INDELIBLE VISIONS
OF A TROUBLED WORLD

BILL NEWMAN discusses the Emersons' new recording
of the complete Shostakovich works for string quartet

Quite by accident, I tuned into BBC TV's Newsnight here in the UK when Jeremy Paxman chaired a short discussion on why the music of Dmitri Shostakovich is currently 'in the news'. It turned into a minor battle royal, Paxman for once taking a back seat. He sided with the charming young Russian lady on behalf of her people suggesting extra emotive meanings behind the printed scores, while a voluble Norman Lebrecht constantly stressed the importance of reading up all the literature on the subject for a correct assessment. Both views are relevant, 'Testament - The Memoirs of Shostakovich' together with Elizabeth Wilson's 'Shostakovich - A Life Remembered', adding considerably to our knowledge yet inevitably, as with any great composer, inner visions are revealed to the astute listener only in the course of hearing different interpretations.

The 15 Symphonies, some with defined programmes, are far easier to grasp than the 15 Quartets where personal associations, an eternal love for the works of writer-poet Gogol, friendship with composers and performers, and an incorporation of ideas inspired by verse settings - Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, Tsvetayeva, Pasternak, Yevtushenko, Dostoyevsky, Apollinaire, Lorca, Blok, Beckett, Valéry - provide the catylist of his composing achievement spanning the years 1938-1974.

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