January will still be Shostakovich String Quartet Month

[mszczuj]

Then I have tried the original order of the movements twice - 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st. I probably like it more than final version. The 4th movement is great as the beginning and the 2nd and 3rd movements continue work at the same level. Alas the 1st movement as the final is rather pale after all this brilliancy. But I'm afraid that linking of the Moderatos doesn't work much better.

[mszczuj]

I listen to the Shostakovich Quartet. And to the mono LP Tatrai for the 1st Quartet.

[San Antone]

Pacifica Quartet ~ The Soviet Experience, Vol. 1 - String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries | No. 5 in B-flat Major



I plan to collect the entire set of SQs by the Pacifica Quartet, I really like their playing and also really like that they include a quartet written by a contemporary of Shostakovich's on each release.  In this case Quartet No. 13 by Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky.

Quartet No. 5 in B-flat starts out innocently enough but quickly becomes rather intense. 

Some info about the work:

The quartet introduces two elements that would become central to later quartets: the joining of all the movements to create a work without a pause, and a growing reference to personal rather than public matters. It was written after the 24 Preludes and Fugues for solo piano, opus 87, which Shostakovich had composed between October 1950 and March 1951.

The first movement, arguably one of the best in the cycle of quartets, begins with an invigorating rhythm similar to that which concluded the Fourth Quartet. The first four notes played on the viola at the start of this first movement are of special interest. These notes are a permutation of the D-S-C-H motif that occurs in a passage of breathtaking defiance at the conclusion of the final movement of his Tenth Symphony, a work whose opus number directly follows that of the Fifth Quartet. Permutation of the DSCH motif occur in each of the next three string quartets finally taking the correct form in the Eighth were it becomes a central pillar of the whole quartet. The use of the such a personal motif is reminiscent of Bach many of whose works contain the sequence of notes B-A-C-H.

The fifth quartet is a difficult and complex piece which can endure, and certainly rewards, repeated listening. After completing the quartet Shostakovich admitted that he regarded it highly unlike his Fourth which he dismissed as being just entertaining. Nevertheless he felt that because 'musical circles react to it negatively' it would not be published. It became another work, so common at this time, 'written for the drawer'. So, like the Third and Fourth Quartets, the Fifth would have to wait for better times before it could be performed.

[Karl Henning]

Then I have tried the original order of the movements twice - 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st.

That may or may not have been quite what the composer meant, though perhaps the ambiguity is a matter of the English rendition.  He wrote to Sollertinsky, "I have also completed my quartet, the beginning of which I played to you. In the process of composition I regrouped in mid-stream. The first movement became the last, the last first."

If he had completed all four movements, and then switched the places of the first and last (as completed movements), that doesn't sound "mid-stream" to me, but more (to change metaphors) eleventh hour.  In reading the remarks in this way, his saying to his friend, "The first movement became the last, the last first," would be nore a matter of the material being transposed, rather than completed constructions being exchanged.

OTOH, that could be exactly what he meant; I am only saying that it is not the first way I should take his comment, based on this phrasing.

[mszczuj]

That may or may not have been quite what the composer meant, though perhaps the ambiguity is a matter of the English rendition.  He wrote to Sollertinsky, "I have also completed my quartet, the beginning of which I played to you. In the process of composition I regrouped in mid-stream. The first movement became the last, the last first."

If he had completed all four movements, and then switched the places of the first and last (as completed movements), that doesn't sound "mid-stream" to me, but more (to change metaphors) eleventh hour.  In reading the remarks in this way, his saying to his friend, "The first movement became the last, the last first," would be nore a matter of the material being transposed, rather than completed constructions being exchanged.

OTOH, that could be exactly what he meant; I am only saying that it is not the first way I should take his comment, based on this phrasing.

В процессе сочинения перестроился на ходу.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%82_%E2%84%96_1_(%D0%A8%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87)

[kishnevi]

May I point out that DSCH was not obliged to compose the movements in order, and may have composed the outer movements first--or at least sketched them--before the inner movements?  Or worked on more than one movement at a time?   
Possibly he composed the outer two movements in the same way that one plans a journey--decide the starting point and the ending point, and then settle on the route that gets from to the other--the route in this case being the inner movements--only to realize that the planned starting point worked better as an ending point, and versa vice?

Or at least come to that realization at some point--almost any point--in the compositional process, except (if "midstream" is accurate, and since I have no real knowledge of Russian,  I can't say if it is) at the end or close to the end--and swap out accordingly.

[Karl Henning]

May I point out that DSCH was not obliged to compose the movements in order, and may have composed the outer movements first--or at least sketched them--before the inner movements?  Or worked on more than one movement at a time?   
Possibly he composed the outer two movements in the same way that one plans a journey--decide the starting point and the ending point, and then settle on the route that gets from to the other--the route in this case being the inner movements--only to realize that the planned starting point worked better as an ending point, and versa vice?

Or at least come to that realization at some point--almost any point--in the compositional process, except (if "midstream" is accurate, and since I have no real knowledge of Russian,  I can't say if it is) at the end or close to the end--and swap out accordingly.

Certainly true.

[Karl Henning]

В процессе сочинения перестроился на ходу.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%82_%E2%84%96_1_(%D0%A8%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87)

Looks like this is just a stub:

[mszczuj]

Yes. This fragment of the letter to Sollertinsky is simplified rather than translated in the Chamber Music Guide I use so I was not aware that there was a reason to be cautious.

[Karl Henning]

Yes. This fragment of the letter to Sollertinsky is simplified rather than translated in the Chamber Music Guide I use so I was not aware that there was a reason to be cautious.

No worries. As a composer myself (though certainly not of the stature of &c.), I've swooshed things around in more than one piece, so I just got to wondering . . . .

[mszczuj]

Looks like this is just a stub:

No, there is some problem with redirecting. I didn't managed to paste the whole link here as it always lost the last bracket (may be it is too long?). You must just use the link inside which ends with bracket.

[San Antone]

Yes. This fragment of the letter to Sollertinsky is simplified rather than translated in the Chamber Music Guide I use so I was not aware that there was a reason to be cautious.

I doubt the published order of movements is wrong.  More likely it is as Jeffrey indicates: that during the process of composing the work, Shostakovich decided that the last movement (he wrote) worked better as Movement 1 than the movement he originally wrote as the first, which then became Movement 4.  This is not uncommon.

But to listen to them reversed, I think, does a disservice to what the composer intended.

[Karl Henning]

For me to-day, the Tenth.

[Brahmsian]

For me to-day, the Tenth.

One of my faves, Karl! 

[mszczuj]

I doubt the published order of movements is wrong.  More likely it is as Jeffrey indicates: that during the process of composing the work, Shostakovich decided that the last movement (he wrote) worked better as Movement 1 than the movement he originally wrote as the first, which then became Movement 4.  This is not uncommon.

But to listen to them reversed, I think, does a disservice to what the composer intended.

Shostakovich was probably not very sure that new structure is perfect. Of course it could be just a modesty but after "The first movement became the last, the last first" he wrote something like: "There are four movements in the set. What is received is not as fine as it could be." I think that listening to the 4th, 2nd and 3rd movement in this very order is an interesting and fine experience.

[Karl Henning]

One of my faves, Karl! 

D'you know, Ray, I feel almost as if before to-day, I hadn't properly listened to the piece. Which is to say, this thread is doing its appointed work . . . .

[Brahmsian]

D'you know, Ray, I feel almost as if before to-day, I hadn't properly listened to the piece. Which is to say, this thread is doing its appointed work . . . .

Well, that is great to hear,  Karl!  I'm looking forward to 'revisiting' all 15 SQs, once my Borodin II set arrives, and I can do the comparisons with the Eder and Fitzzies.

[Karl Henning]

For me to-day, the Tenth.

Well, and the Third.

[San Antone]

So far this morning I've heard some Debussy, some jazz and lately some Frescobaldi.  I think I am ready for some good ol' Soviet string quarteting.

Hagen Quartett ~ Shostakovich String Quartet No. 4 in D Major, Op. 83

[Brian]

I find myself much more interested by the adagio of the Third than by its other movements. This quartet seems almost parodically Shosty-y. It's Shostakovich-ness oozes out of every bar, unlike the Second Quartet with its folk/Jewish influences.