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Shostakovich Quartet No. 5 in B-flat Major, Opus 92
Shostakovich wrote his Fifth String Quartet in the fall of 1952, but it remained in manuscript, unperformed, for over a year—and for very good reasons. Not only were these some of the darkest years of the Cold War, they were also the paranoid final years of Stalin’s repressive regime. Four years earlier, at the 1948… Continue Reading
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Looking ahead to March 2017
The Alexander String Quartet is looking ahead to a busy March schedule filled with exciting performances from coast-to-coast! Saturday March 4, 2017 10:00 am Shostakovich String Quartet Cycle San Francisco Performances Inc. Herbst Theatre San Francisco, CaliforniaTel: (415) 398-6449 Web: performances.org Program: ASQ with lecturer, Robert Greenberg Shostakovich Quartet No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op.… Continue Reading
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Shostakovich Quartet No. 4 in D Major, Opus 83
The Soviet crackdown on composers in February 1948 remains, over half a century later, one of the most devastating examples of government interference and censorship in history. Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Miaskovsky, and others were excoriated for their “formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies” and for writing “confused, neuropathological combinations which transform music into cacophony.” These composers… Continue Reading
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Shostakovich Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Opus 73
The Third String Quartet was Shostakovich’s only composition during the year 1946. He dedicated it to the members of the Beethoven Quartet, who gave the first performance in Moscow on their namesake’s 176th birthday, December 16, 1946. The mention of Beethoven is apt, for many observers have felt that this quartet, particularly in its heartfelt… Continue Reading
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Shostakovich Quartet No. 2, in A Major, Op. 68
The works Shostakovich composed during World War II—or, as the Russians call it, The Great Patriotic War—form a distinct chapter in his output. These include the wartime music one might expect—marches, choruses, and even settings of songs of Russia’s allies (including, in 1943, an arrangement of When Johnny Comes Marching Home)—but Shostakovich made his major… Continue Reading
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Shostakovich String Quartet No. 1, Op. 49
Shostakovich wrote his String Quartet No. 1 during a defining interlude in his career. He had achieved international fame at age 20 with his First Symphony, and his 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District— with its explicit sexual content and sordid events—had reinforced that reputation during performances as far away as Cleveland, London,… Continue Reading
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Boise Chamber Music Series Celebrates 30 Years!
The Alexander String Quartet is honored to be a part of the Boise Chamber Music Series’ 30th Anniversary Celebrations! The party officially begins tonight (Friday, October 7th) and continues through Saturday. See the schedule below: Friday, October 7 | 7:30pm – 9:30pm | Morrison Center Recital Hall Boise Chamber Music Series: The Alexander Quartet, with… Continue Reading
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Film Screening: “Con Moto: The Alexander String Quartet”
Chamber Music Immersion – An Audience Participation Event Saturday, October 1, 2016 5pm-8pm San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Avenue, Creative Arts Building San Francisco, CA Lecture, Music, Concert, Film and Dining! This special invitation is to join selected portions of our Chamber Music Intensive course, taught in part by the Alexander String Quartet for… Continue Reading
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Sixteen Strings
A “Flashback Friday” look at our Sixteen Strings documentary broadcast by WSKG-TV as we get closer to the launch of an all-new ASQ documentary! Continue Reading
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September 2016 Performance Schedule
Sunday September 18, 2016 3:00 pm Morrison Artists Series San Francisco State University McKenna Theatre San Francisco, CaliforniaTel: (415) 338-2467 Web: morrison.sfsu.edu/events Program: Haydn Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74 No. 3, “Rider” Shostakovich Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Minor Op. 138 Beethoven Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59 No. 2, “Rasumovsky” Monday September 19,… Continue Reading