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We are excited to announce that starting in 2015 we will be performing complete cycles of Shostakovich Quartets in cities including Washington DC, London, Oxford, Cardiff, Bogota and concerts throughout the UK, across Ireland and in other international venues, in commemoration of the 40^th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death.

We are really looking forward to performing Shostakovich's complete string quartets. As performers and listeners we have always found them to have a special resonance with audiences. While they display passion, drama and even humour, these quartets seem to somehow go further than that. There is deeply personal and expressive emotional quality to this music that really speaks to people. Of course one cannot think of Shostakovich without considering the historical and political context within which he wrote his music and many of his quartets were very much influenced by his feelings towards the Soviet regime, War and the holocaust. The quartets are compelling, exciting, moving and are certainly one of the most significant contributions to the string quartet repertoire.

 

We'll be updating this blog with more info about venues and dates and our experiences working on and performing these enthralling quartets. Also as part of this project we have recorded the 4th, 8th and 11th quartets to be released early in 2015 by Signum Classics.