String Quartet No.7 in F sharp minor Op.108 (1960)

The shortest of Shostakovich’s fifteen string quartets, the Seventh in F sharp minor is also the most enigmatic. The fact that it is dedicated to the composer’s late wife Nina Vasilyevna ought to clarify matters, and to some extent it does, but not if it is taken to indicate that the work is an inconsolably grief-stricken memorial. When Shostakovich wrote it - in 1960, to mark what would have been Nina’s fiftieth birthday - she had been dead for six years and he had married and divorced his second wife and was within months of meeting his third (and last). If there is grief in the Seventh String Quartet, it is one aspect of a score that is as many-sided as the composer’s relationship with its dedicatee - an “open” relationship which was severed by divorce at one point and immediately put together again by a hasty remarriage.

The wispy little violin tune that begins the work in F sharp minor gives nothing away in emotional terms. It is, on the other hand, structurally important - more so than the more substantial and comparatively cheerful second subject introduced by the cello in E flat major - and is no less significant for being left out of the recapitulation. It is clearly due to reappear at a later stage. The Lento second movement is devoted to other material, a sadly expressive melody sustained by muted first violin and cello against a chain of smoothly bowed arpeggios on second violin. The wispy violin tune is, however, a prominent feature of the fierce Allegro that follows, first of all in inversion and then, after an increasingly angry fugue and an impassioned recall of the Lento melody on viola and cello, in its original form on an fff climax. Far from ending the work in anger, in the closing Allegretto section Shostakovich transforms the fugue theme into a gentle waltz and combines it with calm memories of the first movement in a resigned progression to a resolution in F sharp major.

The shortest of Shostakovich’s fifteen string quartets, the Seventh in F sharp minor, is also the most enigmatic. The fact that it is dedicated to the composer’s late first wife Nina Vasilyevna ought to clarify matters, and to some extent it does, but not if it is taken to indicate that the work is an inconsolably grief-stricken memorial. When Shostakovich wrote it – in 1960, to mark what would have been Nina’s fiftieth birthday – she had been dead for six years and he had married and divorced his second wife and was within months of meeting his third (and last). While there is grief in the Seventh String Quartet, it is one aspect of a score that is as many-sided as the composer’s relationship with its dedicatee – an “open” relationship which was severed by divorce at one point and immediately put together again by a hasty remarriage.

The wispy little violin tune that begins the work in F sharp minor gives nothing away in emotional terms. It is, on the other hand, structurally important – more so than the more substantial and comparatively cheerful second subject introduced by the cello in E flat major    and is no less significant for being left out of the recapitulation in its original form, which is clearly due to reappear at a later stage. In the meantime it is recalled not in the prevailing 2/4 but in a 3/8 pizzicato version.

The Lento second movement is devoted to other material, a sadly expressive melody sustained by muted first violin against a chain of smoothly bowed arpeggios on second violin. joined by a glissando line on viola and cello before the latter instrument takes up the opening theme. The wispy violin tune from the first movement is, however, a prominent feature of the fierce Allegro that follows – first of all in inversion and then, after an increasingly angry fugue and an impassioned recall of the Lento melody on viola and cello, in its original form on an fff climax. Far from ending the work in anger, in the closing Allegretto section Shostakovich transforms the fugue theme into a gentle waltz and combines it with calm memories of the first movement in a resigned progression to a resolution in F sharp major.