Shostakovich Cycle: 1. Opening Concert

The whisper of history

The opening C major Quartet is a gentle and reflective work unlike all that will follow. Shostakovich was lucky to be alive, he had a young daughter, here he sets the scene for the deeply personal nature of this miraculous series of quartets. The 14th is from a lifetime later, he was crippled with polio and in permanent pain but against all expectation creates this quietly happy and radiantly beautiful work. The F minor 11th casts seven epigrammatically short movements in one unbroken flow in memory of the second violin of the Quartet that premiered almost all his quartets a truly magical epitaph despite the wicked cuckoo-clock Humoreske. The A major Second Quartet is the last of his War works, millions have died in fighting the Nazi invasion, among them his greatest friend.