Shostakovich Quartett in C minor 01

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Dmitri (Dmitriyevich) Shostakovich (1906-1975)

String Quartet No. 8 in c minor, Op. 110
(for 2 violins, viola and cello)
Dedicated to "the victims of fascism and war"

NAGYVÁRY VONÓSNÉGYES
Papp Dániel, Dúlfalvi Éva, Szabó Réka, Deák György


recorded in the Saint Michael Church, Budapest 2009
www.szentmihalytemplom.hu

organized by Dénes Legeza
(deneslegeza at yahoo.com)

photos
Dániel Somogyi-Tóth www.legifotok.hu
Dénes Legeza
Archive



Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in c minor comprises a mere twenty minutes of non-stop music, written in three days in 1960 as a distraction from a project to write a film score about the Dresden fire bombings of WWII. In a letter, Shostakovich sarcastically dismissed it as an "ideological piece of no use to anyone". Officially, he dedicated it to the "Victims of Fascism and WWII", but privately, he described it as a eulogy for himself, an epitaph close relations called a suicide note. The work has since become one of the most important string quartets of the 20th century, well known, frequently performed, extensively discussed. Vivid, dramatic, mesmerizing and devastating, this compact but dense quartet contains a lifetime of music: the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich.