The Shostakovich Quartet Project

Two of the last Fridays in September I spent playing four string quartets by Dimitry Shostakovich, with my good friends Daniel Khalikov, Kristi Helberg and Rubin Kodheli. We spent weeks preparing and getting to know these seemingly simple yet mysterious works. The First Quartet is youthful, concise in form, jubilant. The Fourth, written in memory of a good friend, is puzzling in how Shostakovich chooses to mourn, or perhaps insert secret messages, in the piece. The Fifth is ambitious and sprawling. It is all over the place in the best way. Shostakovich gives homages to Schubert, Beethoven, his student and one-time love interest Galina Ustvolskaya, but he also shows his less pleasant, neurotically angry side. And the Eighth Quartet is a classic. Rugged, angry, incorporating Jewish melodies like many of his works; written in the memory of victims of fascism, but what kind of fascism? Against the Soviet Union, or inside it? A true postmodernist who constantly synthesized a lot of influences, Shostakovich paints some startlingly vivid images, and that’s one of my favorite things about him!

We played these two concerts at the Hungarian Pastry Shop. This was such a great venue, a classic coffeehouse near Columbia University popular with the literati, with an attentive and enthusiastic crowd. Not to mention the amazing owner Philip, whose idea these concerts were in the first place. We had a great time and still talk about it.