The String Quartet

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) – String Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp major, Op. 142 (1973)

Allegretto, 2. Adagio, 3. Allegretto

Performers: Quatuor Danel

CD: Alpha Classics

Valentin Silvestrov (1937-) – String Quartet No. 1 (1974)

Performers: Matangi Quartet

CD: Matangi Quartet

Just over a year after completing his last and Fifteenth symphony, Shostakovich came up with another string quartet, the Fourteenth, in F-sharp major, Op. 142. The tone is partly klezmer and dancing, partly melancholic. In the last movement, a quote from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk appears, the same one Shostakovich had already used in his Eighth string quartet.

In more or less the same years that Shostakovich wrote his last quartets, a composer thirty years younger emerged in Ukraine who advocated a completely different aesthetic: Valentin Silvestrov. Most of Silvestrov’s one-movement First string quartet takes place on the verge of audibility (in short: turn up the speakers!) and in an atmosphere of utmost contemplation.