Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No 5, Op. 92 (1952)

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 - 9 August 1975) was a Soviet composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music
String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 92 (1952)
Dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet who premiered it in Leningrad, November 1953
1. Allegro non troppo (0:00)
2. Andante - Andantino - Andante - Andantino - Andante (10:56)
3. Moderato - Allegretto - Andante (20:21)
Fitzwilliam Quartet
Excuses for the poor quality of the sheet music scan. This is a re-upload from my old channel which didn't make things better. (I have no better scan as yet)
The work grows from a five note motif: C, D, E flat, B and C sharp, which contains the four pitch-classes of the composer's musical monogram: DSCH (E flat being S and B being H in German). This motif appears in a number of his other string quartets, including the Eighth, as well as his Tenth Symphony.
Shostakovich wrote his Fifth String Quartet in the fall of 1952, but it remained in manuscript, unperformed, for over a year-and for very good reasons. Not only were these some of the darkest years of the Cold War, they were also the paranoid final years of Stalin’s repressive regime. Four years earlier, at the 1948 Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers, Stalin’s thought-control police had unleashed a killing attack on leading Soviet composers that left artistic expression in Russia moribund. Accused of writing music that “dwells too much on the dark and fearful aspects of reality,” Shostakovich had been forced to read a humiliating apology and to promise to amend his ways. On the surface, he seemed to do that, composing a series of patriotic cantatas and film scores crafted specifically to please Soviet officialdom. The “real” Shostakovich went underground: over the next few years he continued to write the music he wanted to, but he kept it in his desk, waiting for more favorable times. Those times seemed to come with the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, and it was in this slightly liberalized atmosphere that Shostakovich chose to bring out his suppressed works. The Fifth String Quartet was premiered in Moscow on November 13, 1953, by the Beethoven Quartet.
The Fifth Quartet is one of Shostakovich’s darkest. It is a big work (its three interconnected movements last a half hour) and a dramatic one. An unusual level of violence runs through this quartet: the development sections of the outer movements are long and abrasive, the music speaks a surprisingly dissonant language, and it finally reaches an ambivalent conclusion that resolves none of its tensions. Shostakovich was probably wise to hold this music back-this quartet could not possibly have been accepted during this bleak period. It is not simply a direct violation of the canons of Socialist Realism-it is a somber work even by the standard of his own music.

[@classicore22]

The first movement is amazing!
I love the development section-long, reworking many ideas from earlier in the movement, from the exposition, and reaching a furious climax (7:00) with all four instruments at the top of their registers (the viola and the cello are even marked in treble clef).
10:10 I also love the ghostly pizzicato section at the end of the movement, with the first violin singing out far above the other instruments.

[@notaire2]

Wunderschöne und detaillierte Interpretation dieses modernen und fein komponierten Streichquartetts im veränderlichen Tempo mit ein bisschen neuesachlichen doch wesentlich seidigen Tönen vierer technisch perfekten Instrumente. Der zweite Satz klingt besonders schön und echt mysteriös. Im Kontrast klingt der dritte Satz echt lebhaft und auch überzeugend. Die intime und perfekt entsprechende Miteinanderwirkung zwischen den vier Virtuosen ist wahrhaft ergerefend. Es gibt kein Problem mit der Tonqualität. Alles ist hörenswert!

[@dion1949]

It's amazing what composers since Beethoven have been able to do with four string instruments!

[@adamcathcart]

Nice program note, and glad to have the score alongside

[@matteomariasalvo8981]

Great channel! Thank you for all these beautiful scores of Schosty’s quartets!!

[@amandinaolivares5503]

pure beauty

[@KonradCichoszewski]

Shostakovich has a great talent/skill in creating those moments which personally give me the "that is SO awesome" feeling. Still, it is incredible to me how he managed to sustain this feeling in me for basically the ENTIRE first movement! Barely any music resonates with me as well as his. Love your recent series of his string quartets! Thank you @bartjebartmans !

[@erika6651]

29:03 Whoever wrote the Sony/Columbia production music may have been inspired by this moment.

[@dion1949]

The scan is quite readable. No real problems.

[@j.thomas1420]

9:48 that part is so nice !