String Quartet No. 4 in D Major

Shostakovich’s Fourth Quartet (1949) emerged at one of the most catastrophic low points in his roller-coaster career. Vicious, sweeping condemnation of his work at the First Congress of the Union of Composers (1948) had forced him to recant publicly, and to demonstrate his “sincerity” with propaganda pieces like the horrendous Song of the Forests. For the moment though, Shostakovich still hoped that his more serious compositions might find an audience too. The Fourth Quartet falls firmly into that category, but it turned out to be too serious for the official artistic watchdog, and he was advised (probably wisely) to withdraw it. It was not performed until after Stalin’s death in 1953. Apart from his anger and sadness at what was happening artistically in his homeland, Shostakovich was also horrified by the rise of antisemitism. He had already begun to feature elements of Russian Jewish folk music in his work, and here, as in the Second Piano Trio, they dominate the finale, where the emotional message is quite clear. At first, the music of the first movement is bright, a bracing troika ride through shining snow (Shostakovich still hoping to find favour with the authorities?). But it darkens towards the end, and the aria-like slow movement that follows (“Andantino”) reveals deep anguish. An ominous, hushed fast movement leads into the finale, in which Klezmer dance themes, uneasy at first, grow increasingly nightmarish. The movement doesn’t so much end as wind down, like musical automaton, ambiguous unease still very much in the air.