The String Quartet

Shostakovich wrote the famous Eighth Quartet in C minor, opus 110, in 1960. According to official reports at the time, he did so in just three days after visiting the city of Dresden, which had been heavily bombed and largely destroyed by the Allies at the war’s end. Thus, this quartet became a tribute to the victims of fascism. However, Shostakovich noted to the musicologist Volkov shortly before his death that it was an autobiographical quartet. In this instalment of The String Quartet, we trace that, concluding with the complete quartet.
The Ninth string quartet, the composer, presented as a typically Russian work and as a “children’s work about toys and outdoor games. In the extended finale of this quartet, all the themes return once more, though at a furious pace. Even the few sombre or icy moments are shaken off again, and the music ends as optimistically as Shostakovich could be, with clenched jaw…