not used in the same way as 'traditional' serialist music. Instead of being reversed, inversed, etc, this first row is used as a source of raw materials throughout the work that reminds me of the way Beethoven used and created his themes out of snatches of rhythm, or certain intervals. This opening is played on the viola, and then softly joined by the other instruments to create a floating and static, yet expressive and uncertain harmonic cloud. Lament like soft weeping is passed between the instruments, and occasionally the mood is augmented by a low and sonorous cello drone.

At around the three minute mark, the two violins start to climb in an elevated wail, with the cello then launching into the upper register to commiserate with them. We then hear material from the first row played in the cello, and then the row is played in a mutated series of forms in unison. Highly effectively, this material is then punctuated with very staccato figures in the first violin, playing triplets. Soon after the violins and cello play a series of dynamic quiet to loud shouts with the viola offering a disconsolate commentary, until the other instruments begin reversing their dynamic tones, going now loud to quiet. The viola continues its triplet outbursts, but they quickly break down into my favourite section of the work.

Pizzicato plucks quickly ping from one instrument to the other, and then the cello takes up a walking bass line like the clattering of bones. The violins play a folky feeling macabre dance, and the viola interjects a mournful but forceful descending scale, which is occasionally shared back and forth with the cello, before it takes back up it dance. This continues and is developed, as instruments are struck with the bow or hand to create hard cracking noises. Things build up in tempo and pitch occasionally, but no forward momentum results. Everything remains in stasis.

The cello then expressively explores more material derived from the tone row that introduced the piece as things slow back down to the clouds of the beginning, but this time accompanied by the first violin's pizzicato triplets. These clouds re-emerge and disperse multiple times, varied with material from the twelve tone rows, creating tonally ambiguous swells.

At around the 15 minute mark, the second violin bursts forth with what sounds to me very much like a quote from the eight quartet's fourth movement, but it is only a passing tonal similarity, I think. This signals a slight shift in mood, with the viola playing a rather beautiful melancholy song that ascends up the instrument with chords played as unison support, until all the other instruments drop out and the banging of wood returns as the only accompaniment. The viola climbs higher and higher until it is just a spectral whispering, and in a startling gesture the two violins, as a final shout in the darkness, play a final crescendo on the same note. This shout is greeted with silence.

I have no real thoughts on which is the best performance, other than to say that minimal background noise is a priority in my opinion. The Fitzwilliams are superb, but I really appreciated the piece as played by the Jerusalem Quartet in the YouTube videos:





This is, in my opinion, one of Shostakovich's best quartets, and it joins 3, 7 and 10 as another top ranker.


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## EdwardBast

I think your observations on serial techniques in the 13th quartet are right. I've always processed the opening theme of the quartet as a fairly traditional theme with tonal implications — one that just happens to be presented like a tone row. The two four-note units with which it begins, for example, have tonic and dominant functions respectively, each with one non-harmonic tone. The ascending figure with which the theme ends foreshadows tension and conflict and is soon heard at a dramatic highly point at the end of the first section. The development of the theme and the transformations of its motives also seem traditional and the thematic processes are immediately salient and audible.

As for thematic links to earlier works, I hear references to the first movement of the Tenth Symphony in the prominent late motive that ends with a double "sigh." 

I just want to thank you again for this thread and the project behind it. It's gotten me to listen closely to the quartets once again and to figure out some new things about them and to reach a greater appreciation.


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## thejewk

That gives me great pleasure to hear Edward, I'm glad I've managed to get others as engaged as I have been.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> That gives me great pleasure to hear Edward, I'm glad I've managed to get others as engaged as I have been.


I've been engaged with the quartets for years, but it's always good to reengage and hear them in a new light and in new performances. I have scores, several of them well annotated, for all of them except the last three. Sikorski study scores can be expensive, but luckily there are performances with scores on Youtube.

I forgot to say that I've come to really love the 13th quartet, although it took longer for me to "get it" than most of the others.


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## sbmonty

I too would like to express thanks for initiating this wonderful thread. And thanks to you both for the terrific dialogue. You make excellent partners. I’d encourage you both to think about teaming up again with another favourite cycle of works after this one is completed. Considerable skill on both parts. Very enjoyable.


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## HenryPenfold

sbmonty said:


> I'm following this thread with interest. Very interesting posts. I'm feeling the urge to revisit these one by one. I did that a few years ago, using this book by Wendy Lesser as a companion guide. Thought you might be interested. A really enjoyable read.
> 
> View attachment 144641


Fabulous thread! Many thanks to J & E I've been quietly following it since the off.

I must wholeheartedly endorse this marvellous book that *sbmonty* recommends in post *#13*. A joyous read for anyone interested in DSCH's string quartets - Five Stars!


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## EdwardBast

sbmonty said:


> I too would like to express thanks for initiating this wonderful thread. And thanks to you both for the terrific dialogue. *You make excellent partners.* I'd encourage you both to think about teaming up again with another favourite cycle of works after this one is completed. Considerable skill on both parts. Very enjoyable.


The thread in its idea and execution is wholly thejewk's. I'm just a frequent respondent who happens to love this body of music.


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## Merl

sbmonty said:


> I too would like to express thanks for initiating this wonderful thread. And thanks to you both for the terrific dialogue. You make excellent partners. I'd encourage you both to think about teaming up again with another favourite cycle of works after this one is completed. Considerable skill on both parts. Very enjoyable.


I agree. This is an enjoyable thread and I like both of your contributions.

Ps, That doesn't take anything away from the Jewk's excellent initial comments. I just like the balance


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## Barbebleu

I’ll second all the praise for this thread. It’s provoked me into revisiting a few of the quartets and a few interpretations. Thanks Jewk.


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## sbmonty

EdwardBast said:


> The thread in its idea and execution is wholly thejewk's. I'm just a frequent respondent who happens to love this body of music.


I hope I didn't seem to diminish Jewk's role. His summaries are outstanding. I read them repeatedly when listening to a particular quartet. I just love the way you two are communicating. Thanks Jewk!


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## Merl

sbmonty said:


> I hope I didn't seem to diminish Jewk's role. His summaries are outstanding. I read them repeatedly when listening to a particular quartet. I just love the way you two are communicating. Thanks Jewk!


But who's the best, SBM? Who's the Shosty 'daddy'?....


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## EdwardBast

sbmonty said:


> I hope I didn't seem to diminish Jewk's role. His summaries are outstanding. I read them repeatedly when listening to a particular quartet. I just love the way you two are communicating. Thanks Jewk!


No worries. I've enjoyed the dialogue and just wanted to make sure people knew it wasn't some sort of conspiracy!


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## thejewk

You're too kind, folks. EB has indeed made the thread a better place with his input.


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## Merl

thejewk said:


> You're too kind, folks. EB has indeed made the thread a better place with his input.


Hey dont let him take all the credit! You started it all with your excellent log, Jewky! :tiphat:


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## thejewk

Right, after an extended delay due to Mahler, Bach, Haydn and a handful of recorders, on to the fourteenth.

Surprisingly, the first movement, allegretto, opens with a jaunty and dancing melody in the cello which plays a sort of trill figure that repeats in descending steps and then rises again, accompanied by a viola drone. The first violin then takes up this first theme for an outing, this time developing it into a a more sprightly and dancing idea, before tension picks up and the cello jumps between the highest and lowest registers to plumb the theme's depths. The second theme, played in the first violin, is more spectral, played with delicate accompaniment across all the instruments, and a striking glissando in the second violin, closing with another nod to William Tell in the viola before the first theme returns again in the cello. One of my favourite things about this movement is the highlighting of the cello as a melodic voice, and the Jerusalem Quartet performance (



) highlights this well. The violin answers the theme by integrating the second theme with it, before we again rise in tension for further development. This is possibly the closest we get to hearing Shostakovich's earlier quartet development and melodic styles shown in the earlier quartets, combined with the tonality of the 12-15th quartets, and it fits beautifully. I find it hints at future possibilities, had Shostakovich's death not intervened. Things quieten down to a stop, and then the viola enters with a wonderful plaintive prayer/lament played alone, before the theme returns and is developed further, this time along more melodic yet pensive lines. The cello's solo at this point is remarkable, punctuated with dramatic double stopped interjections, until the viola returns with the theme and the ensemble close the movement in relaxed and quiet contentment.

The second movement, adagio, is the loveliest and most moving of Shostakovich's passacaglias in all of the quartets, joining lamenting sadness with exquisite, melodic beauty. The first violin opens with a prolonged introduction, and then enters with the main theme with slow and sonorous chordal swells from the other instruments at key points. The cello and violin then duet, an expression of pure heartbreak. The most remarkable passage follows, with the cello singing the melody in the high register to a ping ponging pizzicato accompaniment which passes across the other instruments at first, and then the violin joins the cello's song which the second violin and viola play to with percussive chords, before a return to the flowing yet muted sounding plucks. All the instruments come in together for a brief time with some swelling chords, before the second violin briefly interrupts with a solo song, which is quickly replaced by more swelling chords. This pattern repeats for another first violin spot, and the movement ends attacca with a repeated note plucked on the violin.

The third and final movement, allegretto, is much more clipped in character in the opening, contrasting heavily with the previous movement's languorous and generous phrasing. The pizzicato introduction gives way to a violin introduction full of half steps with sharp triplet chords in the other instruments. The cello then climbs to a quick climax with swirling and dizzying unison playing for support. Then the phrases become fractured and a line is passed back and forth rapidly across all the instruments, first as singular notes, then as doubles. All the instruments become a unity, a rare thing in these later quartets. Briefly, the cello then picks up the melody from 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk', also previously used in the eight quartet, for a moment, and then it's gone. A cello drone now accompanies first the second, then the first violins while they mourn, until the viola takes a solo spot to comment on their song. This turn taking continues, until some rather harsh pizzicato interrupt proceedings for a moment. What follows is a beautiful outpouring of melody, with a surprising walking bass line from the cello, far removed from that in the previous quartet. Phrases here become more complete and resolving, but the backing and composition of voices keeps changing, until the cello and first violin sing together again to pizzicato accompaniment by the viola and second violin. The viola continues in this role for a while to support the cello until a quiet and meditative piece of unison playing closes proceedings morendo.

Another remarkable piece in a remarkable cycle. I love both the Fitzwilliams and the Shostakovich Quartets, the second making more the the more brutal aspects of the piece, but my favourite version I've heard is the one in the Jerusalem Quartet performance I linked above. These really should be put on CD and released, and I may have to do my own rips of them for some portable listening.


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## sbmonty

Another absolutely wonderful summary. I’ve been rereading as I listen to the Mandelring Quartet, the Fitzwilliam and the Pacifica Quartet. Thanks again!


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## thejewk

Not heard the Mandelring Quartet yet, will give it a listen.


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## Merl

thejewk said:


> Not heard the Mandelring Quartet yet, will give it a listen.


It's very good.


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## Kiki

^^

The Mandelring set on Audite is my go-to cycle these days. I'd liken it to the simple but unique attack of the numb and spicy Sichuan peppercorns, rather than a sophisticated Indian curry with a miraculous fusion of spice wisdom.


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## EdwardBast

My overall impression of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Quartet is that it's perhaps the most rhapsodic of the lot, meaning there is little literal repetition and no close adherence to traditional forms. More viscerally, it feels like a strange, continuous journey rather than a series of closed and balanced forms. Even the second movement, a passacaglia, is an atypical, even peculiar, example of this traditionally straightforward form of variations. The theme is bout 2:30 long and there are only two full statements (I think), the subsequent couple being truncated or significantly varied. By contrast the one ending Brahms Fourth Symphony has 30 odd and all of Shostakovich's other passacaglias have at least twice as many statements as the Fourteenth Quartet's Adagio. 

But despite this rhapsodic character the work feels to me like it holds together very well and has an overall sense of purpose and progress. I think this is because of the poignant reprises of important themes from one movement to the next and logical processes of developing variation within movements. About the former: One theme makes an appearance in every movement, the lilting, sentimental one (with prominent parallel sixths between cello and violin) heard in its complete form in the middle of the second movement (at rehearsal 53). It returns very near the end of the finale (reh. 89). The first hint of it, which is easy to miss, is near the end of the first movement (reh. 40).

I share jewk's enthusiasm for the second movement but still find the passacaglia of the Tenth Quartet more direct and moving. Anyway, there are so many odd and remarkable things about this piece that one could go on all day. I'll just cite the last few minutes of the quartet. Not long after reh. 84 we hear a brief, reminiscence of some of the darkest music from the Adagio, but its tension is immediately broken by a series of arpeggiated major chords (F#, B, E, D, A, G, C, G, A, F#). This passage seems to come from nowhere and is like nothing else in the quartet, and yet it somehow seems exactly right. Then follows the most beautiful statement (partial) of the passacaglia theme from the Adagio with pizzicato accompaniment which carries on the arepggiated texture of the preceding passage, and finally the sentimental theme with the prominent 6ths. I have no idea why this series of seeming non sequiturs comes off as a perfect and logical conclusion to the quartet. A mystery to solve I guess.


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## thejewk

Onwards!

The fifteenth and final quartet of Shostakovich is a tough one to talk about with coherence, and I've spent the last six or so weeks since my last post listening to it and thinking about it, but feel that it is the most difficult one to talk about without disappearing up my own posterior in the process. I will do my best, and to paraphrase Beckett, 'try again, fail again. Fail better.'

The first movement, called Elegy, adagio, is a slow and bitter sweet, singing yet contrapuntally rich piece. Similarly to numerous of the earlier moments in the 'late' quartets, there's a feeling of harmonic suspension, static but beautiful clouds that shift up and down slightly. There's a famous quote of Shosty's instruction to play this movements so that 'flies would fall out of the air, and the audience would leave out of boredom.' This obviously tongue-in-cheek and self defacing notion underplays the effect that such slow and melancholy writing for strings can have. At times is makes me think of a small section of one of Ligeti's orchestral pieces, but zoomed in and made even more beautiful. One of the melodies used in the introduction, and returning multiple times, to me echoes the now familiar aria from his Lady Macbeth used, I think, in three of the preceding quartets. Towards the end of the movement, a ghostly high note is held in the violin, while the remaining instruments play a unison passage that reminds me strongly of the fourth movement of the third quartet, but more slowly taken, more resigned. This leads immediately to...

The second movement, called Serenade, also adagio, is a sharp shock. The sustained violin note rises to fortissimo, then 11 other notes repeat the pattern from quiet to loud one after the other, giving the illusion of either shouting voices rising up and then dying off, or maybe something shooting past us at high velocity. This is then replaced by an uncertain, deep and throaty cello passage that seems inconsolable and stumbles from one note to the next, which then passes back to the dynamic zipping notes of the opening, this time in the lower instruments. Rudely, pizzicato interjections, and then some hesitant viola scrabbling, which merge into a cello introduction to what I imagine is the passage that give the movement its name. This serenade is incredibly disjointed, and after a suggestion of possible melody and development, it again gives way to the shooting notes of the opening, and more pizzicato exclamations. I find it difficult to make much sense of the movement other than in reference to the emotional states that it provokes in me, a sort of bitter mourning.

The third movement, Intermezzo, yet again adagio, starts with a brief wild song for the violin with rapid notes climbing into the stratosphere, ripped off double stopped exclamations. The other instruments join in at points, then drop out leaving the cello to drone ominously underneath. The cello then takes up a simple and sustained lament, which dissolves into another drone while the violin makes a final gesture upwards.

The fourth movement, Nocturne, (you guessed it) adagio, is one of my favourite of the piece. The cello and violin play a series of arpeggios which restlessly move up and down, while the viola for the first time seems to coherently voice what the instruments have been trying to say for the last two movements. It's as if grief has coalesced into something expressible for the first time since the first movement's quiet stateliness. The second violin takes a turn in the same lyrical mode, before unison gestures carried over from the previous movement come together to introduce a lovely melodic passage in the cello, the violins now taking up the cello's previous arpeggios. The violins play a few pizzicato notes, and things quieten down considerably.

The fifth movement, Funereal March, adagio molto, alternates passages of strong unison rhythmical phrases, with individual solo laments. Dynamics shift throughout the piece, reflecting anger, quiet grief, melancholy. The last section has a remarkable cello pizzicato section which highlights some rather striking dissonances. 

The final movement, the Epilogue, opens with a trilling violin explosion, which surprisingly leads into a return to the opening movement's Mtzensk-like theme. Then the cello explodes with similar patterns as the violin, petering out into another rapid, but now quiet trill. The first violin plays pizzicato chords which sound bright for a moment, but the desolation wins out as the other instruments join in with another mournful song. Then a sweet moment surfaces for a moment, until it is again subsumed, and all instruments plunge into the same quiet trills. We pass over an over between a few slow and quiet solo gestures, some pizzicato strums, and then swarming wasp tremolos. The piece fades out.

Reading back over what I've written doesn't make the piece sound very appetising, and it really isn't in my opinion. It is remarkably able to evoke a sensation of death and mournful suspension, and the final effect is far greater than any examination of the individual parts would suggest. It doesn't sit anywhere near the top of the list of my favourite pieces in the cycle, and I think it may be the one I am least likely to listen to repeatedly over time, but I do think it is a powerful piece that I am very glad exists.


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## Barbebleu

Excellent post Jewk. As enlightening as ever. Your reviews have the happy result of making me want to listen to the piece being reviewed immediately.

Now for the symphonies, eh?


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## FastkeinBrahms

An impressive post on the 15th and great thread! I have been listening to quartets 1 to 4 from by complete set by the Pacifica and look forward to consulting these excellent reviews and analyses as I go on. Will take a while until I get through to no. 15, though.


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## Barbebleu

FastkeinBrahms said:


> An impressive post on the 15th and great thread! I have been listening to quartets 1 to 4 from by complete set by the Pacifica and look forward to consulting these excellent reviews and analyses as I go on. Will take a while until I get through to no. 15, though.


The Pacifica is a great set.


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## thejewk

Barbebleu said:


> Excellent post Jewk. As enlightening as ever. Your reviews have the happy result of making me want to listen to the piece being reviewed immediately.
> 
> Now for the symphonies, eh?


If they have that result mate, I'm very glad.

Hmm... Doing the symphonies is an interesting idea and would be very different to what I've done here for sure. I loved at least half of the quartets before starting this, and have grown to love many more of them during the process. At the moment I don't love any of his symphonies, and sort of like a few of them, while disliking others. It would be a very different starting point. Also, they are so much longer that I'm not sure I could sustain the sort of commentary I've tried to do here without splitting them up into smaller bits. I had considered doing something with Mahler instead, because in the process of doing these posts I've spent just as much time listening to his symphonies as I have listening to Shosty's quartets, and have managed to end up with at least four different recordings of each of them hahaha...


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## thejewk

FastkeinBrahms said:


> An impressive post on the 15th and great thread! I have been listening to quartets 1 to 4 from by complete set by the Pacifica and look forward to consulting these excellent reviews and analyses as I go on. Will take a while until I get through to no. 15, though.


You've got a really great journey ahead of you, and the Pacifica set is excellent. I think it was Merl that recommended them to me earlier in the thread and I've added them into my rotation with pleasure. I think it was the 5th quartet where their version came out firmly on top for me.

Don't miss out on the Jerusalem Quartet's performances of the pieces on youtube. I found being able to see the performance really helpful in separating out what was happening without having the score or music reading ability to do so otherwise.


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## Barbebleu

thejewk said:


> If they have that result mate, I'm very glad.
> 
> Hmm... Doing the symphonies is an interesting idea and would be very different to what I've done here for sure. I loved at least half of the quartets before starting this, and have grown to love many more of them during the process. At the moment I don't love any of his symphonies, and sort of like a few of them, while disliking others. It would be a very different starting point. Also, they are so much longer that I'm not sure I could sustain the sort of commentary I've tried to do here without splitting them up into smaller bits. I had considered doing something with Mahler instead, because in the process of doing these posts I've spent just as much time listening to his symphonies as I have listening to Shosty's quartets, and have managed to end up with at least four different recordings of each of them hahaha...


Happy for you to do the Mahler symphonies. Another of my favourite composers.


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## FastkeinBrahms

thejewk said:


> The tenth quartet has been occupying a lot of my time over the last week, and it has gone up in my estimations considerably in that time. It's the sort of piece that just keeps getting better the more familiar you get with it, to the point where I rank it now at around the same level as the third and the seventh.
> 
> The first movement, andante, is mostly gentle in feel, but is packed to the brim with gestures and themes that seem to persist throughout the whole quartet. It opens with an unaccompanied statement by the first violin with a descending figure, which moves into a lovely second theme where each instrument in turn plays three notes, and then in unison they play a harmonious but slightly unsteady, maybe a bit queasy theme. These two themes are then worked over and developed in turn until things start to stutter and we get a lovely extended cello passage with just touches of colour from the other instruments, until the violin takes up the theme and plays it out until we return to the opening themes for further development. Suddenly the luxurious feel is replaced by ghostly and scratchy skittering across strings, but only for a brief time, and we return for the final time for a restatement of the opening and a brief coda.
> 
> The second movement, allegretto furioso, is a rude jolt after the calming ending of the last movement. Fierce blasts and staccato bowing drill the opening theme into your brain. Then we hit a panicked episode where each instrument in turn seems to shout into space, backed by flurrying horror soundtrack scrabbling strings. The same two note pattern is repeated over and over with mounting tension, until the opening theme is shouted out with gusto and we are treated to possibly the most frenzied development section in any of the quartets so far. The canons shout out unrepentantly, and are occasionally replaced by a heehawing that sound like a demonic donkey.
> 
> The third movement, adagio, changes the mood again abruptly, to a mournful passacaglia, which repeats the queasy sensation I noted in the first movement over an over again with a pattern which moves an ascending four note phrase, three natural and one flat of the next note, up and down with small shifts. The flat notes are incredibly unsettling here, and in the first and third section of each pattern the ear yearns to hear the final note of the cell as a natural instead. The whole effect, along with the beautiful accompaniment of the other instruments, could continue for another half an hour and I wouldn't complain. The coda leads attacka to...
> 
> The fourth movement, allegretto - andante, to a rather jolly and sprightly theme on the cello that dances through the harmonic uncertainty of the previous movements, flirting with darkness and dancing away. Then we hear the sustained and bagpipe like drones used in the fourth quartet, along with descending triplets, which lead us back to the opening theme. This is quickly replaced by pizzicato and tip toeing music that feels somehow clandestine. The opening theme returns again, this time lower on the cello and less and less certain of itself. It then builds back to the pitch of the second movement, but with a grotesque tip toe rhythm and a haunted quality. The whole sequence is rhythmically invigorating, and suddenly the passacaglia theme bursts forth over the top of the scratchy menace. The following passages deconstruct the opening theme even further, and continue to link it to the passacaglia, as well as snatches of the first movement, and it becomes more and more sparsely instrumented as it quietly stumbles off into the night.
> 
> The Borodins are the ones for me.


I have now progressed to no. 10 in my Pacifica listening journey and I must say that I enjoy immensely reading your thoughts on the Shostakovich quartets after listening. I tend to listen first, then read about music so as to avoid bias as much as possible. So far, of the first ten, this one I enjoyed the most, knowing full well that other quartets are rated higher by experts. First of all, I really like the construction: Two relatively constrained outer movements, highly disciplined in their rythmicism, and two of the most emotional inner movements I have heard so far by Shostakovich. The Allegretto Furioso is the craziest danse macabre EVER, and the mournful Adagio touches me more than the 3rd quartet, which brought tears even to Shosty's eyes. This quartet appeals to the heart and soul, especially in the 2nd and 3rd movements, and the brain in the outer movements. Of course, I am simplifying, for example, the first movement has wonderful lyrical passages, love the sudden switch to major chords soon after the beginning, such sonority, and the last movement does not only contain close-knit staccato rhythms but also more expansive drama in the second half.

Thanks again for your excellent commentary, will read the generally excellent Pacifica jacket notes on the tenth next.


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## Barbebleu

Don’t trust the ‘experts’. Trust your ears. Most experts have an agenda.


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## EdwardBast

thejewk said:


> Onwards!
> Reading back over what I've written doesn't make the piece sound very appetising, and it really isn't in my opinion. It is remarkably able to evoke a sensation of death and mournful suspension, and the final effect is far greater than any examination of the individual parts would suggest. It doesn't sit anywhere near the top of the list of my favourite pieces in the cycle, and I think it may be the one I am least likely to listen to repeatedly over time, but I do think it is a powerful piece that I am very glad exists.


I too have found the fifteenth harder than the others to warm to. But listening to it a number of times again has at least taught me what mental state I have to be in to enjoy it - that is, very relaxed and patient. The Nocturne is my favorite movement as well, and from there on the quartet is easier for me. I really like the sudden quiet burst of energy in the finale.

Anyway, thanks for your comments and descriptions over this thread and for providing a structure to revisit and talk about these wonderful works!


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## FastkeinBrahms

Just listened to the Pacifica recording of the twelfth , and was totally captivated by it as of the poignant cello solo six minutes into the second movement until the very end. Funny to say, but I actually enjoyed the twelve-tone first movement - in retrospect - after the second movement. Shostakovich was such a master of construction...


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## EdwardBast

FastkeinBrahms said:


> Just listened to the Pacifica recording of the twelfth , and was totally captivated by it as of the poignant cello solo six minutes into the second movement until the very end. Funny to say, but I actually enjoyed the twelve-tone first movement - in retrospect - after the second movement. Shostakovich was such a master of construction...


I'm generally not fond of 12-tone music, but I like all of Shostakovich's and most of Schnittke's 12-tone works. In some cases, like the 13th quartet, I find no benefit in even thinking of the melodic ideas in those terms.


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## thejewk

I think that with Shostakovich, the twelve tone row is something to be played with, disregarding the vast majority of any 'rules' that accrued to serial music in the 50 or so years before he started using it. I think it's the Twelfth that starts with a tone row, and then immediately turns the final few notes into a most definitely tonal phrase and continues from there. I like a lot of serial music, but I'm not precious about it, and I really like Shostakovich's ability to take what he likes and get rid of the rest.


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