Emerson String Quartet: Shostakovich Cycle

On 16–18 March there will be concerts by Emerson String Quartet, where the musicians will perform quartets by Shostakovich. The first concert starts, appropriately, at the beginning, with the springlike Quartet No. 1, the forceful and expansive No. 2 and the darkly dramatic No. 3, to which Shostakovich later added a war narrative outline. Conventional on the surface, the Fourth Quartet was so full of personal significance that the composer withheld it from performance until after Stalin’s death. Next, No. 5, written in 1952, is complex and restless, based on the musical cipher that stood for Shostakovich’s own name, D-S-C-H. The evening concludes with Quartet No. 6, a concise, intense work that references eclectic influences. The third concert in the Emerson Quartet’s ongoing Shostakovich cycle brings to life some of the composer’s finest works in this genre. The Seventh Quartet, condensed and lamenting, pays tribute to the memory of the composer’s first wife. Next comes perhaps the most famous, No. 8, which the composer is said to have seen as his own epitaph. The concert closes with No. 9, dedicated to his second wife, whom he married two years before completing it.

For more information about the event on March 16 and tickets click on “buy ticket”.

March 17 — more information and tickets.

March 18 — more information and tickets.