Shostakovich Cycle: 4. Afternoon Concert

Like a wounded bird

When Shostakovich heard the 3rd Quartet played twenty years later, he sat quite still in silence like a wounded bird, tears streaming down his face. Back in 1946, it was immediately banned for flying too close to the sun. Perhaps his greatest quartet. The 12th in contrast is a strange, elusive work as though the ailing composer is trying to find a new path, triumphantly succeeding in the final Allegretto.