Beethoven Quartet

In another of the greater ironic twists in the music picture, the Soviet-based Beethoven Quartet became even more closely from the quartets of Shostakovich than with those of its namesake. It provided the globe premieres of all of Shostakovich’s quartets, six which are devoted either towards the quartet collectively or even to individual people. The composer himself performed and documented using the ensemble, and several Shostakovich mavens respect the Beethoven Quartet shows from the 15 Shostakovich quartets as benchmarks against which to guage others. Dedicated and dedicated as the group was to Shostakovich’s music, the Beethoven Quartet performed an array of compositions — a lot more than 600 — including all of the quartets of Beethoven as well as little known functions by such Russian composers as Alexander Alyabyev. Still, it really is for the Shostakovich that great ensemble will end up being most appreciated. The Beethoven Quartet produced numerous recordings over time, most of them on Melodiya and Doremi. The Beethoven Quartet was originally founded as the Moscow Conservatory Quartet in 1922 by four then-recent graduates from the conservatory. The initial members had been Dmitri Tsyganov (first violin), Vasily Shirinsky (second violin), Vadim Borisovsky (viola), and Sergei Shirinsky (cello). In the first years the ensemble steadily built a popularity among the finest youthful quartets in the Soviet Union. The group transformed its name towards the Beethoven Quartet in 1931. With the past due ’30s it got attracted the interest of Shostakovich, who constructed his Piano Quartet in 1940, dedicating it towards the BQ. Shostakovich produced memorable but completely different recordings of the task using the ensemble in both 1940 and 1955. The BQ premiered the composer’s Second Quartet in 1944 and provided the premieres of the rest, except No. 14 no. 15. In 1956 the ensemble started documenting the composer’s quartets. Borisovsky still left the BQ in 1964 and was changed by Fyodor Druzhinin, where period the ensemble was focusing on the recently constructed Ninth Quartet. In 1965 Vasily Shirinsky departed and was changed by Nicolai Zabavnikov. The BQ completed documenting the quartets in 1975, with Yevgeny Altman on cello as alternative to Sergei Shirinsky, who passed away the previous season. One final employees modification in 1977 finished a time: the final first member, Dmitri Tsyganov, departed. His substitute, Oleh Krysa, offered as initial violinist before group disbanded in 1987. The BQ’s acclaimed group of the 15 Shostakovich quartets was reissued by Doremi Information in 2006.