Emerson String Quartet

Emerson String Quartet

DARK SHADOWS
The Emerson Quartet Plays Shostakovich
Like Beethoven and Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) poured his most intimate, revealing thoughts into his string quartets. The Russian composer felt freer to invest more of himself in these works, since they were inherently less public than his symphonies and operas, and therefore less likely to provoke potentially fatal retribution from Soviet authorities. Nearly every high-profile string quartet must come to grips with Beethoven's and Bartók's cycles over the course of its career, yet few venture all 15 of Shostakovich's quartets. These idiosyncratic works take in a vast emotional expanse, and few ensembles master their volatile combination of bitter sarcasm and deeply felt mourning. Having completed award-winning complete recordings of the Beethoven and the Bartók quartets, the virtuoso Emerson String Quartet now turns its attention to Shostakovich's cycle. Recorded live over several seasons at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, the Emerson's interpretations have just been released in a five-disc box set by Deutsche Grammophon. Speaking with bn.com's Bradley Bambarger, Emerson violinist Philip Setzer shared what he and his fellows -- violinist Eugene Drucker, violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist David Finckel -- learned from the testimony of Shostakovich's quartets.

barnesandnoble.com: How did your journey through Shostakovich begin?

Philip Setzer: We started playing the Eighth Quartet -- an incredible, moving piece -- about 20 years ago, and we added another of his quartets to our repertoire every couple of years or so. Gradually, we developed a deeper connection to the material as we studied the extramusical context, which is so important to understanding Shostakovich's music. When the group recorded the Schubert Quintet with Mstislav Rostropovich -- who is one of the great storytellers, a real fount of knowledge -- we had the opportunity to learn firsthand about the composer as a man, and about the difficult times he lived through. But what was really key was the cumulative experience of playing the quartets in front of an audience. There are places in Shostakovich's quartets, particularly the later ones, when nothing seems to happen. You can see by how the audience reacts, though, that these "silences" create a real sense of suspense. That was one of the reasons we decided to record all the quartets live.

bn.com: Having now gotten so close to Shostakovich through his quartets, have you come to any conclusions about the man and his method, both of which have been controversial?

PS: First, Shostakovich means so much to our understanding of 20th-century music because he composed during the heart of the century -- the middle 50 years -- which was obviously such an intense period of history, and one that his music reflects to an extraordinary degree. I think Shostakovich was very misunderstood for a long time. He came in for a lot of criticism in the '60s and '70s by those who assumed he was just creating with a gun to his head. Those people didn't see all the levels of irony in his music. That irony takes some decoding. Like with the happy ending of the Fifth Symphony -- the first piece he wrote after being denounced for his opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District." Russian composers had to give their pieces happy endings according to the Soviet tenets for proper music for the masses. After all the tragedy in the Fifth Symphony, it seems false for it to end on an "up" note. But I think Shostakovich was saying, "You want a happy ending? I'll give you a happy ending and shove it down your throat." It's such an over-the-top happy ending that it just can't be serious. There are moments in the quartets like that.

bn.com: Despite Shostakovich's oppressed circumstances and dour manner, you can hear a sense of humor in his music?

PS: Yes, and very few composers can do both comedy and tragedy. Mozart and Haydn could do both, of course. Closer to our own time, there is Bartók; he could do both well. I love Mahler, but I think he was at his worst whenever he tried to be funny. Shostakovich, though, could see the comedy in tragedy and vice versa. He had a wicked, black sense of humor. He couldn't have survived without it.