Four string quartets by Weinberg, Shostakovich, Shebalin and Kabalevsky
The Eighth String Quartet, opus 66, from 1959 by Weinberg, lasts barely 15 minutes, and the Seventh String Quartet, opus 108, from 1960 by Shostakovich, even less than that. It’s as if both composers were thereby stepping back for a moment after the two previous quartets. For a long time, Weinberg’s Eighth was the only one of his quartets known in the West. With his Seventh Quartet, Shostakovich composed a concise in memoriam for his wife Nina, who died in 1954.
The Ninth String Quartet, in b-flat, opus 58, Shebalin completed in 1963, shortly before his untimely death. Shebalin had been seriously ill for some time and was partially paralysed. But this work had to and would still be written. Perhaps as a farewell. While the expressiveness of Shebalin’s music fits well with that of Shostakovich and Weinberg, Kabalevsky was cut from a different cloth. He preferred to write tidy and pleasant works for a broad audience.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) – String Quartet No.8, in C major, opus 66 (1959)
Adagio, 2. Allegretto, 3. Doppio piu lento
Performers: Arcadia Quartet
CD: Chandos
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) – String Quartet No.7, in f-sharp minor, opus 108 (1960)
Allegretto, 2. Lento, 3. Allegro
Performers: Quatuor Danel
CD: Alpha Classics
Vissarion Shebalin (1902-1963) – String Quartet No. 9, in b-flat major, opus 58 (1963)
Largo – Allegro, 2. Andante, 3. Allegro molto
Performers: Borodin Quartet
CD: Melodiya
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987) – String Quartet No. 2, in g-flat major, opus 44 (1945)
Scherzando leggiero
Performers: Stenhammar Quartet
CD: CPO
