Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos. 13-15

   This edition is based on the scores of the quartets published by DSCH Publishers: Quartet No. 13—DSCH, Moscow, 2001 (S-2001), Quartet No. 14—DSCH, Moscow, 2001 (S-2001) and Quartet No. 15—DSCH, Moscow, 2000 (S-2000), as well as the publication of the scores of the quartets in Volume 36 of Shostakovich’s Collected Works—Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1980 (S-80). The author’s manuscripts of the scores of the quartets (A), as well as the first editions of the scores printed during Shostakovich’s lifetime are also taken into account: Quartet No. 13—Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1972 (S‑72), Quartet No. 14—Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1974 (S‑74) and Quartet No. 15— Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1975 (S‑75).
   The comments point out the differences between the notations of the main publications and this edition, whereby obvious slips-of-the-pen in S‑80, S‑2001 (both publications) and S‑2000 are corrected without specification. The notations of A and the first printed editions are considered in a comparative analysis of the comments that applies to the mentioned differences. Furthermore, the differences in the tempo and metronome markings between A, S‑80, S‑2001 and S‑2000 and this edition are stipulated in the comments to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Quartets. In some cases, the comments to the Thirteenth Quartet give comparative references to the author’s manuscript of the unfinished score of the first version of the quartet (A1).
   In S-80, in the notation of Quartet No. 15, and also in S-2000 some editorial recommendations are inserted in square brackets. In this edition, square brackets are not indicated in the comments when references to these recommendations are given.
   The scores of all three quartets in the current version are published in separate editions, in particular Quartet No. 13—DSCH, Moscow, 2016 (S‑2016), Quartet No. 14—DSCH, Moscow, 2018 (S‑2018) and Quartet No. 15—DSCH, Moscow, 2018 (S‑2018). These comments stipulate all the changes in these scores that appeared during editing this edition and made after S-2016 and S-2018 were published.