Composed in 1949, Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 4 (Op. 83) is both an expression of lament for the atrocities inflicted upon the Jewish people and a testimony of silent resistance by a musician confronting the aesthetic and ideological demands of the Soviet regime at the time. It is therefore unsurprising that the work was only premiered in December 1953, a few months after Stalin’s death. Interestingly, it was in 1990 — immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall and as the dissolution of the USSR was looming — that the conductor and violist Rudolf Barshai, a friend and disciple of Shostakovich, expanded the quartet’s scope by orchestrating it into what is now known as the Chamber Symphony (Op. 83a).
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Shostakovich’s creative trajectory is famously ambiguous. In particular, the years following World War II saw him compose works as divergent as the cantata Song of the Forest, a laudatory manifesto to Stalin, and his Violin Concerto No. 1, an implicit challenge to the regime through the use of Jewish melodies. The String Quartet No. 4 contains no pre-existing melodies, but it does not conceal reminiscences of traditional Jewish music, such as characteristic interval relationships and moods alternating between festive and sorrowful — elements that stood in stark contrast to the cultural doctrine imposed by Zhdanov. This tension between political oppression and artistic expression is thus reflected. Musically, the quartet is distinguished by dense harmonies, dissonances, abrupt melodic interruptions, great rhythmic and dynamic agitation, and highly elaborate contrapuntal textures. Obstinate repetitions convey a sense of unrest.
Barshai’s orchestration masterfully amplifies all these features. In the first movement, the strings weave a rustic melody that slowly evolves until the pastoral register of the woodwinds emerges. The second movement introduces a more introspective atmosphere, initially giving full protagonism to the oboe. The following two movements are played without interruption. First, rhythms evoke a dance-like character that soon transform into grotesque gestures in the brass and percussion. Then the music spreads into short but incisive melodic and rhythmic motifs. It culminates in a series of interrogative solos across various instruments, fading away into a silence that seems to express all that could not be put into words.
Rui Campos Leitão
Image: Portrait of Dmitri Schostakovich, byTahir Salahov / Source: Flickr