String Quartets 1
The Fourth Quartet is one of the greatest in a very great cycle of works. Its melodic fabric is permeated by the soulful strains of the Jewish music so beloved of the composer--in his memoirs Shostakovich says that what he found so attractive about it was its ability to express suffering in terms of dance rhythms. This tactic--turning the "optimism by decree" socialist realist aesthetic into an essay in tragic irony--was perhaps the most important single component of Shostakovich's musical personality. The Seventh Quartet is, by contrast, the shortest of all these quartets, and is a touching tribute to the composer's wife, while the Sixth has an almost classical poise. Great music, fine performances, budget price.--David Hurwitz