Shostakovich: UNPACKED with Orchestra Wellington

New Zealand String Quartet
6 days ago
5 min read

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

The Shostakovich Cryptogram: “DSCH” - Schnittke’s “Praeludium in memoriam D.Schostakowitsch” for two violins

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony opens with one of the most recognisable four note motifs in all musical history. But the four note signature musical motif of Dmitri Shostakovich, though less instantly recognised, is just as significant, especially in the context of the tense political climate of the twentieth-century.

The intense pressure Shostakovich felt on a daily basis to conform to the Soviet Regime’s expectations is well documented. In order to publicly tow the party line, he had to create music that would appease the artistic sensibilities and expectations of the Soviet regime. But privately, Shostakovich gave commentary on the political state of affairs, using extra-musical means. One way he did this was to create a ‘musical cryptogram’, transforming the first four letters of his name, DSCH (Dmitri Schostakowitsch), using German musical notation (D, Es, C, H), to produce a four-note musical motif (D, Eb, C, B Natural).

Alfred Schnittke’s “In Memoriam: Dmitri Shostakovich” opens tonight’s concert with a poignant and heartfelt tribute to Shostakovich, where Monique and I play his musical cryptogram no fewer than 12 times, hidden throughout the piece. Musicologist Tamara Levaya writes in 2023 that, “It seems that the eternal problems Schnittke and Shostakovich touched upon …[in their music]… guarantee its relevance even in modern times. The drama of the events unfolding today on the European continent bring the reverberance of its tragic note into the 21st century.”

We at the NZSQ are excited to be collaborating with our wonderful musical colleagues from Orchestra Wellington. Audiences are lucky enough to have the chance to hear Shostakovich’s signature musical cryptogram again in Orchestra Wellington concerts later in the year, in excerpts from his opera, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (18 October), and in Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony (22 November), under the leadership of conductor Marc Taddei.

by Peter Clark

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)

String Quartet No.3 in F major, Op. 73 (1946)

I. Allegretto

II. Moderato con moto

III. Allegro non troppo

IV. Adagio (attacca)

V. Moderato

The light-hearted, innocent-seeming opening of Shostakovich’s Quartet no. 3 belies the serious nature of much of this work. Written after he had already completed 9 of his 15 symphonies, this quartet was his only composition of 1946, a horrendous year for the USSR. After the horrors and privations of WWII, the country endured an appalling drought and famine, losing further millions to starvation.

Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3 opens with a playful F major theme marked dolce for all four players, soon giving way to a darker, dread-filled second theme. Shostakovich urged it be played “with tenderness rather than force.” The frenzied second movement (E minor) features a pounding viola ostinato beneath a wild violin dance, interrupted by a ghostly, frozen waltz. The third movement unleashes warlike fury: gunfire-like bursts, rage, and annihilation, with dynamics spanning forte to fortississimo.

Shostakovich, fond of passacaglias, writes a slow fourth movement built on five-bar fortissimo phrases from the lower voices, beneath a solitary, searching violin. The Finale, which follows without pause, begins with the cello’s sinuous, rocking 6/8 melody beneath viola pizzicato, later passed to violin 1. Though accidentals and chromatic twists abound, F major glimmers beneath. Subtle dynamics prevail until the 4th movement’s passacaglia theme returns, dissolving into “light and conciliation.”

by Gillian Ansell

Tatiana Riabinkina (1983 -)

No War (2022)

I am a Russian immigrant in New Zealand. I moved to New Zealand in 2018. When the war started, I lost the chance to go home because I am against the war and make my choice public. I could be arrested for this in Russia.

The ‘No War’ quartet was written when the war in Ukraine just started. This music came out substituting the night sleep, because first days of the war were too stressful for me to close my eyes. I finished this piece in just one and half days. I had never worked so fast!

At the start, it quotes an old Ukrainian song. The repeating dissonant exclamation has three syllables in Russian: “Нет войне” — that means “No war” in English.

by Tatiana Riabinkina

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)

Chamber Symphony for Strings in C Minor, Op. 110a

One of the most widely celebrated of all of his compositions, Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet uses the composer’s signature ‘musical cryptogram' as the motivic foundation on which the entire piece is built.

Written in just three days, and with an inscription in the score reading “In memory of the victims of fascism and war”, Shostakovich takes the listener on a highly emotive journey through five interconnected movements.

Arranged here by conductor Rudolf Barshai in 1967 (with the blessing of Shostakovich himself), we hear the work reimagined for full chamber orchestra, to become a ‘chamber symphony’ - the version that Shostakovich ultimately preferred.

The work opens with an unsettling elegy, where Shostakovich’s ‘musical cryptogram’ is heard in the very first phrase of the piece. Soon, the uneasy calm explodes in the second movement’s riotous and violent cacophony - an unrelenting sonic world of darkness. The third movement transforms into a chilling and sinister waltz, inviting the listener to question in which imaginary setting this dance is taking place. Beethoven’s fifth symphony, mentioned earlier, begins with the infamous 4 note ‘knocking at the door’ motif. Here in the fourth movement, Shostakovich takes this idea, intensifying and transforming it to a ‘banging’ at the door, creating one of the most terrifying moments in all Western classical music. A devastating fugal elegy brings this extraordinary work to a tragic close.

Why do string quartets, chamber orchestras, and audiences all across the world, keep coming back to this work? Sadly, our current global climate makes it strikingly relevant to present this piece of music. We thank you for coming on this journey with us at Orchestra Wellington, and the New Zealand String Quartet.

by Peter Clark

ARTISTS ON STAGE

Violin I Peter Clark, Mana Waiariki, Aziel Verner, Vivian Stephens, Sarah Marten

Violin II Monique Lapins, Eden Annesley, Estefania Viloria, Lucas Baker

Viola Gillian Ansell, Grant Baker, Alex McFarlane

Cello Dominic Lee, Jane Young, Inbal Megiddo

Double Bass Paul Altomari

THANK YOU