Quartet Movement in E-flat major (Shostakovich)

The Quartet Movement in E-flat major, also known as the Unfinished Quartet,^[1] is the first movement of a projected string quartet in E-flat major by Dmitri Shostakovich, that was rediscovered in 2003.

Background

Shostakovich's Ninth String Quartet had a difficult creation process, with at least one completed version being destroyed by the composer in 1961, as described by Elizabeth Wilson in her biography Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, "Shostakovich finished the first version of the Ninth Quartet in the autumn of 1961. In a fit of depression, or, to quote his own words, 'in an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt it in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926.'"^[2]

Until 2003 it was believed that nothing had survived of the earlier version(s). In that year, musicologists Olga Digonskaya and Olga Dombrovskaya found a manuscript entitled "Quartet No. 9/I DShostakovich/op.113' Key Es-dur, tempo Allegretto".^{[lower-alpha 1][1]} which comprised both a complete rough draft of a string quartet movement and a partially completed fair score of the same movement.

Performance history

In early 2005, Roman Ledenyov created a performing version from the rough draft, which the Borodin Quartet premiered on January 15, 2005.^[1][3]

In 2006 the Alexandra String Quartet recorded the movement for CD.<ref name="MDT>Thomson 2012</ref>^[4]

As part their 20th anniversary concert series entitled the Fragments Project the Brentano String Quartet commissioned composer Stephen Hartke to write a companion piece to the movement. The piece entitled "From The Fifth Book" was completed in 2011.^[5]

Structure

The composition consists of a single movement marked Allegretto and lasts around seven to eight minutes in performance.^[6]

References

Notes

Sources

• Clements, Dominy (August 12, 2012). "SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets: the Alexandra Quartet FCL1988/1991". Musicweb.com. Retrieved March 2013. 
• Hartke, Stephen (2011). "From The Fifth Book for String Quartet (2011)". Retrieved December 2012. 
• Heyer, Mark, ed. (2011). Dmitri Shostakovich:Catalog of Works. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlage. 
• Hulme, Derek C. (2010). Dmitri Shostakovich Catalogue: The First Hundred Years and Beyond. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810872641. 
• Kozinn, Allan (March 22, 2012). "Choose Your Adventure: Ending the Unfinished, The Brentano String Quartet at Carnegie Hall". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2013. 
• Thomson, Michelle Dulak (December 18, 2012). "String Quartet CDs for the Holidays". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved March 2013. 
• Wilson, Elizabeth (1995). Shostakovich : a life remembered (1st Princeton pbk. printing. ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691044651. 
• "Unfinished Quartet, Dmitri Shostakovich". Hal Leonard Online. 2012. Retrieved December 2012. 

External links

• Ledbetter, Steven (October 18, 2011). "Brentano String Quartet Connecting". The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Retrieved March 2013. 
• Bergen, Violet (March 21, 2012). "Brentano String Quartet at Weill Recital Hall – Fragments: Connecting Past and Present (II)". Classicalsource.com. Retrieved March 2013. 
• "Shostakovich / Unfinished Quartet - Realization using Garritan Personal Orchestra on Youtube". Retrieved March 2013. 

Dmitri Shostakovich Operas The Nose Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Moscow, Cheryomushki Katerina Ismailova Orango Ballets The Golden Age The Bolt The Limpid Stream ("The Bright Stream") Symphonies No. 1 in F minor No. 2 in B major ("To October") No. 3 in E♭ major ("The First of May") No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in D minor No. 6 in B minor No. 7 in C major ("Leningrad") No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in E minor No. 11 in G minor ("The Year 1905") No. 12 in D minor ("The Year 1917") No. 13 in B♭ minor ("Babi-Yar") No. 14 in G minor No. 15 in A major Concertos Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor Violin Concerto No. 2 in C♯ minor Cello Concerto No. 1 in E♭ major Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major Orchestra works Suite from "The Nose" Suite from "The Golden Age" Suite from "The Bolt" Suite from "The Limpid Stream" Suite from "Encounter at the Elbe" ("Meeting on the Elbe") Suite from "The Gadfly" Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1' Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 Suite for Variety Orchestra Tahiti Trot "Festive Overture" in A major for Orchestra "Novorossiisk Chimes, the Flame of Eternal Glory" for Orchestra Film music The New Babylon Alone Golden Mountains Counterplan The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda The Youth of Maxim Girl Friends The Return of Maxim The Vyborg Side Friends The Great Citizen Zoya Simple People The Young Guard Pirogov Michurin Meeting on the Elbe The Fall of Berlin Belinsky The Unforgettable Year 1919 The Gadfly Five Days, Five Nights Sofiya Perovskaya Hamlet King Lear Vocal music Anti-Formalist Rayok Song of the Forests Suite on Finnish Themes From Jewish Folk Poetry Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Chamber music String quartets No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B♭ major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F♯ minor No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in A♭ major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D♭ major No. 13 in B♭ minor No. 14 in F♯ major No. 15 in E♭ minor Other Cello Sonata in D minor Piano Quintet in G minor Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Quartet Movement in E♭ major (c. 1960s) Viola Sonata Violin Sonata Piano music Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor Twenty-Four Piano Preludes and Fugues "Children's Notebook" (6) Three Fantastic Dances Related articles List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich Muddle Instead of Music Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Testimony The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin Post-romanticism Neoclassicism Portal:Classical music