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String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)

April 12, 2024

The String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144 by Dmitri Shostakovich is the composer's last. It was his first quartet since the Sixth (and only one of three) which did not bear a dedication.

String Quartet No. 15
by Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich in Chicago, June 1973
KeyE-flat minor
Opus144
Genrestring quartet
Composedearly 1974–May 17, 1974
Published1975
PublisherMuzika, Hans Sikorski Musikverlage
Movements6
Premiere
DateNovember 15, 1974 (1974-11-15)
LocationGlinka Maly Theatre, Leningrad, Russian SFSR
PerformersTaneyev Quartet

History edit

According to Sofia Khentova, the Fifteenth Quartet was intended as a "milestone" heralding the next nine string quartets that Shostakovich intended to compose for the Beethoven Quartet.[1] He had previously promised them a cycle of 24 quartets in all major and minor keys. Shostakovich told the quartet's leader, Dmitri Tsyganov [de; ru], that the next quartet would be dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet as a testament to his loyalty to the ensemble. Shostakovich's Fifteenth Quartet was modeled on the Third Quartet by his former pupil, Boris Tchaikovsky, which is composed entirely of slow movements.[1]

On May 2, 1974, Shostakovich telephoned Isaak Glikman and told him he had begun work on a new string quartet.[2] Despite difficulties with his right hand, he continued to compose while convalescing in a Moscow hospital.[3] After being discharged, he and his wife traveled to their dacha in Repino for the summer. He completed the quartet on May 17, 1974.[4] On June 3, Glikman visited Shostakovich, who told him he had completed the quartet: "I don't know how good it is, but I had some joy in writing it."[2] The Fifteenth was his first quartet since the Sixth and one of only three that did not bear a dedication.[5][3] It was also only one of two that were not premiered by the Beethoven Quartet.[6]

In September, Shostakovich returned to Moscow and presented his new quartet to the members of the Beethoven Quartet.[7] By that point, poor health left Shostakovich unable to give a preliminary performance on the piano as he had with his previous quartets. He handed the score to Tsyganov and told him, "I cannot play it. Just see it for yourself." The quartet's cellist, Sergei Shirinsky [ru], one of the group's two remaining founding members, had a heart attack earlier that year and was also having health problems at the time. As a result, the Beethoven Quartet delayed rehearsals for the Fifteenth's premiere, which worried Shostakovich.[4] During the rehearsals, he asked the members to play the opening movement "so that flies drop dead in mid-air and the audience start leaving the hall from sheer boredom."[8] After rehearsals on the morning of October 18, Shirinsky died.[7] Shostakovich asked the Taneyev Quartet, whom he had already familiarized with the score, to take over the responsibility of the world premiere,[9] an offer which they accepted.[10]

Prior to the Moscow premiere, Dmitri Tsyganov, the Beethoven Quartet's last surviving founding member, visited Shostakovich in the hospital for interpretive advice. The composer said to him that he had begun to think over his next quartet, then added: "You know, Mitya, I will not be able to finish the cycle of 24 quartets I had promised you."[11]

Music edit

The String Quartet No. 15 consists of six movements played without pause. All but one of its movements are marked "Adagio", with the outlier being the "Funeral March" marked "Adagio molto":

A fugue based on a folk-like theme makes up the opening "Elegy," the longest of the six movements.[12] It is followed by a "Serenade" in which a series of sforzandi frame a fragmented waltz melody, both of which are constructed from a twelve-note series. This gives way to the "Intermezzo," which conceals a self-quotation from The Nose,[3] a score which had been revived in the Soviet Union for the first time in 45 years while the quartet's premiere was being prepared.[7] A lyrical "Nocturne" follows, after which a characteristic dotted-motif played unison announces the "Funeral March." The quartet closes with an "Epilogue" which briefly recalls the preceding movements, before fading away diminuendo.

In an article published by the Information Bulletin of the Copyright Agency of the Soviet Union, Shostakovich wrote, "I tried to make [the Fifteenth Quartet] a dramatic work; it is hard to say whether I succeeded."[13]

A typical performance lasts approximately 37 minutes.[14] It is the longest of Shostakovich's quartets.[11]

Premieres edit

The world premiere took place in Leningrad on November 15, 1974, at the Glinka Maly Theatre[4] with the composer in attendance.[15] On January 11, 1975, the Beethoven Quartet premiered the work in Moscow,[15] with cellist Yevgeny Altman replacing Shirinsky.[11]

The first performance outside the Soviet Union took place in Coventry, England on March 11, 1975, at the University of Warwick's Arts Centre; the work was performed by the Fitzwilliam Quartet.[16] The American premiere followed on January 23, 1976, at Diablo Valley College in Concord, California.[17][a] It was performed by a quartet of local amateur musicians in a program dedicated to Shostakovich's memory; the performers were violinists Charles Strong and Charles Blossom, violist David Green, and cellist Anna Jovanovich.[19] The latter had received a copy of the score from Irina Shostakovich, the composer's widow, during a visit to the Soviet Union.[17]

Reception edit

After listening to a private performance by the Taneyev Quartet at his apartment, Shostakovich thanked them for "having penetrated so deeply the essence of this philosophical work, which I hold most dear."[20] In an article published in Vecherniy Leningrad [ru] on November 15, 1974, Shostakovich called the Taneyev Quartet "first-class musicians who play the [Fifteenth Quartet] superbly."[21]

Shostakovich invited his colleague Dmitry Kabalevsky to the rehearsals for the new quartet's premiere. Kabalevsky was initially moved emotionally by the quartet, but later expressed reservations. His suggestion that each movement should bear a programmatic title borrowed from Romain Rolland was not received positively by Shostakovich.[22] According to Krzysztof Meyer, the Fifteenth Quartet was greeted with a standing ovation at its premiere, which Shostakovich acknowledged with difficulty because of his deteriorating physical abilities.[23]

The critical reception following the Fifteenth Quartet's British and American premieres was mostly positive. Gerald Larner in The Guardian called it "a beautiful work, a credible and more than worthy companion to the recent symphonies" and that it was "yet another demonstration how fruitful, in creative terms, is Shostakovich's present preoccupation with death."[24] In a review for the Birmingham Post, John Falding wrote that Shostakovich's ability to sustain the quartet's "haunting sadness and [its] atmosphere of total desolation" was a "mark of [his] brilliance".[25] Charles Shere in the Oakland Tribune felt the music was an homage to Ludwig van Beethoven's late music,[19] while a review in The Daily Telegraph called the quartet "a daring and often touching conception, even if its feelings and mannerisms have already appeared often in Shostakovich's work."[26] Stephen Walsh in The Observer appraised the work negatively and compared it unfavorably to the Eighth Quartet. He also described the composer's late style as having "more than a trace of surrender" and prone to repeating itself:

But whereas in the [Eighth Quartet] this style was still new and obviously expressed something deeply personal for the composer, in the [Fifteenth] it takes on an altogether more negative aspect—becomes, in fact, the mere absence of resource. It's as if the composer established long ago what his elegiac style ought to be, and was now simply using it again, but without the feeling of newness.[27]

Kurt Sanderling, a friend of the composer, speculated that he meant the work as an epitaph for himself: "Perhaps because it was so unfathomably terrifying that he could not dedicate it to anyone."[28] In her overview of Shostakovich's quartets, Wendy Lesser wrote that what the composer "feelingly realizes in this quartet is that there can be no settling into comfortable resignation, no weak or even fearless embrace of death, because something in us always wants to live."[29]

Notes edit

  1. ^ A performance of the Fifteenth Quartet by the New Art Quartet of Arizona State University that took place on October 30, 1976, was incorrectly billed as the American premiere.[18]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Khentova 1985, p. 521.
  2. ^ a b Glikman 2001, p. 195.
  3. ^ a b c Prieto 2013, p. 246.
  4. ^ a b c Khentova 1985, p. 522.
  5. ^ Fay 2000, p. 285.
  6. ^ Fay 2000, p. 112.
  7. ^ a b c Fay 2000, p. 281.
  8. ^ Wilson 1994, p. 470.
  9. ^ Fay 2000, pp. 281–282.
  10. ^ Wilson 1994, p. 443.
  11. ^ a b c Prieto 2013, p. 247.
  12. ^ Lesser, Wendy (2011). Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 262. ISBN 9780300169331.
  13. ^ Shostakovich 1981, p. 328.
  14. ^ Sikorski (2011). Dmitri Shostakovich (PDF). Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlage Hamburg. p. 113. (PDF) from the original on August 2, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  15. ^ a b Fay 2000, p. 282.
  16. ^ Falding, John (January 16, 1975). . Birmingham Post. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ a b . Concord Transcript. January 21, 1976. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ . The Arizona Republic. October 24, 1976. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ a b Shere, Charles (February 5, 1976). . Contra Costa Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Wilson 1994, p. 444.
  21. ^ Shostakovich 1981, p. 324.
  22. ^ Wilson 1994, p. 442.
  23. ^ Prieto 2013, pp. 246–247.
  24. ^ Larner, Gerald (March 6, 1975). . The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Falding, John (March 13, 1975). . Birmingham Post. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ . The Daily Telegraph. March 25, 1975. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Walsh, Stephen (March 30, 1975). . The Observer. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ Lesser 2011, p. 261.
  29. ^ Lesser 2011, p. 266.

Sources edit

  • Fay, Laurel (2000). Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford. ISBN 0195134389.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Glikman, Isaak (2001). Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitri Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman, 1941–1975. Ithaca, New York. ISBN 0801439795.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Khentova, Sofia (1985). Шостакович. Жизнь и творчество, Т. 2 [Shostakovich. Life and Work, vol. 2] (in Russian). Moscow: Советский композитор.
  • Prieto, Carlos (2013). Dmitri Shostakóvich: Genio y drama. Ciudad de México, DF. ISBN 978-0195134384.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Shostakovich, Dmitri (1981). Grigoryev, L.; Platek, Ya. (eds.). Dmitry Shostakovich: About Himself and his Times. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
  • Wilson, Elizabeth (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton. ISBN 0691029717.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading edit

  • Griffiths, Paul (2012). . The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Archived from the original on 2016-10-28.
  • Harris, Stephen (2014). "Shostakovich: the string quartets, Quartet No. 15". quartets.de.
  • Lecture on Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 2, 9, & 15 on YouTube, Michael Parloff. Archived 2021-12-21 at Ghost Archive
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet No.15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144 (Boriso-Glebsky - Philippens - Stam - Weijenberg) on YouTube

April 12, 2024
string, quartet, shostakovich, string, quartet, flat, minor, dmitri, shostakovich, composer, last, first, quartet, since, sixth, only, three, which, bear, dedication, string, quartet, 15by, dmitri, shostakovichdmitri, shostakovich, chicago, june, 1973keye, fla. The String Quartet No 15 in E flat minor Op 144 by Dmitri Shostakovich is the composer s last It was his first quartet since the Sixth and only one of three which did not bear a dedication String Quartet No 15by Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri Shostakovich in Chicago June 1973KeyE flat minorOpus144Genrestring quartetComposedearly 1974 May 17 1974Published1975PublisherMuzika Hans Sikorski MusikverlageMovements6PremiereDateNovember 15 1974 1974 11 15 LocationGlinka Maly Theatre Leningrad Russian SFSRPerformersTaneyev Quartet Contents 1 History 2 Music 3 Premieres 4 Reception 5 Notes 6 References 7 Sources 8 Further readingHistory editAccording to Sofia Khentova the Fifteenth Quartet was intended as a milestone heralding the next nine string quartets that Shostakovich intended to compose for the Beethoven Quartet 1 He had previously promised them a cycle of 24 quartets in all major and minor keys Shostakovich told the quartet s leader Dmitri Tsyganov de ru that the next quartet would be dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet as a testament to his loyalty to the ensemble Shostakovich s Fifteenth Quartet was modeled on the Third Quartet by his former pupil Boris Tchaikovsky which is composed entirely of slow movements 1 On May 2 1974 Shostakovich telephoned Isaak Glikman and told him he had begun work on a new string quartet 2 Despite difficulties with his right hand he continued to compose while convalescing in a Moscow hospital 3 After being discharged he and his wife traveled to their dacha in Repino for the summer He completed the quartet on May 17 1974 4 On June 3 Glikman visited Shostakovich who told him he had completed the quartet I don t know how good it is but I had some joy in writing it 2 The Fifteenth was his first quartet since the Sixth and one of only three that did not bear a dedication 5 3 It was also only one of two that were not premiered by the Beethoven Quartet 6 In September Shostakovich returned to Moscow and presented his new quartet to the members of the Beethoven Quartet 7 By that point poor health left Shostakovich unable to give a preliminary performance on the piano as he had with his previous quartets He handed the score to Tsyganov and told him I cannot play it Just see it for yourself The quartet s cellist Sergei Shirinsky ru one of the group s two remaining founding members had a heart attack earlier that year and was also having health problems at the time As a result the Beethoven Quartet delayed rehearsals for the Fifteenth s premiere which worried Shostakovich 4 During the rehearsals he asked the members to play the opening movement so that flies drop dead in mid air and the audience start leaving the hall from sheer boredom 8 After rehearsals on the morning of October 18 Shirinsky died 7 Shostakovich asked the Taneyev Quartet whom he had already familiarized with the score to take over the responsibility of the world premiere 9 an offer which they accepted 10 Prior to the Moscow premiere Dmitri Tsyganov the Beethoven Quartet s last surviving founding member visited Shostakovich in the hospital for interpretive advice The composer said to him that he had begun to think over his next quartet then added You know Mitya I will not be able to finish the cycle of 24 quartets I had promised you 11 Music editThe String Quartet No 15 consists of six movements played without pause All but one of its movements are marked Adagio with the outlier being the Funeral March marked Adagio molto Elegy AdagioSerenade AdagioIntermezzo AdagioNocturne AdagioFuneral march Adagio moltoEpilogue Adagio A fugue based on a folk like theme makes up the opening Elegy the longest of the six movements 12 It is followed by a Serenade in which a series of sforzandi frame a fragmented waltz melody both of which are constructed from a twelve note series This gives way to the Intermezzo which conceals a self quotation from The Nose 3 a score which had been revived in the Soviet Union for the first time in 45 years while the quartet s premiere was being prepared 7 A lyrical Nocturne follows after which a characteristic dotted motif played unison announces the Funeral March The quartet closes with an Epilogue which briefly recalls the preceding movements before fading away diminuendo In an article published by the Information Bulletin of the Copyright Agency of the Soviet Union Shostakovich wrote I tried to make the Fifteenth Quartet a dramatic work it is hard to say whether I succeeded 13 A typical performance lasts approximately 37 minutes 14 It is the longest of Shostakovich s quartets 11 Premieres editThe world premiere took place in Leningrad on November 15 1974 at the Glinka Maly Theatre 4 with the composer in attendance 15 On January 11 1975 the Beethoven Quartet premiered the work in Moscow 15 with cellist Yevgeny Altman replacing Shirinsky 11 The first performance outside the Soviet Union took place in Coventry England on March 11 1975 at the University of Warwick s Arts Centre the work was performed by the Fitzwilliam Quartet 16 The American premiere followed on January 23 1976 at Diablo Valley College in Concord California 17 a It was performed by a quartet of local amateur musicians in a program dedicated to Shostakovich s memory the performers were violinists Charles Strong and Charles Blossom violist David Green and cellist Anna Jovanovich 19 The latter had received a copy of the score from Irina Shostakovich the composer s widow during a visit to the Soviet Union 17 Reception editAfter listening to a private performance by the Taneyev Quartet at his apartment Shostakovich thanked them for having penetrated so deeply the essence of this philosophical work which I hold most dear 20 In an article published in Vecherniy Leningrad ru on November 15 1974 Shostakovich called the Taneyev Quartet first class musicians who play the Fifteenth Quartet superbly 21 Shostakovich invited his colleague Dmitry Kabalevsky to the rehearsals for the new quartet s premiere Kabalevsky was initially moved emotionally by the quartet but later expressed reservations His suggestion that each movement should bear a programmatic title borrowed from Romain Rolland was not received positively by Shostakovich 22 According to Krzysztof Meyer the Fifteenth Quartet was greeted with a standing ovation at its premiere which Shostakovich acknowledged with difficulty because of his deteriorating physical abilities 23 The critical reception following the Fifteenth Quartet s British and American premieres was mostly positive Gerald Larner in The Guardian called it a beautiful work a credible and more than worthy companion to the recent symphonies and that it was yet another demonstration how fruitful in creative terms is Shostakovich s present preoccupation with death 24 In a review for the Birmingham Post John Falding wrote that Shostakovich s ability to sustain the quartet s haunting sadness and its atmosphere of total desolation was a mark of his brilliance 25 Charles Shere in the Oakland Tribune felt the music was an homage to Ludwig van Beethoven s late music 19 while a review in The Daily Telegraph called the quartet a daring and often touching conception even if its feelings and mannerisms have already appeared often in Shostakovich s work 26 Stephen Walsh in The Observer appraised the work negatively and compared it unfavorably to the Eighth Quartet He also described the composer s late style as having more than a trace of surrender and prone to repeating itself But whereas in the Eighth Quartet this style was still new and obviously expressed something deeply personal for the composer in the Fifteenth it takes on an altogether more negative aspect becomes in fact the mere absence of resource It s as if the composer established long ago what his elegiac style ought to be and was now simply using it again but without the feeling of newness 27 Kurt Sanderling a friend of the composer speculated that he meant the work as an epitaph for himself Perhaps because it was so unfathomably terrifying that he could not dedicate it to anyone 28 In her overview of Shostakovich s quartets Wendy Lesser wrote that what the composer feelingly realizes in this quartet is that there can be no settling into comfortable resignation no weak or even fearless embrace of death because something in us always wants to live 29 Notes edit A performance of the Fifteenth Quartet by the New Art Quartet of Arizona State University that took place on October 30 1976 was incorrectly billed as the American premiere 18 References edit a b Khentova 1985 p 521 a b Glikman 2001 p 195 a b c Prieto 2013 p 246 a b c Khentova 1985 p 522 Fay 2000 p 285 Fay 2000 p 112 a b c Fay 2000 p 281 Wilson 1994 p 470 Fay 2000 pp 281 282 Wilson 1994 p 443 a b c Prieto 2013 p 247 Lesser Wendy 2011 Music for Silenced Voices Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets New Haven Connecticut Yale University Press p 262 ISBN 9780300169331 Shostakovich 1981 p 328 Sikorski 2011 Dmitri Shostakovich PDF Hamburg Sikorski Musikverlage Hamburg p 113 Archived PDF from the original on August 2 2020 Retrieved May 12 2022 a b Fay 2000 p 282 Falding John January 16 1975 Quartet s Midland premiere Birmingham Post Archived from the original on October 27 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com a b Premiere performance at DVC Concord Transcript January 21 1976 Archived from the original on October 27 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com Music Notes The Arizona Republic October 24 1976 Archived from the original on October 27 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com a b Shere Charles February 5 1976 DVC Plays Lost Shostakovich Work Contra Costa Times Archived from the original on October 27 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com Wilson 1994 p 444 Shostakovich 1981 p 324 Wilson 1994 p 442 Prieto 2013 pp 246 247 Larner Gerald March 6 1975 New Shostakovich Quartet in Manchester The Guardian Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com Falding John March 13 1975 Fitzwilliam Quartet at Warwick Arts Centre Birmingham Post Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com Peake s nonsense poems blandly set The Daily Telegraph March 25 1975 Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com Walsh Stephen March 30 1975 Signs of spiritual surrender Stephen Walsh on Shostakovich s latest string quartet The Observer Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 via Newspapers com Lesser 2011 p 261 Lesser 2011 p 266 Sources editFay Laurel 2000 Shostakovich A Life Oxford ISBN 0195134389 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Glikman Isaak 2001 Story of a Friendship The Letters of Dmitri Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman 1941 1975 Ithaca New York ISBN 0801439795 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Khentova Sofia 1985 Shostakovich Zhizn i tvorchestvo T 2 Shostakovich Life and Work vol 2 in Russian Moscow Sovetskij kompozitor Prieto Carlos 2013 Dmitri Shostakovich Genio y drama Ciudad de Mexico DF ISBN 978 0195134384 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Shostakovich Dmitri 1981 Grigoryev L Platek Ya eds Dmitry Shostakovich About Himself and his Times Moscow Progress Publishers Wilson Elizabeth 1994 Shostakovich A Life Remembered Princeton ISBN 0691029717 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Further reading editGriffiths Paul 2012 Quartet No 15 in E flat minor for Strings Op 144 The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Archived from the original on 2016 10 28 Harris Stephen 2014 Shostakovich the string quartets Quartet No 15 quartets de Lecture on Shostakovich Quartets Nos 2 9 amp 15 on YouTube Michael Parloff Archived 2021 12 21 at Ghost Archive Dmitri Shostakovich Quartet No 15 in E flat minor Op 144 Boriso Glebsky Philippens Stam Weijenberg on YouTube Portal nbsp Classical Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title String Quartet No 15 Shostakovich amp oldid 1170506382, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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