Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68, was composed in 1944 in just nineteen days in Ivanovo, 300 kilometres north-east of Moscow.
 It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is dedicated to the composer Vissarion Shebalin.
A fortepiano ] is an early piano.
 In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century.
 Most typically, however, it is used to refer to the late-18th to early-19th century instruments for which Haydn, Mozart, and the younger Beethoven wrote their piano music.
 Starting in Beethoven's time, the fortepiano began a period of steady evolution, culminating in the late 19th century with the modern grand.
 The earlier fortepiano became obsolete and was absent from the musical scene for many decades.
 In the 20th century the fortepiano was revived, following the rise of interest in historically informed performance.
 Fortepianos are built for this purpose today in specialist workshops.
Stroganov School ("Строгановская школа" in Russian) is a conventional name for the last major Russian icon-painting school, which thrived under the patronage of the fabulously rich Stroganov family of merchants in the late 16th and 17th century.
Vasily Vasilyevich Mate (Russian: Василий Васильевич Матэ ; 6 March [O.S. 23 February] 1856 – 22 April [O.S. 9 April] 1917 ), or Mathé, was a Russian artist and engraver.
 While he was not the author of any major original works, he was one of the major engravers in Russia during the late 19th century.
 He collaborated with major Russian painters and produced engravings of their paintings, thus helping popularize Russian art.
Anna Akhmatova.
 The Silver Age (Rus. "
Анна Ахматова.
 Серебряный Век") is a municipal museum in Avtovo (near the eponymous Avtovo metro station), a south-western area of Saint Petersburg, Russia, dedicated to life and work of Anna Akhmatova and other major Russian poets and literary figures of the first half of the 20th century whose writing started during the Silver Age of Russian culture.
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major, op. 117, was composed in 1964 and premiered by the Beethoven Quartet.
 The Ninth Quartet was dedicated to his third wife, Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, a young editor he married in 1962.
Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (Russian: Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н , born Saltykov, pseudonym Nikolai Shchedrin; 27 January [O.S. 15 January] 1826 – 10 May [O.S. 28 April] 1889 ), was a major Russian satirist of the 19th century.
 He spent most of his life working as a civil servant in various capacities.
 After the death of poet Nikolay Nekrasov he acted as editor of the well-known Russian magazine, "Otechestvenniye Zapiski" (variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.), until the government banned it in 1884.
 His best-known work, the novel "The Golovlyov Family", appeared in 1876.
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 10 in A-flat major, op. 118, was composed in 1964.
 It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is dedicated to his close friend Mieczysław (Moisei) Weinberg.
The Große Fuge (or Grosse Fuge , also known in English as Great Fugue or Grand Fugue), Op.
 133, is a single-movement composition for string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven.
 A massive double fugue, it was universally condemned by contemporary critics.
 A reviewer writing for "Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung" in 1826 described the fugue as "incomprehensible, like Chinese" and "a confusion of Babel".
 However, critical opinion of the work has risen steadily since the beginning of the 20th century.
 The work is now considered among Beethoven's greatest achievements.
 Igor Stravinsky said of it, "[it is] an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever."
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian: Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich , ] ; 25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist.
 He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.

Question: Which major Russian composer of the 20th century wrote a piece that was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in 1964?
Answer: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich