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Nimbus

Shostakovich: Octet Pieces - Quartet No. 8 - Piano Quintet

$16.99

Details

Composer
SHOSTAKOVICH, DMITRI
Artist
Bingham
Format
CD
Label
Nimbus
Released
Aug 02, 2019
Catalog #
NI7109
UPC
0710357710926

About

Shostakovich was no child prodigy - he began piano lessons at nine - but success as a composer came early when his First Symphony, written as a graduation piece, was acclaimed in Leningrad at the premiere in May 1926. That said, there is some fine chamber music in Shostakovich's student output. Much of the Two Pieces for String Octet Op. 11 actually predates the First Symphony Op. 10, remarkably assured for an eighteen year-old. The Two Pieces for String Quartet on the other hand did not surface at all until 1984! Dedicated to the J. Vuillaume Quartet they give us the suggestion of a Shostakovich quartet sound circa 1931 - seven years before the real thing. The original stimulus to compose a piano quintet came from musicians of the Beethoven Quartet who had asked him for something they could all play together. But Shostakovich must have relished the technical challenge of a medium which few twentieth century composers had been prepared to tackle because of it's peculiar problems of balance and texture. The composer himself gave the first performance with the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow on 23 November 1940. And, utterly non-ideological as it was and is, the music won him a Stalin Prize. Shostakovich was one of the most important and prolific writer of string quartets in the 20th century. His String Quartet No. 8 comes from an important period in his personal as well as his artistic life. Musically it comes from the same period as his widely acknowledged masterpiece, the Tenth Symphony. Dissident writers have claimed it represents the composer himself - a lost voice in a cruel world.

Tracklist 14 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1. Prelude: Adagio 04:55
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. Prelude: Adagio
    Duration
    04:55
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet, Alberni Quartet
  2. 2 No. 2. Scherzo: Allegro molto 04:16
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. Scherzo: Allegro molto
    Duration
    04:16
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet, Alberni Quartet
  3. 3 No. 1. Elegy: Adagio (arr. from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Op. 29, Act I Scene 3: Zherebyonok k kobylke toropitsa) 04:17
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 1. Elegy: Adagio (arr. from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Op. 29, Act I Scene 3: Zherebyonok k kobylke toropitsa)
    Duration
    04:17
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  4. 4 No. 2. Polka: Allegretto (arr. from The Golden Age Suite, Op. 22a: III. Polka) 02:26
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 2. Polka: Allegretto (arr. from The Golden Age Suite, Op. 22a: III. Polka)
    Duration
    02:26
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  5. 5 I. Prelude: Lento 04:44
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Prelude: Lento
    Duration
    04:44
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    John Bingham
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  6. 6 II. Fugue: Adagio 10:10
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Fugue: Adagio
    Duration
    10:10
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    John Bingham
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  7. 7 III. Scherzo: Allegretto 03:41
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Scherzo: Allegretto
    Duration
    03:41
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    John Bingham
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  8. 8 IV. Intermezzo: Lento 05:33
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. Intermezzo: Lento
    Duration
    05:33
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    John Bingham
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  9. 9 V. Finale: Allegretto 06:48
    Track
    9
    Title
    V. Finale: Allegretto
    Duration
    06:48
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    John Bingham
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  10. 10 I. Largo - 05:20
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Largo -
    Duration
    05:20
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  11. 11 II. Allegro molto - 02:58
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Allegro molto -
    Duration
    02:58
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  12. 12 III. Allegretto - 04:10
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Allegretto -
    Duration
    04:10
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  13. 13 IV. Largo - 05:08
    Track
    13
    Title
    IV. Largo -
    Duration
    05:08
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet
  14. 14 V. Largo 04:13
    Track
    14
    Title
    V. Largo
    Duration
    04:13
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Ensemble
    Medici String Quartet