Shostakovich String Quartet No. 4
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
4.9 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2022
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shostakovich is one of the easiest composers to do podcasts about because his life and his music is full of such incredible stories. But as easy as it is, it's also complicated. Shostakovich's music is sometimes heard as a musical history book, a testament, which it often is, but we should never lose sight of the fact that Shostakovich was a composer first, not a politician. So today we're going to be looking at the 4th quartet in two contexts, the historical and the musical, and then try to see how one works(or doesn't) with the other. How do you incorporate religion into music, and how do you handle the heavy burden that was laid down to you by masters of the String Quartet like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert? How do you write political music without getting in trouble with the authorities? How do you speak out against injustice when it can put you in grave danger? Shostakovich, as always, has the answers. Join us!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the classical music podcast. |
| 0:05.5 | My name is Joshua Weylerstein, I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Phoenix |
| 0:09.1 | Orchestra of Boston. |
| 0:10.7 | This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting |
| 0:14.8 | ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music. |
| 0:18.8 | Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Howard and Richard, |
| 0:22.6 | and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making Season 8 possible. |
| 0:26.6 | If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com slash Sticky Notes |
| 0:30.0 | podcast. |
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| 0:40.4 | So I'm in North Carolina this week with the North Carolina Symphony, doing an all-American |
| 0:44.6 | program of Bernstein's Candid Overchair, Gershwin's Concerto, and F with Aaron Deel, and then |
| 0:50.0 | my very first performance ever of William Levi Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, a piece |
| 0:54.2 | that I have loved for a long time, have a podcast about it if you want to check that out, |
| 0:59.2 | and it's just an amazing piece, and I'm so thrilled to be getting to do it for the very |
| 1:02.8 | first time. |
| 1:04.2 | For now onto today's episode on Shostakovich's fourth string quartet. |
| 1:09.4 | Shostakovich is one of the easiest composers to do podcasts about because his life and |
| 1:12.9 | his music is full of such incredible stories. |
| 1:16.8 | But as easy as it is, it's also complicated. |
... |
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