Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Two Pieces for String Octet, Op.11
Prelude: Adagio
Scherzo: Allegro molto

Shostakovich joined the Petrograd Conservatoire in 1919 and pursued his studies in the teeth of considerable hardship. His family was not wealthy even in prosperous times, and during the privations of the Civil War years he was obliged to support them by working as a cinema pianist. Glazunov did everything within his power to support and assist a student whose gifts he had recognised from the outset, and Shostakovich’s family returned his kindness by smuggling him black-market vodka, at grave personal risk. Unsurprisingly, the young Shostakovich’s attitude towards Glazunov and the tradition he represented was rather more generous than certain of his contemporaries’– which is not to say that his youthful music was conservative. In the 1920s, when Soviet socialism was still a brave and exciting experiment, officialdom tolerated bold, modernist experiments in art, and when Shostakovich graduated from the Conservatoire in 1926 with his First Symphony, Op.10, the clarity, verve and thoroughly contemporary sound of his music was widely acclaimed.

Shostakovich wrote his Prelude for String Octet in 1924 and the Scherzo the following year, simultaneously with the First Symphony. He also began a Fugue for octet, but omitted this from the final publication, which he numbered Op.11, and which was premiered on January 9 1927 at the Mozart Concert Hall, Moscow. The work has been described as "a memento of adolescent enthusiasms", and in the Scherzo, particularly, we have the impression of a confident young composer playing with dissonance and mechanistic effects for the sheer fun of the noise he can make. In the Prelude, though, written as an elegy for his friend the poet Volodya Kurchavov, the dissonance is poignant and expressive – and the sonorous, fluent lyricism of the string writing shows the imprint of Glazunov, Russia’s most polished and idiomatic composer for strings up to that time. A very personal voice is here emerging from an inherited tradition; it’s the first step towards Shostakovich’s life-long engagement with string chamber music, and towards the cycle of works that is one of the supreme achievements of modern art - his 15 string quartets.

R. G. Bratby 2002


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