String Quartet No. 9 (Shostakovich)

Shostakovich rarely changed or revised his works, but the Ninth Quartet is one of the rare exceptions. Elizabeth Wilson writes in her biography Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, "Shostakovich finished the first version of the Ninth Quartet in the autumn of 1961. In a fit of depression, or, to quote his own words, 'in an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt it in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926.'"[1]

Shostakovich took three years to complete the new Ninth Quartet, finishing it on 28 May 1964. The premiere was by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow on 20 November 1964. The Beethoven Quartet had the exclusive rights to perform all of Shostakovich's string quartets. Dmitri Tsyganov, the first violinist, recalled that Shostakovich told him that the first Ninth Quartet was based on "themes from childhood", and the newer Ninth Quartet was "completely different".

The piece has five movements, played without pause:

Its duration is approximately 24 minutes.

Notes

Sources

• Wilson, Elizabeth (1995). Shostakovich : a life remembered (1st Princeton pbk. printing. ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691044651.

• Fanning, David (2012). The Soviet Experience: Volume III (PDF) (CD). Cedille Records. CDR 90000 138.
• Harris, Stephen (2014). "Shostakovich: the string quartets, Quartet No. 9". Shostakovich: the string quartets.
• Griffiths, Paul (2012). "Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major for Strings, Op. 117". The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Archived from the original on 2015-03-07. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
• Matthew-Walker, Robert (2001). Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos 5, 7 & 9 (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDA67155.
• Parloff, Michael (26 March 2013). "Lecture on Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 2, 9, & 15". YouTube.