String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)

The String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144, was Dmitri Shostakovich's last quartet. It was completed on 17 May 1974 and premiered in Leningrad by the Taneiev Quartet on 15 November (one of only two Shostakovich quartets not premiered by the Beethoven Quartet). Like most of the composer's late works, it is an introspective meditation on mortality.[1]

Structure

The piece consists of six linked (attacca) movements, all marked Adagio:

The playing time is approximately 36 minutes, making it the longest of Shostakovich's string quartets.

Shostakovich told the Beethoven Quartet to play the first movement "so that flies drop dead in mid-air, and the audience start leaving the hall from sheer boredom".[2]

An original recording of the quartet performed by the Fitzwilliam Quartet (backed with Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor) was released on Decca in 1976. Shostakovich supervised the production.

References

Notes

Woodstra, Chris, ed. (2005). All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music. Backbeat Books. p. 1262. ISBN 0879308656.
Wilson 1994, p. 470

Sources

Gushue, Ariane. C (2015). Self-Expression Through The String Quartet: An Analysis of Shostakovich's String Quartets Nº. 1, Nº. 8, and Nº. 15 (PDF) (BA). Scripps College.
McBurney, Gerald (2013). The Soviet Experience: Volume IV (PDF) (CD). Cedille Records. CDR 90000 145.
Matthew-Walker, Robert (2002). Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos 11, 13 & 15 (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDA67157. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
Wilson, Elizabeth (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04465-1.

External links

Griffiths, Paul (2012). "Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor for Strings, Op. 144". The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Archived from the original on 2016-10-28.
Harris, Stephen (2014). "Shostakovich: the string quartets, Quartet No. 15". Shostakovich: the string quartets.
Parloff, Michael (2013-03-26). "Lecture on Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 2, 9, & 15". YouTube.
Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet No.15 in E-flat minor, Op.144 (Boriso-Glebsky - Philippens - Stam - Weijenberg) on YouTube

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[1] Woodstra, Chris, ed. (2005). All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music. Backbeat Books. p. 1262. ISBN 0879308656.

[2] Wilson 1994, p. 470