No.14

String Quartet No.14 in F sharp major Op.142 (1973)

Allegretto

Adagio -

Allegretto - Adagio

Like the three preceding works in the series, Shostakovich’s Fourteenth Quartet is dedicated to a member of the the Beethoven Quartet, in this case the cellist Sergei Shirinsky. From its first entry with the jovial opening theme the cello has a particularly prominent role in the first movement. In the Adagio too, although the first violin introduces the main theme, the cello motivates its development and is the most passionate voice at its climax. Interest is more evenly shared in the Allegretto section of the last movement but in the closing Adagio the cello, recalling the earlier Adagio, once again carries the emotional message.perform the premier of Shostakovich’s last Quartet, No. 15, in 1974. However, the death of Sergei Shirinsky, a founding member of the Quartet, during the rehearsal period, necessitated giving over the work to another group.) Shirinsky was featured in the 14th by the numerous solo passages given to the cello; note the droll opening theme, as well as duets for cello and lst violin. (lst violinist Dimitri Tsyganov was the only other founding member of the Quartet still alive). In the third movement, Shostakovich quotes music from his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1934). This was the work which, despite a successful two year run, became the focus of a hit piece in Pravda in 1936, precipitating the first of Shostakovich's serious difficulties with the Stalin regime. However, the work returned to the Soviet stage some twenty-five years later with a new title Katerina Ismailova. The music quoted in this Quartet is a romantic theme associated with Katerina’s lover Seryozha, an affectionate form of the name Sergei.

The premiere of the work by the Beethoven Quartet took place in Leningrad (again St. Petersburg) on Nov. 12, 1973, and was awarded the state prize of the R.S.F.S.R. in 1974.