Shostakovich Quartet No 6 Op 101

1956 was the year of Shostakovich's fiftieth birthday, and the Sixth Quartet was written for a commemorative concert by the Beethoven Quartet.

On his 50^th birthday he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the highest honour the Russian State could bestow. Other recipients are Yuri Gagarin, Fidel Castro, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Nikita Krushchev and Kim Philby!

The event was, naturally, to be a pleasant one, and the music reflects, at least on the surface, the happiness as may be felt on such an occasion. Beneath the surface, however, we discern one of this composer's greatest and most original masterpieces. The two inner movements are pervaded by unsettled moments, as in this movement, towards the end, when we hear an echo of the march from the 7^th Symphony ‘Leningrad’, like a bad memory.

Ravel String Quartet

Maurice Ravel completed his Quartet in F major in early April of 1903 at the age of 28. He dedicated  it to his friend and teacher Gabriel Fauré.  The work was first performed in Paris by the Heymann Quartet on March 5, 1904. The quartet follows a strict four movement classical structure: Moderato très doux begins as a sonata form allegro, the following Assez vif-Très rythmé functions as the quartet's scherzo, while Très lent acts as a marked contrast. The last movement, Vif et agité, reintroduces themes from the earlier passages and ends with a striking finale.

The Quartet in F major was Ravel's final submission to the Prix de Rome and the Conservatoire de Paris. The composition was rejected by both institutions soon after its premier on March 5, 1904. The quartet received mixed reviews from the Parisian press and local academia. Gabriel Fauré, to whom the work is dedicated, described the last movement as “stunted, badly balanced, in fact a failure.” Ravel himself commented on the work, “My Quartet in F major responds to a desire for musical construction, which undoubtedly is inadequately realized but which emerges much more clearly than in my preceding compositions.” As a result of major criticism and rejection, a frustrated Ravel left the Conservatoire in 1905 following what was later called the Ravel Affair.

Ravel's loss during the 1904 Prix de Rome and rejection from the Conservatoire de Paris catapulted his career forward: a sympathetic public rallied behind his compositions and musical style. Claude Debussy wrote to Ravel in 1905, “In the name of the Gods of music and in my own, do not touch a single note you have written in your Quartet.”

Ravel's string Quartet in F major stands as one of the most widely performed chamber music works in the classical repertoire, representing Ravel's early genius and rise from obscurity.