A composer’s existence within the web of a totalitarian regime is complicated by the subjectivity and rigor of the rulers.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was one of the many creators who suffered from the harsh Soviet repression of the Stalinist era. His music was labeled as distorted and anti-democratic and the government forced him to apologize publicly and return to the progressive musical path according to the ideals established by the revolution.
The program presented tomorrow, Sunday, by the Saravasti Quartet takes us back to the Cold War with the interpretation of the Fourth String Quartet by the Soviet composer. The enigmatic and codified character of Shostakovich’s chamber compositions in which the composer was able to express himself in an intimate and personal way is well known.
To survive in Stalin’s time, the Saint Petersburg composer had to adopt a double attitude. On the one hand, he composed music to the liking of the Soviet regime, which reflected his ideological purity. On the other hand, Shostakovich must be considered in its purest form, the one that indicated his personality through committed compositions that remained in a drawer waiting for a chance to see the light.
Precisely the Fourth String Quartet in major opus 83, completed in December 1949, did not premiere until 1953, a few months after Stalin’s death. The work is very interesting because of its emotional strength in a temperate climate. The four movements symbolize the composer’s melancholy, who was fired from the Moscow and Leningrad conservatories a year earlier while his music was banned. This brought him into great financial difficulties that forced him to accept government commissions seeking redemption and survival.
The rapprochement with the Soviet regime was consolidated in “The Song of the Forests”, a work that ties in with the project of replanting trees championed by Stalin. But socialist realism also required folk music, so close and melodic, to be present in the compositions. The astute Shostakovich chose to use the popular Jewish music of the time because its enigmatic intonation was structured in two layers: that of its inherent beauty on the one hand, and that of deep despair on the other. That ambiguity captivated a Shostakovich who needed a dual language to convey his feelings of rebellion in a codified and encoded way. The maestro was very interested in performing his string quartet, so in the midst of a political thaw, he offered the score to the Beethoven Quartet for its premiere in Moscow on December 3, 1953.
Consisting of four movements (three Allegrettos and one Andantino), the work contains themes of beautiful lyricism spanning the first two. The muted third movement is faster and more lively, while the fourth is dominated by themes from Jewish folklore that enabled Shostakovich to convey his lament about disapproval of the Soviet regime.
In short, Shostakovich’s Fourth Quartet is such a disturbing and devastating work that the composer himself hid it until Stalin’s death, but the Saravasti Quartet takes it to our time.
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Sunday, September 30, 2022, 12:00 noon. Victor Villegas Auditorium. Shostakovich’s Fourth Quartet, Medina’s Second Quartet and Cavatina from Beethoven’s Opus 130 Quartet. Saravasti Quartet. Organize Promúsica.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
