Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
String Quartet in A Flat, Op. 118
I.   Andante
II.  Allegretto furioso
III. Adagio
IV. Allegretto — Andante

The fifteen string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich offer the listener a more intimate window into the life of the greatest Russian composer of the Soviet Era. While many of his symphonies were composed to appease the Kremlin’s censors and serve as Soviet propaganda, the quartets express more personal sentiments.

The Tenth Quartet, composed some eleven years after the death of Stalin, is by Shostakovich standards more at ease than some of his other works. There is, of course, a terrifying march episode, the second movement, but somehow, the effects are less calamitous than in works such as his Eighth Quartet, heard during the first season of WWCMF back in 2008. This profoundly beautiful work of hymns and dances will bring the 2016 Tasting Music Series to a close, set against the backdrop of the spectacular vineyards of TERO Estates Winery.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Stephen Miahky, violin; and Philip Payton, violin.