String Quartet No. 5
Opus 92
1952 year
premiere:
13-November-1953
Moscow. Small Hall of the Conservatoire. Beethoven Quartet.
first publication:
1954. "Muzgiz" Publishers, Moscow.
manuscripts:
The hand-written score is in the personal archive of D. Tsyganov. A fragment of the score is in the Russian State Archive for Literature and Art (Stack 2048, Inv. 2, Item 10).
Duration: 30'
String Quartet No. 5
B Flat Major
Op. 92
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andante
III. Moderato. Allegretto
The autograph score presented by the composer to the Beethoven Quartet bears the following inscription:
“This Quartet has been composed to mark the 30th anniversary of the Beethoven String Quartet and is dedicated to the artists, its members... Dear friends, please accept this modest gift as a testimony of my admiration of your wonderful art, of my deep gratitude for your splendid performance of my works, and of my great love for you. D. Shostakovich, November 30, 1953.”
Shostakovich called some of his quartets "symphony quartets." The unheard-of sound power that he could draw from four stringed instruments, the sharpness of contrasts unprecedented for the quartet genre, the strength and depth of philosophical generalizations, the truly symphonic development and transformation of musical ideas - all this really turns his quartets such as, for example, Third, Eighth, Tenth, Twelfth, in real “symphonies for four instruments”. Such chamber symphonies should, without doubt, include the grandiose Fifth Quartet - one of the complex and at the same time directly influencing musical scores of the mid-20th century.
The Quartet was first performed at the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on November 13, 1953.
recordings:
- Beethoven Quartet: Tsyganov D.M., Shirinsky V.P., Borisovsky V.V., Shirinsky S.P. 1954 // Melody D 015785-6, 1965
- The Borodin Quartet: Dubinsky R.D., Aleksandrov Y.P., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1967 // Melodiya Seraphim SIC-6034, 1967-1968
- The Borodin Quartet: Dubinsky R.D., Aleksandrov Y.P., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1967 // Melodia Eurodisc 76 649 XK, 76 643,
- The Borodin Quartet: Dubinsky R.D., Aleksandrov Y.P., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1967 // Melody MG 087129, D-019219-20, 1967
- The Borodin Quartet: Kopelman M., Abramenkov A., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1983 // HMV Melodiya EX 270339 E 2703421, 1986
- Brodsky Quartet: Thomas M., Belton I., Cassidy P., Thomas J. 1989 // TELDEC 9031-71702-2, 1990
- Beethoven Quartet: Tsyganov D.M., Zabavnikov N., Druzhinin F.S., Shirinsky S.P. 1960 // TRITON MECC-26018, 1995
- Shostakovich Quartet: Shishlov A.A., Pishchugin S., Galkovsky A.V., Korchagin A.A. 1984 // OLYMPIA OCD 532, 1994
- Fitzwilliam Quartet: C. Rowland, J. Spary, A. George, I. Davis. 1977 // LONDON 455 779-2 (Set 455 776-2), 1998