# Shostakovitch string quartets by Alexander string quartet



## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

I happen to pick up 2 sets of S's SQ vol 1 and 2, including some preludes/piano quintet today for a mere $2.00 in a thrift store. My philosophy is to let classical music find me rather than buy CM for specific works though I have done it on some of my favorite works. So I am interested in knowing any comments the members might have of this group. I went on amazon but not many reviews. I am not looking for recommendations as I know what is classical music books and amazon but if you wish to compare to this group, by all means. I only have a naxos cd of some of the QT and another label. Now with the internet it is easy to stream music so I can do so as I move on. 

Interestingly, both sets were autographed to someone (happy birthday wishes) by all the quartet players.

Thanks


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Awesome find. I just picked up my first Shostakovich string quartet cycle myself, the Pacifica. Some $20 brand new, which I thought was not bad for an 8 disc set. 

How is the performance? I believe there has been talk lately on the boards about the Alexander Quartet's Beethoven quartets. Pretty acclaimed.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

flamencosketches said:


> Awesome find. I just picked up my first Shostakovich string quartet cycle myself, the Pacifica. Some $20 brand new, which I thought was not bad for an 8 disc set.
> 
> How is the performance? I believe there has been talk lately on the boards about the Alexander Quartet's Beethoven quartets. Pretty acclaimed.


Well, just listened to disc 4 ST 8,9,11 and unfinished qt. But I am new to hearing them so I have no comparisons.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

What do you think of the music, then? No.8 is excellent and a classic. That work was my introduction to Shostakovich when I was much younger.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

Bigbang said:


> Well, just listened to disc 4 ST 8,9,11 and unfinished qt. But I am new to hearing them so I have no comparisons.


I like it and have heard it before. One thing though I find interesting is that S composed this in 1960. Yet, I can see on the covers he was still composing more up until 1970's but this one stands out as such a favorite. I wonder why?


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Composers' last works aren't always their best. Beethoven's late quartets are an exception rather than the rule.


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## CrunchyFr0g (Jun 11, 2019)

Bigbang said:


> I like it and have heard it before. One thing though I find interesting is that S composed this in 1960. Yet, I can see on the covers he was still composing more up until 1970's but this one stands out as such a favorite. I wonder why?


The 8th is a masterpiece and it's very evocative because it's full of DSCH musical quotes so we see it as a great artist's personal documenting of his experience living under Stalin. 
But don't gloss over the later quartets. They are all stunning and the last few come at the end of his life as he looks death in the face and at the same time looks back over his life. They contain some of the most moving music you may ever hear.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

CrunchyFr0g said:


> The 8th is a masterpiece and it's very evocative because it's full of DSCH musical quotes so we see it as a great artist's personal documenting of his experience living under Stalin.
> But don't gloss over the later quartets. They are all stunning and the last few come at the end of his life as he looks death in the face and at the same time looks back over his life. They contain some of the most moving music you may ever hear.


The gramophone good cd guide makes reference to the 8th historical and political connotations. The other string qts are not insubstantial nor are the early works "early".

I take this to mean the others are ignored due to the history of the 8th not that it is a greater work. It get recorded more due to its popularity.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

I meant to write "some of the quartets tend to be overlooked." As stated in the gramophone guide.


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## Littlephrase (Nov 28, 2018)

The 8th, while it is certainly a powerful work, isn't necessarily the peak of the cycle. Each quartet is utterly superlative and a masterpiece. However, the late ones are unremittingly _bleak_ and this may contribute to their relative overshadowing/neglect/etc.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Littlephrase1913 said:


> However, the late ones are unremittingly _bleak_ and this may contribute to their relative overshadowing/neglect/etc.


Looks like you've forgotten about quartet 14, which seems to me to be full of joy.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Bigbang said:


> I like it and have heard it before. One thing though I find interesting is that S composed this in 1960. Yet, I can see on the covers he was still composing more up until 1970's but this one stands out as such a favorite. I wonder why?


I find the 8th less interesting than most of the others. The self-quotation is just a distraction and I've never heard a good explanation of its significance. To me 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 … well, just about all of them, are better.



Mandryka said:


> Looks like you've forgotten about quartet 14, which seems to me to be full of joy.


Yes! Just as one might expect - 13 is dark, so 14 is the opposite for contrast.


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## Littlephrase (Nov 28, 2018)

Mandryka said:


> Looks like you've forgotten about quartet 14, which seems to me to be full of joy.


I don't hear much joy in the 14th. Just me, perhaps.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I've often wondered why the 8th gets so much attention and why it seems to be the first of Shostakovich's quartets many people seem to engage with. Unlike the symphonies, where nearly every one has a personal story, extramusical content or a colorful historical context attached to it (the 1st written by a 19 year old, the 2nd and 3rd politically programmatic, the 4th suppressed because of the purges, the 5th "a response to just criticism," the war symphonies, the 9th not living up to expectations, the Tenth with it's supposed Stalin portrait, pretty much all of them …), the quartets are an enormous body of abstract and often thorny work with no easy inroads, the 8th being the only exception. And one can't really sort them by maturity either, because the only one even close to being an early work is the 1st, and Shostakovich was nearly 30 when he composed that. All the rest are mature works. So people gravitate to the only quartet with an obvious biographical and historical hook. Understandable I guess, but kind of depressing nonetheless. You'd think one might have had enough of that with the symphonies. Part of what I love about the quartets is that they are Shostakovich out of the public eye, holding all of the depths not reached by the light of ideology and political wrangling. They are the very heart of his work and every one is unique and worth careful listening.


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