Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 15, Op. 144

Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 15, Op. 144

The Borodin Quartet, consisting of Valentin Berlinsky (Cello), Andrei Abramenkov (Violin), Igor Naidin (Viola) and Ruben Aharonian (Violin) perform Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 15, Op. 144 at the Kuhmo Festival for Chamber Music 2002. The composer’s last string quartet dates from 1974 and was first performed in Leningrad by the Taneiev Quartet. The political pressure and artistic censorship to which Shostakovich was subjected, damaged his health during the final decade of his life. The work is composed during a two-week stay in a Moscow convalescent institution. Like most of the composer's late works, it is an introspective meditation on mortality. It is also one of the composer's bleakest and most profoundly introspective creations. The quartet consists of only slow movements which all carry a title (Elegy, Serenade, Intermezzo, Nocturne, Funeral March and Epilogue).