String Quartet No. 2 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68, was composed in 1944. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is dedicated to the composer Vissarion Shebalin.

Playing time is approximately 35 minutes, one minute shorter than his longest, the Fifteenth Quartet. The work has four movements:

  1. Overture: Moderato con moto
  2. Recitative and Romance: Adagio
  3. Waltz: Allegro
  4. Theme with Variations: Adagio

The overture that the work begins with is in sonata form, traditional for the first movement of such a work. The music is strong, forceful, and animated. This strong tone is subdued by the lyrical, wandering mood of the recitative. The first violin leads a slow, distressed line of music over soft seventh chords, and eventually finds calm in the romance.

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