String
Quartet No.5 in Bb major, op.92
- Allegro non troppo
- Andante
- Moderato
If
his symphonies and other large public works can be read as a
chronicle of Soviet history for most of the twentieth century, his
string quartets perhaps best chart his personal response. The Fifth
is in three movements, each linked to the next by held notes, the
first to the second by a very high solo violin F and the last two by
a not-so-high chord with the cello playing in its highest register.
The movements are also linked in the rhythm of their main themes -
two short notes (dotted in the first movement) followed by longer
ones - and in their contours as well, with the short notes rising by
step and the ensuing ones falling by small leap. The main theme of
the first movement, stated in the viola after a few chords, is also a
permutation of his own ‘signature’ in musical terms, the opening
letters of his name, D-S-C-H (translating into the musical notes of
D, E flat, C and B). Rhythmic considerations dominate the first
movement, occasionally to the point of obsession, with stark
opposition of strong rhythms in the foreground and remaining as an
uneasy background to more lyrical material. (CU)
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