Shostakovich Quartet 13

[Mandryka]

I just put on Kremer and friends at Lockenhaus and for some reason it seemed like the most beautiful and moving music ever - I've always been a sucker for Kremer but honestly, does it get better than this? Does anyone else make sense of one of the stranger things Shostakovich wrote?

[Leo K.]

I was blown away by the Fitzwilliam Quartet's account yesterday, a real ebb and flow to the performance, with no drop in energy. I am rather new to Shostakovich's Quartets, and have been listening to a few complete sets back and forth. The Emerson, Danal (first account), and The Fitzwilliam. The 13th I still have yet to grasp, thought I found it dark and 'black and white' in tone.

[Mandryka]

I enjoyed the Fitzwilliam @Leo K.  - thanks for prompting me to hear it. The music for me exudes the same vibes as the 14th symphony, which is probably my favourite Shostakovich symphony too.

[Mandryka]

Does anyone have Wendy Lesser's book on these quartets? Does she have anything interesting to say about op 138

[San Antone]

Does anyone have Wendy Lesser's book on these quartets? Does she have anything interesting to say about op 138

No.  The quartets which have an entry in the Index are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, and 15.

[Herman]

SQ 13 is a wonderful piece. I have said this many times.

I like the way the viola is put in the forefront, insofar that's a word.

[Mandryka]

Worth hearing Asasello's relatively cheerful and perky performance - quite a shock after Kremer - and their recording of 4 minutes of unpublished music from a draft of the quartet.

[Mandryka]

I like the way the viola is put in the forefront, insofar that's a word.

It is, but I had to check.

[Mandryka]

String Quartet No. 13 In B Flat Minor, Op. 138

An extraordinary thing. I must say I've never seen a cover photo of a composer quite so perfectly express the character of a piece contained within. Bleakness pertains throughout, weighing like a gravity on everything, the unflinching clarity only intensifies the effect. A brilliant recording recommended on the thread bearing the quartet's name.

I'm not totally sure I feel the same way about the quartet - though I know everyone else in the world feels like you. The first part of the quartet seems to me a great song without words, a song like Hylas's song in Les Troyens (Vallon sonore, Où dès l'aurore Je m'en allais chantant, hélas!) or the sailor's song in Tristan (Westwärts schweift der Blick)

And there's a long dancing section in the middle.

[AnotherSpin]

I'm not totally sure I feel the same way about the quartet - though I know everyone else in the world feels like you. The first part of the quartet seems to me a great song without words, a song like Hylas's song in Les Troyens (Vallon sonore, Où dès l'aurore Je m'en allais chantant, hélas!) or the sailor's song in Tristan (Westwärts schweift der Blick)

And there's a long dancing section in the middle.

It's all very Russian. First, a terrible melancholy, then an ushanka on the ground and a wild dance, then a glass of vodka in one gulp, or the murder of someone.... However, the order is not obligatory, the sequence can be any.

[Mandryka]

then an ushanka on the ground

Pardon? Is that legal?

[AnotherSpin]

Pardon? Is that legal?

I'm not sure I understand the question

[Mandryka]

This is the current lineup of the Borodins playing it -- and I wonder if it does represent the Russian spirit that @AnotherSpin talks about. Certainly the melancholy at the start does sound very very terrible. The hat on the floor doesn't sound too good either.

It does not sound like that in the hands of French. Listen to Danel and you'll hear why I said that the first part is a song without words. And the ushanka  sounds quite fun in a grizzly (furry)  sort of way.

Nor in the hands of a Latvian -- here's Kremer on spotify, maybe more accessible than on youtube.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7MyzAaeaRJBBiqi8iwpKzK

[AnotherSpin]

This is the current lineup of the Borodins playing it -- and I wonder if it does represent the Russian spirit [..]

I know what you mean, maybe. By the way, the Shostakovich quartets performed by the Borodin SQ were my preferred version. Many years ago, I don't listen to this music anymore.

I may have been puzzled by the word "legal". It makes no sense in the Russian context. Any action by a select few is above the law. And any action of a common man or woman could be illegal. As Stalin use to say: "if you are not arrested, it does not mean that you are not guilty, it means that the punitive authorities did not work well enough".

[Mandryka]

"if you are not arrested, it does not mean that you are not guilty, it means that the punitive authorities did not work well enough".

Kafka!

[Iota]

I'm not totally sure I feel the same way about the quartet - though I know everyone else in the world feels like you. The first part of the quartet seems to me a great song without words, a song like Hylas's song in Les Troyens (Vallon sonore, Où dès l'aurore Je m'en allais chantant, hélas!) or the sailor's song in Tristan (Westwärts schweift der Blick)

And there's a long dancing section in the middle.

Funnily enough I was going to put 'with a ghostly hoedown in the middle' as I was typing the quoted post, but for whatever reason didn't.
But for me, at least in the Fitzwilliam recording, it's still a dance covered by a cloud of oppressive gloom, and I don't hear the 'wild dance' that AS does, rather it seems like one being performed by puppets, perhaps with slightly broken/distorted limbs, with movement but no sense of adrenalin or elation.
As for your 'song without words' sure why not, though there are plenty of bleak examples of those in the world. Whatever, it's a very poignant, beautiful and striking work. Will take a listen to your vid later.

though I know everyone else in the world feels like you.

I'm sure they feel any number of ways about it.

[Iota]

I'm not sure I understand the question

I think it's a joke, though Mandryka can correct me if I'm wrong.
To the average English speaker who doesn't know what an 'ushanka' is (such as me before I googled it), "then an ushanka on the ground" could sound like an innuendo for highly naughty behaviour taking place .. kind of 'nudge-nudge, wink-wink' if that makes any sense.

[AnotherSpin]

I think it's a joke, though Mandryka can correct me if I'm wrong.
To the average English speaker who doesn't know what an 'ushanka' is (such as me before I googled it), "then an ushanka on the ground" could sound like an innuendo for highly naughty behaviour taking place .. kind of 'nudge-nudge, wink-wink' if that makes any sense.

Oh, I see, thank you. By the way, when I mentioned the very Russian, in my opinion, shifts from deep melancholy to wild dancing, I wasn't referring to a specific performance of this music; it was a general observation.

[Mandryka]

I'm quite tempted to buy myself an ushanka

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326287724363?_skw=ushanka+ukranian&itmmeta=01J94SPXZTMN5RMZX4D27B5423&hash=item4bf8438f4b:g:sGIAAOSwgFFjwY2b&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkXcR6bpO0jbJS%2F4f%2FsNI3R%2BLR3RDG5f5RUiwZMVDzn4Ph8raySdt5ExxecA5eA1KaQl1w1D8EdjYgZQaBuqDG3puF8TMjmFXd2d9ONpd1ag1g4uNEupKb%2BW9H7RbT90eeXHThIz25%2Fh9Ifpuv%2BSs6aaNpLct4FnPTmHChWVkx82riohy7I5g21KCR80RLB5Lx%2FGbGESl8Zrc5i3rjChG8c02yT6lE3%2BHDn8HjIyVaZ8KwX1n6DbzTfDEZSybwRJac2x0sLFMJZJorcnXAb0wZj86O%2FXpkynOtmeGwEPX6asw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4Lg25nJZA

[AnotherSpin]

I'm quite tempted to buy myself an ushanka

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326287724363?_skw=ushanka+ukranian&itmmeta=01J94SPXZTMN5RMZX4D27B5423&hash=item4bf8438f4b:g:sGIAAOSwgFFjwY2b&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkXcR6bpO0jbJS%2F4f%2FsNI3R%2BLR3RDG5f5RUiwZMVDzn4Ph8raySdt5ExxecA5eA1KaQl1w1D8EdjYgZQaBuqDG3puF8TMjmFXd2d9ONpd1ag1g4uNEupKb%2BW9H7RbT90eeXHThIz25%2Fh9Ifpuv%2BSs6aaNpLct4FnPTmHChWVkx82riohy7I5g21KCR80RLB5Lx%2FGbGESl8Zrc5i3rjChG8c02yT6lE3%2BHDn8HjIyVaZ8KwX1n6DbzTfDEZSybwRJac2x0sLFMJZJorcnXAb0wZj86O%2FXpkynOtmeGwEPX6asw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4Lg25nJZA

I'm not sure if this is a good option for the comparatively mild and, most importantly, wet British winter. In Odessa, it can get quite cold in Jan-Feb, with a piercing wind from the sea. My ushanka saves me when I'm not in India during the winter. I bought one on Amazon a couple of years ago.

I remember in my childhood in the USSR, almost everyone wore ushankas. Regular people had ushankas made of rabbit (I had one like that in elementary school) or from some noname fur, maybe dog. Important people from the Party nomenklatura  wore neat ushankas made of squirrel or fox.

During Brezhnev's era, ushankas made from pyzhik, the fur of a young deer, were especially valued. It was considered particularly prestigious to receive a pyzhik hat as a reward for some kind of merit or achievement for the Party and the country. Shostakovich was surely given one after one of his symphonies. Or quartet.