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SHOSTAKOVICH

STRING QUARTETS 2

PAVEL HAAS QUARTET

PAVEL HAAS QUARTET

Veronika Jarůšková

violin / 1. housle

Marek Zwiebel

2 violin / 2. housle

Dmitry Shostakovich / Dmitrij Šostakovič

(1906–1975)

String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68

(1944)

Smyčcov�½ kvartet č. 2 A dur op. 68

(1944)

Overture. Moderato con moto

8:07

11:30

5:25

10:46

II. Recitative and Romance. Adagio

III. Waltz. Allegro

IV. Theme with variations. Adagio – Moderato con moto

36:00

Jiří Kabát

viola

Peter Jarůšek

cello / violoncello

Recorded at the Domovina Studio, Prague,

11–12, 26–27 and 30–31 May, 2019.

Nahráno v pražském studiu Domovina ve dnech

11. – 12., 26. – 27. a 30. – 31. května 2019.

String Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, Op. 108

(1960)

Smyčcov�½ kvartet č. 7 fis moll op. 108

(1960)

Allegretto

12:56

3:38

3:21

5:54

Recording director / hudební režie

Jiří Gemrot

Recording engineer / mistr zvuku

Karel Soukeník

Producer / producent

Matouš Vlčinsk�½

II. Lento

III. Allegro – Allegretto

String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110

(1960)

Smyčcov�½ kvartet č. 8 c moll op. 110

(1960)

Largo

21:38

5:00

2:54

4:38

5:16

3:50

II. Allegro molto

10 III. Allegretto

11 IV. Largo

12 V. Largo

Dmitry Shostakovich

came to the

string quartet genre relatively late in

his life. By the time he composed his

String Quartet No. 1 (1938), he had

already completed five symphonies,

two operas, and three ballets. But

from that moment on, he would

continuously compose string quartets

until 1974, a year before his death.

The string quartets were not subject

to the same official scrutiny as large

orchestral or stage works, and so

became a kind of diary; a musical outlet

for Shostakovich’s innermost thoughts

and feelings.

Nowhere is this as clear as in his

String

Quartet No. 8.

When it was published

in 1961, the official dedication read

“to the victims of fascism and the war”,

but the backstory suggests the music

reflected experiences which were much

more personal and also more recent.

In late June 1960 Shostakovich travelled

from Moscow to Leningrad, where he

met with his close friend and confidant,

Isaak Glikman. The composer seemed

to be on the edge of a nervous

breakdown – he was hysterical and

weeping loudly; Glikman recalled

never to have seen Shostakovich in

a similar state before. After calming

down, Shostakovich told Glikman of the

cause: he had agreed, in a moment of

weakness and under some pressure,

to join the Communist Party.

Shostakovich apparently perceived it

as a devastating personal and moral

defeat – this was the party which had

mounted vicious attacks on him in 1936

and 1948. This also was the party under

which millions were made to disappear,

which in Shostakovich’s eyes was an

embodiment of violence, and which he

had previously sworn never to join.

Appalled by his own cowardice, he

‘escaped’ to Leningrad in an attempt to

foil the planned pompous ceremony

at the Union of Composers. This,

however, proved just a temporary

reprieve: the meeting was rescheduled,

and Shostakovich announced his

decision in a prepared speech, “like

a parrot” (in his own words). Shortly

afterwards he was sent to Dresden, to

compose a score for a propaganda film

in collaboration with East Germany.

In a letter to Glikman, sent from the

picturesque region of nearby Gohrisch,

he wryly wrote that the beautiful

surroundings did nothing to help fulfil

the commission. Instead, in just three

days, Shostakovich had composed

what was, in his view, an “ideologically

faulty quartet, needed by no-one”. This

was his String Quartet No. 8, a tragic

autobiographical work.

“It occurred to me that if I ever die,

it is unlikely that someone would

write a composition dedicated to

my memory,” Shostakovich wrote

to Glikman. “Therefore I decided to

compose one myself. One could write

just that on the cover: ‘Dedicated

to the memory of the author of this

quartet.’ ” Even without his letter, the

autobiographical nature of the quartet

is apparent in the music. The opening

four-note motif, which later recurs over

a hundred (!) times is Shostakovich’s

musical signature: D.S.C.H (D–E

flat–C–B). He also quotes extensively

from his own compositions: the Piano

Trio No. 2, the First Cello Concerto, the

First and Fifth Symphonies, the music

to the film

The Young Guard,

as well as

a prolonged quotation from his last

opera,

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,

the

very work which brought on the first

attack by the Soviet regime, in 1936.

He chose to quote the purest and most

lyrical moment in the entire opera: the

protagonist’s joy at seeing her lover

after a hard day of marching to exile

in Siberia, unaware yet that his feelings

towards her had cooled down and

that he was already courting another.

In the quartet, as in the opera, this

section appears as a soft ray of light

[11/3:36]: unexpected, beyond hope,

and all too brief, making the returning

darkness seem even more oppressive.

It follows yet another quotation, this

time from a Russian revolutionary

song ‘Tormented

by heavy captivity’

[11/2:04], which could easily apply to

Shostakovich himself.

The musical result of this

“hotchpotch” (as Shostakovich

referred to it) is a tense five-

movement work of exceptional

emotional and psychological power,

even by Shostakovich’s standards.

Unapologetically dark and intense,

/4/

/5/

it’s almost monochromatic in mood

– though within that darkness the

music ranges from pathos and real

pain to sarcasm, fright, and crushing

aggression. And throughout the

quartet, Shostakovich’s humanity

is constantly felt, a warm thread

contrasting with the often horrific

narrative – whether the soulless

brutality of the second movement,

the biting sarcasm of the third, or the

dreaded knocks on the door in the

fourth. In the closing movement, the

warmth is embodied in the sorrowful

counterpoint melody, first heard at the

track 12, 0:20. It accompanies the music

to the very end, when after a pale and

subdued repeat of the opening section,

all fades into nothing.

both felt they were indispensable to

each other. Their friends commented

on Nina’s unwavering support and

companionship, as well as her brilliant

mind and buoyant spirits, which helped

Shostakovich and shielded him in the

most difficult times. Her sudden death

affected him deeply.

At 13 minutes, it is the shortest

quartet Shostakovich wrote, but the

inspired imagination of its structure

and sonorities belies its compactness.

A short jagged motif played by the

first violin becomes an

idée fixe,

recurring multiple times throughout

the outer movements. The second

movement presents a static, transfixed

landscape, depicted by an undulating

line in the second violin, akin to

a wizard’s incantation, above which

floats a lament in the first violin. After

a distant ominous march [6/1:33],

a short connection leads into a snarling,

furious fugue, in which the ‘academic’

devices (augmentations, diminutions

and canons) contrast with the

resolutely modern musical language.

In the second part of the finale the

fugue’s theme is transformed,

it becomes gentle and lilting, even

caressing. The

idée fixe

from the first

movement returns, and the finale ends,

like the first movement, with three

repeated F sharp major chords – a brief

but deserved moment of light.

The

String Quartet No. 7,

composed

just a few months earlier, also held

a personal significance: Shostakovich

dedicated it to the memory of his first

wife, the physicist Nina Varzar, who

died in 1954. The two met in 1927 and

married in 1933, and even though their

relationship was often turbulent, they

In contrast to the concentrated worlds

of the String Quartets Nos. 7 and 8, the

earlier

String Quartet No. 2

(1944)

is conceived on a nearly-symphonic

scale. It was written in Ivanovo, some

250 km north-east of Moscow, at

a recently created summer retreat, the

Composers’ House of Creativity. After

the harsh first years of the Second

World War, the supportive conditions

at Ivanovo proved productive: in

1943 Shostakovich composed his

monumental Symphony No. 8 there.

This was followed by two major

chamber works in 1944 – the Piano

Trio No. 2, dedicated to the memory

of his closest friend, the polymath

Ivan Sollertinsky, and the String Quartet

No. 2, composed in just 19 days.

A bold

Overture

majestically introduces

the quartet, its energy tautly held,

its harmonies austere. The haunting

second movement, complex and

multilayered, forms the psychological

core of the work. It opens and ends

with an extended

Recitativo

in the first

violin, traversing a broad range of

emotions: it’s passionate, painful, soul-

searching, lamenting and raging. This

is in stark contrast with the chorale-like

simplicity of the accompanying chords.

The middle section,

Romance,

is far

from a typical lyrical gesture. Despite

glimpses of beauty, the atmosphere is

uneasy, the harmonies ever so slightly

sick, and its climax truly horrifying.

Waltz

follows: a restless, muted,

ghostly dance, turning demonic in

the middle section. The

Finale

a masterful set of variations; its theme

[4/1:20] ingeniously combines a folk-

tune simplicity with unmistakeable

Shostakovich language. The variations

build up slowly but relentlessly, leading

to a series of climaxes, and ending –

against all classical canons, but very

much according to the inner logic

of the quartet – in a resolute A minor.

/6/

/7/

The quartet was premiered in

November 1944 by the Beethoven

Quartet, who were Shostakovich’s

close collaborators. Years later, before

the premiere of the String Quartet

No. 7, the first violinist of the quartet,

Dmitry Tsiganov, mentioned that

the Melodiya label had wanted to

record Shostakovich’s last quartet.

“How do you mean ‘last’?” exclaimed

Shostakovich. “First I should finish

writing all the quartets,

then

it will

be the last.” “And how many do you

intend to write?” “Twenty four. Have

you not noticed that the keys do

not repeat themselves? I want to

compose a complete cycle.” In the

end, Shostakovich completed 15 of

the planned 24, but they forever

stand as one of the pillars of chamber

music composition in the 20

century,

and open a unique window into

Shostakovich’s soul.

Boris Giltburg

/8/

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