The Soviet Experience - String Quartets by Dmitri
Shostakovich and his contemporaries - Volume 3
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
String Quartet No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 117 (1964) [27:24]
String Quartet No. 10 in A flat major, Op. 118 (1964) [24:52]
String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122 (1965/66) [17:47]
String Quartet No. 12 in D flat major, Op. 133 (1968) [26:11]
Mieczysław WEINBERG (1919-1996)
String Quartet No. 6 in E minor, Op. 35 (1946) [32:03]
Pacifica Quartet (Simin Ganatra (violin); Sibbi Bernhardsson (violin); Masumi
Per Rostad (viola); Brandon Vamos (cello))
rec. 9-11 January (9-11), 31 January-1 February, 12-14 May 2011 (12), Foellinger
Great Hall, Krannert Center, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois,
USA; 2-3 September 2012, Auer Hall, University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA
(Weinberg)
CEDILLE RECORDS CDR 90000 138 [70:20 + 58:25]
The plan by the Pacifica Quartet to perform the Chicago première
of all Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifteen String Quartets over 10 concerts
during the 2010/11 season was the inspiration behind the ‘Soviet Arts
Experience’ festival in Chicago. Lead by the University of Chicago
in 2010/12 the ‘Soviet Arts Experience’ is an extensive collaborative
project uniting a number of Chicago arts institutions. It serves as a platform
to showcase art, music, dance and theatre all created by artists under -
and in response to - the Politburo of the Soviet Union.
In the spirit of the ‘Soviet Arts Experience’ the Pacifica Quartet
for Cedille has been releasing a cycle of string quartets from Shostakovich
and other twentieth-century Soviet composers. The first volume comprises
four Shostakovich 5-8 and the String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, Op.
86by Nikolai Miaskovsky (Myaskovsky). Volume two consists of four
Shostakovich 1-4with Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 2 in
F major,Op. 92. This latest third volume contains Shostakovich
9-12 together with a single work by Mieczysław Weinberg: his String
Quartet No. 6 in E minor, Op. 35. The Cedille website shows that the
fourth and final volume will give us Shostakovich 13-15 with Schnittke’s
String Quartet No. 3. This is due out in October 2013.
The Pacifica first came to my attention in 2005 with their beautifully played
set of the complete Mendelssohn String Quartets. I found their playing
to exude style and sophistication and an abundance of character and warm
expression. Especially remarkable is the sweetness of tone and the silvery
timbre of leader Simin Ganatra. This was recorded in 2002/04 at the Pick-Staiger
Concert Hall, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois on Cedille CDR
90000 082. On the evidence of a number of critically acclaimed recordings
and consistently splendid recitals the Pacifica can be ranked alongside
the finest chamber music performers on the international stage.
Shostakovich lived all of his adult life under a Soviet-controlled State.
Commencing in 1938 he wrote his quartetsover a 36 year period although
he actually intended to write 24 in total; one in each separate key. All
were premièred soon after their composition with the exception of
the Quartet No.4 of 1949 that had to wait four years before it was
introduced. It is often said that this cycle reflects the principal events
in Shostakovich’s life. The best known and most frequently played
is the Eighth Quartet in C minor, Op. 110 from 1960. The quartets
contain both numerical and musical references with the Eighth Quartet
in particular having numerous musical citations and repeated use of the
composer’s personal motif: D-S-C-H.
Both the Ninth and the Tenth were composed within a few months of each other
in 1964. It is said that these two scores denote the composer’s shift
from his central to his final period in quartet writing. No. 9 bears a dedication
to the composer’s third wife, Irina Antonovna (née Supinskaya).
Comprising five connected movements it was introduced together with No.
10 by the Beethoven Quartet in 1964 at the Moscow Conservatory Malyi Hall.
An often disturbing score, it is heavy with anxiety and intensely watchful
as if on constant alert. Resilient and forceful, the lengthy Finale:Allegro
contains a manic outpouring of disobedience that increases in anger and
weight.
The companion work, No. 10, was composed at the composer’s retreat
in the small mountain town of Dilizhan (Dilijan) in the Armenia mountains.
Dedicated to his composer friend Mieczysław Weinberg (aka Mieczyslaw
Vainberg), the four movement score has a conventional structure even if
the third and final movements are connected. Less adventurous than its predecessor
the music here is intensely cautious in character with a potent sense of
disquiet. Once again the Finale, an Allegretto,is the
lengthiest movement and is probably the most significant. With a vice-like
grip the Pacifica generates a severe tension that increases in weight and
strength, becoming hard to bear. Close to the conclusion the anguish diminishes
but it doesn’t feel genuine.
Shostakovich began to write No. 11 in 1965 during a period of recuperation
after spending time in a neurological unit in January 1965. Completed in
early 1966 in Moscow the score is in seven mainly short linked movements
almost in the manner of a suite. I was interested to discover that Quartets
11-14 form a series dedicated to the members of the Beethoven String Quartet.
No. 11 bears a dedication to the memory of Shostakovich’s close friend
Vasili Pyotrovich Shirinsky, a co-founder of the Beethoven Quartet who had
died in Moscow in 1965. The writing of the contrasting movements although
feeling fragmented often gives the impression of child-like, naive humour
on the surface with a rather astringent undercurrent of despondency and
dissonance. I was struck by the sixth movement Elegy which feels
like a sort of battle-hardened lament as if too terrified to display true
feelings.
Cast in two movements, No. 12 was completed in March 1968 and introduced
by the Beethoven Quartet at the USSR Composers’ Club, Moscow in the
summer of the same year. This score is dedicated to Dmitri Tsïganov,
the Quartet’s first violinist. This boldly adventurous score sees
Shostakovich using twelve-tone patterns within the prevailing tonality.
At nearly twenty-minutes in length the second movement Allegretto
is extremely demanding both emotionally and technically, probing the concentration
and resilience of the Pacifica who pass the test with flying colours.
Polish-born composer Mieczysław Weinberg’s friendship with Shostakovich,
right from his early days in Moscow in 1943, was close and enduring. Weinberg
was to write seventeen quartets including this String Quartet No. 6
composed in 1946 which appeared for a period in 1948 on a Soviet list of
banned formalist works. Weinberg dedicated the six movement E minor score
to Georgy Sviridova favoured pupil of Shostakovich. My highlights of the
E minor Quartet include the opening movement Allegro semplice
containing a colourful carnival of emotions with the players shifting easily
through the divergent light and weighty textures. Not unlike Shostakovich
in character, the central Adagio feels soothing on the surface with
a sense of disquiet underneath. The potent final movement Andante maestoso
feels aggressively threatening and generates an emotionally disquieting
sound-world.
One can only imagine the amount of study and preparation necessary for this
project from the Pacifica members who provide intelligent and penetrating
accounts in very good sound.
The excellence of this series makes this the finest collection available
of the complete Shostakovich string quartets.
Michael Cookson
The excellence of this series makes this the finest collection available
of the complete Shostakovich string quartets.
Masterwork Index: Shostakovich
string quartets
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