The Shostakovich String Quartet was formed in 1967 but only assumed its present name in 1979–four years after the death of its namesake, the great Soviet composer and artistic conscience Dmitry Shostakovich. Shifting politics may have played a role in the name change; in any case, Shostakovich, for whom the string quartet was a fertile genre, deserved every bit of the belated tribute. In its local debut, the much-recorded Moscow-based quartet will offer a Russian sampler. Shostakovich’s Quartet no. 7 (1960) may be the best on the program: overshadowed by the much better known no. 8 (an antiwar anthem) and seldom performed (in Chicago at least), it ranks high among the composer’s 15 quartets for its meticulous architecture. Borodin’s String Quartet no. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet no. 1, on the other hand, are famous–not so much for their musical merits as for a single enchanting movement in each. The nocturne from the otherwise sappily nostalgic Borodin piece is hauntingly languorous; the andante from the Tchaikovsky is based on a Russian folk song, the only personal touch in a quartet that comes across as copycat Schubert. The Shostakovich foursome were all trained at the Moscow Conservatory of Music–which proably explains why their fiddling is of the old Russian school: more emphasis on melodic lines, more liberties with tempi. Tonight, 8 PM, Mandel Hall, University of Chicago, 1131 E. 57th; 702-8068.
