String Quartet No. 2 (Shostakovich)

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. When Shostakovich began writing his Second String Quartet he had already completed eight of his fifteen symphonies. He was also half-way through his life. Another thirteen quartets however remained to be composed, and they would come in rapid succession.

Structure

The work has four movements:

Overture: Moderato con moto
Recitative and Romance: Adagio
Valse: Allegro
Theme with Variations: Adagio

Playing time is approximately 35 minutes, one minute shorter than his longest, the Fifteenth Quartet.

The overture that the work begins with is in sonata form, traditional for the first movement of such a work. The music is strong, forceful, and animated. This strong tone is subdued by the lyrical, wandering mood of the recitative. The first violin leads a slow, distressed line of music over soft seventh chords, and eventually finds calm in the romance.

External links

"Jerusalem Quartet: Shostakovich, Quartet No. 2 - 1. Overture: Moderato con moto". YouTube. 28 December 2011.
"Jerusalem Quartet: Shostakovich, Quartet No. 2 - 3. Valse: Allegro". YouTube. 28 December 2011.
Anderson, Keith (1996). Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 2 and 12 (CD). Naxos Records. 8.550975.
Borg-Wheeler, Phillip (2015). Tchaikovsky: Serenade for strings; Shostakovich: String Quartet (PDF) (CD). Linn Records. CKD472.
Griffiths, Paul (2012). "Quartet No. 2 in A major for Strings, Op. 68". The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Harris, Stephen (2014). "Shostakovich: the string quartets, Quartet No. 2". Shostakovich: the string quartets.
Jones, Evan Allan, ed. (2009). Intimate Voices: The Twentieth Century String Quartet, Vol. 2 Shostakovich to the Avant-Garde. University Rochester Press. ISBN 1-58046-322-3.
Matthew-Walker, Robert (1999). Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos 2 & 3 (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDA67153.
Parloff, Michael (26 March 2013). "Lecture on Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 2, 9, & 15". YouTube.
Wilson, Elizabeth (2012). The Soviet Experience: Volume II (PDF) (CD). Cedille Records. CDR 90000 130.

Operas and operetta

The New Babylon
Alone
Golden Mountains
Counterplan
The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda
The Youth of Maxim
Girl Friends
The Return of Maxim
The Vyborg Side
Friends
The Great Citizen
Zoya
Simple People
The Young Guard
Pirogov
Michurin
Meeting on the Elbe
The Fall of Berlin
Belinsky
The Unforgettable Year 1919
The Gadfly
Five Days, Five Nights
Sofiya Perovskaya
Hamlet
King Lear

Vocal music

Chamber music

String quartets	No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B♭ major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F♯ minor No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in A♭ major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D♭ major No. 13 in B♭ minor No. 14 in F♯ major No. 15 in E♭ minor

Other	Cello Sonata in D minor Piano Quintet in G minor Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Quartet Movement in E♭ major (c. 1960s) Viola Sonata Violin Sonata

Piano music

Named for Shostakovich

Portal:Classical music

String quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich

Two Pieces for String Quartet (1931) No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B-flat major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F-sharp minor No. 8 in C minor Quartet Movement in E-flat major (c. 1960s) No. 9 in E-flat major No. 10 in A-flat major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D-flat major No. 13 in B-flat minor No. 14 in F-sharp major No. 15 in E-flat minor

List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich

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