SCENES FROM A LIFE

As the Carducci Quartet releases its third Shostakovich disc, Tom Stewart hears from the group’s violist and cellist about the extreme contrasts between the two featured pieces – the ninth and fifteenth string quartets

The Soviet Union in the 1970s was characterised by social, political and economic stagnation – or so the story goes.

Dmitri Shostakovich, the country’s pre-eminent composer, completed his fifteenth and final string quartet in 1974, the year before he died.

The extent to which his music was a commentary on his life and times is still a matter of debate, but the work’s six movements, all slow and all in E flat minor, constitute a study of stillness lasting around 35 minutes. However, their bare textures and static harmonies belie a sense of disquiet which pervaded the world around Shostakovich and make it difficult not to hear the quartet as a reflection on his own impending death.

‘It’s always seen as a meditation on mortality,’ explains Emma Denton, cellist of the London-based Carducci Quartet. ‘The music is so fragile in places, you can’t help but be affected by the incredible starkness.’ The group’s new disc pairs the Fifteenth Quartet with the Ninth, written ten years earlier. ‘We made the recording just after we came out of lockdown,’ she continues, explaining that her father – who introduced her to Russian music – had recently died. ‘The lines are so fragile and haunting – you feel so isolated. The tempo, q= 80, is the same through almost the entire thing, like a heartbeat. Making this recording was a very powerful experience for me.’

This is the quartet’s third Shostakovich disc, following recordings of the quartets nos.4, 8 and 11 released in 2015, and nos.1, 2 and 7 released in 2019. They have performed numerous complete cycles, most memorably in 2015 when they played all fifteen in a single day. ‘We connected with the music in a way we weren’t expecting,’ says Denton. ‘It took us by surprise, and we were really sad the following year because we’d been on such a journey with the music and it had come to an end.’ Violist Eoin Schmidt-Martin agrees: ‘It blew our minds that you could play fifteen pieces by the same composer back to back but still find so much variety and tell such an interesting story.’

ANDY HOLDSWORTH

‘AFTER WE’VE PLAYED THE FINAL NOTES OF NO.15, THE AUDIENCE OF TEN SITS THERE FROZEN IN A STUNNED SILENCE’

Pulled in different directions by the whims of his country’s evolving cultural doctrine, Shostakovich is the archetypal composer of Soviet Communism. As questions about his personal politics remain, so too does the search for symbolism in his music, which is by turns triumphant, sorrowful and grotesque. ‘Playing all the quartets together made us realise how they told the story of his life,’ says Schmidt-Martin. ‘When you look into the historical context of each one, you see how they’re all so specific and original.’ The quartets are masterpieces in their own right, he says, but they can’t be separated from the world that gave rise to them. ‘We’ve performed them with readings of texts from the time, or from Shostakovich’s own letters. You can’t help but think about the story.’

The hushed chorales and long, sighing lines of the later piece are a complete contrast to the dance rhythms and furious energy of the Ninth, whose music sounds in some ways more like Bartók. ‘The dense, homogeneous writing of the earlier quartet is completely different, with a huge and aggressive build-up that just keeps coming,’ says Denton. To illustrate the difference, she points to a passage in the final movement where Shostakovich gives all four players triple- and quadruple-stopped chords. ‘You play them pizzicato and as loud as you can. It’s incredible.’ Schmidt-Martin explains that the later quartets are much sparser in comparison: ‘There’s a vulnerability, a fragility to them that leaves you with nowhere to hide. After we’ve played the final notes of no.15, the audience often sits there frozen in a stunned silence.’

Eoin Schmidt-Martin and Emma Denton recording the Shostakovich quartets in 2021

Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming, first and second violinists respectively

PHOTOS COURTESY CARDUCCI QUARTET

‘Both quartets are extraordinarily intense,’ says Denton, ‘and usually you play through each of them without a pause between movements.’ Not all performances call for the athletic and musical endurance required by the group’s 2015 marathon, but all music that takes the player (and listener) on such a complex journey does require a certain level of emotional commitment. So how do they transfer that to the recording studio, where the temptation can be to take a forensic, detail-driven approach? ‘We tried to play the longest takes we could because you want to keep the essence of the music alive. You’ll kill it otherwise,’ says Schmidt-Martin.

The key, Denton explains, is not to overthink it. ‘The second movement of the Fifteenth Quartet starts with us all on these long up bows going to massive accents,’ she says. ‘When we’re performing in concert, we don’t think about whether or not our bows are matching because we’re just going for it. I noticed myself thinking about the bows when we were recording, though, and I had to get out of that headspace quickly and go for the big gesture like we would in a concert hall.’ It’s also important, says Schmidt-Martin, to know when to take a break: ‘If you’ve done the first movement of the Ninth Quartet a couple of times, you’re going to need to take five and recharge, as it just takes so much out of you. Then you can come back and commit to it fully again.’

‘I NOTICED MYSELF THINKING ABOUT THE BOWS WHEN WE WERE RECORDING, AND I HAD TO GET OUT OF THAT HEADSPACE AND GO FOR THE BIG GESTURE’

Next year marks half a century since Shostakovich died. Unsurprisingly, the Carducci players have plenty planned to mark the anniversary, including a big project spread out across the year alongside several younger quartets. They are also planning a number of complete cycles, as in 2015, when they marked the 40th anniversary of the composer’s death. ‘Whenever we play them I feel like I’m learning something,’ Denton says. ‘We once did all fifteen in a small city in Colombia, which was absolutely extraordinary. Everyone turned out, young and old, and for many of them it was their first experience of a classical concert.’ Although they may have not have known who Shostakovich was, she says, the music was no less powerful. ‘They were queuing round the block, which just goes to show what these quartets can do!’

WORKS Shostakovich String Quartets nos.9 and 15

ARTISTS Carducci Quartet

RECORDING VENUE Cedars Hall, Wells Cathedral School, Somerset, UK

RECORDING DATES 6–9 April 2021

CATALOGUE NUMBER Signum Classics SIGCD 786

RELEASE DATE 19 April 2024