Shostakovich: UNPACKED with Ghost Trio

New Zealand String Quartet
Sep 17
4 min read

Updated: Sep 23

Welcome to

Shostakovich: UNPACKED

In this 50th year since the death of great Soviet-Russian composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, we celebrate his life, struggles and profound contribution to the canon by programming 5 of his 15 string quartets, set in the company of some of his greatest other chamber music. Well-known for the hidden messages and codes inside his music due to the terrifying cat-and-mouse game he endured with Stalin, Shostakovich’s music expresses universal emotions and the power of the human spirit to endure.

In each concert, we collaborate with an exciting guest ensemble or musician, who join the NZSQ in exploring these masterpieces. We also showcase reflections on or reactions to Shostakovich’s music by a different New Zealand composer on each evening, giving the audience the chance to reflect on the power and relevance of Shostakovich’s music in today’s political and social climate.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

New Zealand String Quartet Trust

PROGRAMME NOTES

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906—1975)

String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83 (1949)

I. Allegretto

II. Andantino

III. Allegretto (attacca)

IV. Allegretto

Written in 1949, Shostakovich was bearing the repercussions of Formalist denouncement, having been dismissed from his teaching roles at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories. His attempts to regain favour had been realised through winning the Stalin Prize with a seven-movement oratorio; so too had he represented the Soviet State at the 'Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace' in New York.

The Fourth String Quartet aimed to align with Socialist Realism through use of easily accessible tunes and Jewish folk melodies. The result was this restrained work premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in 1950, in the presence of Shostakovich, his wife Nina, and Alexander Kholodilin, head of the music division of the Committee for Artistic Affairs. It was performed twice in that room, but withheld from the public until Stalin’s death in 1953, risking revealing the true mind of the composer.

The first movement, Allegretto, is spacious and welcoming, nonetheless permeated by an ominous pedal in D. In Andantino, melodies rise and fall with a sobbing ta-tum accompaniment. The third, Allegretto, is punctuated by an urgent quaver accompaniment and a twisting melody in the violins. The fourth is folk-like, inviting the audience deep into the inner world of Shostakovich; despite the cheery rhythms, you can sense his disquiet in the irregular harmonies and lonely, soft coda.

by Eden Annesley

Robert Burch (1929—2007)

An Essay to the Memory of Dmitri Shostakovich for cello and piano (1975)

Our programme shifts forward in time to one of Aotearoa’s own composers, Robert Burch. Born in Lyttelton, he completed his undergraduate studies with Douglas Lilburn and Frederick Page at Victoria University, going on to study composition and horn at the Guildhall School in London before returning to Wellington to take up a position of second horn with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Burch only wrote nine works across his career, with this piece written in 1975, the same year of Shostakovich’s death. You may hear echoes of Shostakovich’s voice in this work through the recurring quaver motifs ti-ka-ti-ka-ta, the harmonic textures, and the unwinding melodies dotted with ricochet bowing between piano and cello. A rarely performed work, this essay draws us further into the soundworld of mystery and uncertainty.

by Eden Annesley

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906—1975)

Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano (arranged by Lev Atovmian in 1955)

We pivot moods in these five vignettes for violins and piano, lyrical, Romantic and far-removed from the emotional turmoil of Shostakovich’s string quartets. Likely influenced from his time working in film music, and even improvising scores to silent movies, they were arranged by request by Shostakovich’s student Lev Atovmian after his death, drawing from the composer’s varied film and operatic scores. The first, Prelude from The Gadfly, is reminiscent of a Schubertian waltz. Gavotte, from the third ballet suite, is a cute, bouncing melody, followed by Elegy, a lush Brahmsian dance in three. Waltz is a minor interlude, presumed to be from The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balada, and the final Polka is a joyous dance to complete the set.

by Eden Annesley

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906—1975)

Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1943—1944)

I. Andante

II. Allegro con brio

III. Largo

IV. Allegretto

Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 stands as one of his most haunting and emotionally searing works, composed in 1944 amid the ravages of World War II and the personal devastation of losing his closest friend, Ivan Sollertinsky. Written just months after Sollertinsky’s sudden death, the trio channels both intimate grief and the collective trauma of a war-torn nation.

The first movement opens with a ghostly fugue, the cello whispering a mournful theme in high harmonics, soon joined by violin and piano in a bleak, obsessive sonata form. The second movement bursts forth as a manic scherzo—wild, ironic, and unmistakably Shostakovich—teetering between celebration and hysteria. The third movement is a chilling passacaglia: a solemn funeral lament built over eight stark piano chords, like a tolling bell, as the strings weep above.

The finale weaves together earlier themes with new ones, most notably a piercingly ironic Jewish melody—a daring gesture at a time of Soviet antisemitism. “A cheerful melody built on sad intonation,” Shostakovich once said of Jewish music. This paradox lies at the trio’s core: beauty carved from despair, joy tainted by sorrow. Its emotional weight echoes throughout his later works, including the String Quartet No. 8.

by Gabriela Glapska

ARTISTS ON STAGE

Peter Clark Violinist, New Zealand String Quartet

Gillian Ansell Violist, New Zealand String Quartet

Arna Morton Guest Violinist, New Zealand String Quartet

Callum Hall Guest Cellist, New Zealand String Quartet

Monique Lapins Violinist, Ghost Trio

Ken Ichinose Cellist, Ghost Trio

Gabriella Glapska Pianist, Ghost Trio

THANK YOU