CD of the Week: Shostakovich: The String Quartets

The CD of the Week *drumroll* everybody's favorite- Shostakovich: The String Quartets by the Emerson String Quartet. I just can't resist the pure anger and distress in all of the quartets.  Check out this video of the Emerson String Quartet performing the Shostakovich No. 3. AMAZING!

Dmitri Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He immediately stood out as a prodigy and by 1918 he wrote his first funeral march. Shostakovich became famous in the Soviet Union under Leon Trotsky's chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government.

Being heavily influenced by Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, Shostakovich developed a hybrid style, especially shown through Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. This single work juxtaposed a wide variety of trends, including the neo-classical style and post-Romanticism.

Shostakovich's orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerto. His symphonic work is typically complex and requires large scale orchestras. Music for chamber ensembles includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two pieces for a string octet, and two piano trios. For the piano he composed two solo sonatas, a set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Other works include three operas, and a series of film music.