Presented by Leo Samama.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) – String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 138 (1970)
Adagio – Doppio movimento – Tempo primo
Performers: Quatuor Danel
CD: Alpha Classics
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-) – String Quartet No. 1 (1971)
Performers: Stamic Quartet
CD: Supraphon
Lucian Prigozhin (1926-1994) – String Quartet No. 1 (1973)
Performers: Taneyev String Quartet
CD: Northern Flowers
Two years after his Twelfth String Quartet, Dmitri Shostakovich completed his Thirteenth Quartet in B-flat minor, Op. 138. It is the only one of all his quartets that is a single movement work in three segments. The music is somber and intense. Like the previous quartet, this music also starts with a twelve-tone row. In the middle of the quartet, after a fierce passage with “knocking tones,” dissonant harmonies, and sharp pizzicati, there is a brief moment of repose.
How different the music is in the single-movement First String Quartet, composed around the same time by Shostakovich’s pupil, Sofia Gubaidulina. Her language is strikingly experimental, even by Soviet standards. There are no melodies to be found, no pleasing harmonies. All sound comes from the four musicians rotating around each other seemingly independently.
Almost at the same time, the composer Lucian Prigozhin from Tashkent came out with his First String Quartet. From the music of this, his single-movement composition, an eclectic spirit emerges. In addition to experiments with sounds and playing techniques, we hear derivatives of the DSCH motif and melodious, tranquil moments.
