Shostakovich, Dmitri, 1906-75, Russian composer, b. St. Petersburg. Shostakovich studied at the Leningrad Conservatory (1919-25). The early success of his First Symphony (1925) was confirmed by positive public reaction to two satirical works of 1930—an opera, The Nose (Leningrad; from a tale by Gogol), and a ballet, The Golden Age. Shostakovich sought Soviet approval and survived the changing tides of opinion. Severely castigated after Stalin saw a 1936 production of his popular opera Lady Macbeth of the Mzensk District (1934), he was restored to favor with his powerful yet ironic Fifth Symphony (1937). From then on he concentrated on symphonic compositions (in all, he wrote 15 symphonies) and, during the World War II, on heroic cantatas. Influenced by Mahler in his monumental symphonies, many of which include choral portions, Shostakovich was basically a Russian nationalist composer whose work represented traditional classical forms and generally remained accessibly tonal. Nonethless, his tart harmonics and musical portrayal of pain and turmoil are distinctly 20th cent. in tone. His outstanding works include 15 string quartets, a piano concerto (1933), the Piano Quintet (1940), the Eighth Symphony (1943), 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano (1951), and the 13th Symphony, "Babi Yar" (1962).

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor (Op. 110) was written in three days (July 12–14, 1960). It was premiered that year in Leningrad by the Beethoven Quartet.

The piece was written shortly after two traumatic events: the composer's diagnosis with myelitis, and his joining the Communist Party reluctantly. According to the score, it is dedicated "to the victims of fascism and war"; his son, Maxim, interprets this as a reference to the victims of all totalitarianism, while his daughter Galina says that he dedicated it to himself, and that the published dedication was imposed by the authorities. Shostakovich's friend, Lev Lebedinsky, said that Shostakovich thought of the work as his epitaph and that he planned to commit suicide around this time. The work is one of his most private; in a letter to Isaak Glikman he described it as "an ideologically deficient quartet nobody needs... It is a pseudo-tragic quartet, so much so that while I was composing it I shed the same amount of tears as I would have to pee after half-a-dozen beers".

The work was written in Dresden, where Shostakovich was to write music for the film Five Days, Five Nights, a joint Cold War propaganda project by Russian and East German filmmakers. The quartet, extremely compact and focused, is in five interconnected movements and lasts twenty minutes:

1. Largo -
2. Allegro molto -
3. Allegretto -
4. Largo -
5. Largo

The first movement opens with the DSCH motif which was Shostakovich's musical signature. This slow, extremely sad theme can also be heard in his Cello Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 10, Violin Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 15, and Piano Sonata No. 2. The motif is used in every movement of this quartet, and is the basis of the faster theme of the third movement.

The work is filled with quotes of other pieces by Shostakovich: the first movement quotes his Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 5; the second movement uses a Jewish theme first used by Shostakovich in his Piano Trio No. 2; the third movement quotes the Cello Concerto No. 1; and the fourth movement quotes the 19th century revolutionary song "Tormented by Grievous Bondage" and the aria "Seryozha, my love" from Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

It has been transcribed by Rudolf Barshai for string orchestra, in which version it is known as Chamber Symphony in C minor (Op. 110a).

Notes

References

• Ardov, Michael (2004); Memories of Shostakovich; Short Books. ISBN 1-904095-64-X
• Fay, Laurel (1999); Shostakovich: A Life; Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513438-9
• Shostakovich, Dmitry, ed. Glikman, Isaak (2001). Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman. Cornell Univ Press. ISBN 0-8014-3979-5.
• Yves Senden (2002); String Quartet No. 8 in c; Brilliant Classics 6898 [Rubio Quartet: "Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets"]