String Quartet No. 9 (Shostakovich)

The final version of the Ninth Quartet was preceded by another which Shostakovich admitted to partially destroying:

[I]n an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt it in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926.{{sfn|Wilson|1995|p=387}}

Shostakovich took three years to complete the new Ninth Quartet, finishing it on 28 May 1964. The premiere was by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow on 20 November 1964. Dmitri Tsyganov, the first violinist, recalled that Shostakovich had told him that the first Ninth Quartet was based on "themes from childhood", and was "completely different" from the final version.{{sfn|Wilson|1995|p=388}}

The piece has five movements, played without pause:

{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman

| Moderato con moto

| Adagio

| Allegretto

| Adagio

| Allegro}}

Its duration is approximately 24 minutes.

;Notes

{{Reflist}}

;Sources

• {{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Elizabeth|title=Shostakovich: A Life Remembered |year=1995 |publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0691044651 |edition=1st}}

• {{cite AV media notes|url=http://www.cedillerecords.org/album-artwork/138-the-soviet-experience-vol-iii-booklet.pdf|last=Fanning|first=David|title=The Soviet Experience: Volume III|publisher=Cedille Records|type=CD|id=CDR 90000 138|year=2012}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.quartets.de/compositions/ssq09.html|last=Harris|first=Stephen|title=Shostakovich: the string quartets, Quartet No. 9|publisher=Shostakovich: the string quartets|year=2014}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.shostakovichquartets.com/quartets/page/quartet-no-9|last=Griffiths|first=Paul|title=Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major for Strings, Op. 117|publisher=The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center|year=2012|access-date=2015-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150307122655/http://www.shostakovichquartets.com/quartets/page/quartet-no-9|archive-date=2015-03-07|url-status=dead|df=}}
• {{cite AV media notes|url=http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/notes/67155-B.pdf|last=Matthew-Walker|first=Robert|title=Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos 5, 7 & 9|publisher=Hyperion Records|type=CD|id=CDA67155|year=2001}}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7QioGAAt8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/GI7QioGAAt8 |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|last=Parloff|first=Michael|title=Lecture on Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 2, 9, & 15|publisher=YouTube|date=26 March 2013}}{{cbignore}}

{{Dmitri Shostakovich}}

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#09

Category:1964 compositions

Category:Compositions in E-flat major

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