Decoding Shostakovich, Literally | Decoding Shostakovich
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Matthew Heck, lecturer
Parker Quartet
Daniel Chong, violin
Ken Hamao, violin
Jessica Bodner, viola
Kee-Hyun Kim, cello
SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110
Beginning with his first Violin Concerto (1947-8) and continuing through his final Symphony No. 15 (1970-1), Dmitri Shostakovich wove through his music a musical monogram drawn from the German transliteration of his name and rendered in German musical notation—D, Es, C, H or D, E-flat, C, B natural. The motif adds a self-referential, autobiographical layer to works by a composer already inclined to infuse his music with all kinds of signs, connections, quotations, and references. In this talk, Matthew Heck explores the contradictory nature of this motif—outwardly clear as a self-reference but musically slippery and ambiguous—featuring it as a prime example of the equivocal and enigmatic core of his music.
