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Shostakovich Quartet No. 6 in G Major, Opus 101
Shostakovich’s sudden re-marriage in the summer of 1956 caught even his closest friends by surprise. His first wife, the physicist Nina Varzar, had died suddenly in December 1954, and eighteen months later the shy composer impulsively proposed to a pretty young party official, Margarita Kainova. She just as impulsively accepted, and they were married in…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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Photos From the Morrison Center 60th Anniversary Celebration
A few photos from Friday, March 11, 2016 at the Carolands in Hillsborough during a celebration of the Morrison Center for Chamber Music at San Francisco State University’s 60th Anniversary as well as the 25th Anniversary of the Alexander String Quartet and both San Francisco State University and San Francisco Performances. The ASQ serves in…
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2016 Starts Beethoven: Before, During and After
2016 Gets Rolling With a New ASQ and Robert Greenberg Series — Beethoven: Before, During and After
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Joyce Yang Masterclass TODAY!
Before Tuesday (11/10) night’s concert with pianist Joyce Yang, San Francisco State University will present a FREE masterclass open to the public on Monday, November 9th from 4-6pm! Program Aaron Copland – Sonata for Piano (1939-41) I. Molto moderato Christopher Peters – class of Victoria Neve, San Francisco State University J. S. Bach – Preludium,…
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KALW Interviews Robert Greenberg
Yesterday, we told you about KALW’s upcoming broadcast of our San Francisco Performances, “Explorations in Music: Mozart in Vienna” series, and today we get to share an interview KALW did with Robert Greenberg about the Mozart in Vienna Series: Mozart is often thought of as a “nice” composer, maybe even boring to the uninitiated. Do…
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KALW Features Explorations in Music!
KALW will be broadcasting our San Francisco Performances series, “Explorations in Music: Mozart In Vienna” this October and November on Mondays at 9pm! Have a look at their schedule below: 10/6 String Quartet in G, K. 387 (1782) 10/13 String Quartet in D min, K. 421 (1783) 10/20 String Quartet in Eb, K. 428 (1783)…
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Examiner Review of Salon at the Rex Performance
Thanks to Stephen Smoliar of Examiner.com for this kind review of our San Francisco Performances Salon Series concert: “From that point of view, I would say that the Alexander String Quartet provides us with a healthy standard for approaching Beethoven in the 21st century. They understand their history, they appreciate the value of working with…
