Shostakovich Cycle: 5. Finale

The epitome of the tragedy and terror of our times

The Eighth Quartet is Shostakovich’s most popular and most performed Quartet, famous for its obsession with his musical DSCH motto. Officially dedicated to the victims of Fascism, it is an outcry at the brutal savagery of dictators everywhere, both then and again now. Originally Shostakovich, tongue in cheek, described his 13th Quartet as a short lyrical quartet with a joke middle. It was written immediately after he completed the score for Grigori Kozintsev’s film of King Lear. Death circles all around the six slow movements of his 15th Quartet, where, despite its reputation for desolation, the music glows with an otherworldly inner light.