Shostakovich String Quartet No 8 Op 110

Shostakovich, quartets, strings, 8, op. 110, C minor String quartet no. 8, op. 110. Parts.

String quartet no. 8, op. 110

The String Quartet no. 8 in C minor, opus 110, the most loved of all Shostakovich's quartets, has a duration of about twenty minutes. Highly popular, it is performed more frequently than all of the other fourteen together. Despite its popularity, the work evokes feelings of gloom and melancholy. The Eighth is the only substantial work that Shostakovich composed outside Russia. It was written in 1960 whilst Shostakovich was visiting the former Communist State of East Germany. The anguish of the quartet, according to Shostakovich, reflected his thoughts on visiting the ruined city of Dresden. But this explanation did not long survive Shostakovich's death in 1975. In 1979 a book appeared in the West entitled 'Testimony' which claimed to be the composer's memoirs, told to, and subsequently edited by, an associate, Solomon Volkov. The book was highly controversial because it showed Shostakovich not as the passive supporter of the Soviet regime, the role in which Western critics had placed him, but as a closet dissident. Protests followed the book's publication. It was first accused of being a forgery (which in parts it was), but it was also hailed as reflecting the spirit of Shostakovich's thoughts (which it is now generally believed to do). - http://www.quartets.de/compositions/ssq08.html

Intimate Voices: Shostakovich to the avant-garde. Dmitri Shostakovich : the string quartets

This volume discusses composers such as Shostakovich, Britten, Cage and Babbitt in the context of the string quartet. It offers the observations and intuitions of 20 leading authorities on quartets.