The Pacifica Quartet knows Dmitri Shostakovch’s 15 quartets intimately. The group just spent the past couple of years recording them. And they program them frequently on their concerts.
Pacifica Quartet (Photo: Saverio Truglia)
When the Pacifica makes a return visit to Libby Gardner Concert Hall on Thursday, part of this season’s Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City’s offerings, they’ll include the Seventh in F sharp minor on their program.
The ensemble’s violist, Masumi Per Rostad, described the Seventh as “quirky” in an interview with Reichel Recommends recently. “It’s an interesting piece,” he added. “It’s compact — there are no breaks between the movements. The music is varied and evolves from one movement to the next.”
Deciding which Shostakovich quartet to play on any given program involves a few decisions, Rostad said.”There are a lot of factors. We think of the complete program. We think of what would make a cohesive program, because the works must be complementary. And we also like to rotate the pieces in and out.”
Also on the program is Mozart’s Quartet in F major, K. 590, the last of the three so-called Prussian Quartets he wrote for the King of Prussia, who was an accomplished cellist, and Brahms’ Quartet in C minor, op. 51, no. 1.
“The Mozart is a spacious and reflective piece,” Rostad said, while the Brahms quartet is dark and serious.
Unlike Shostakovich and Mozart, Brahms only wrote three string quartets that he liked well enough to publish. “He destroyed so many before he published the op. 51 quartets,” Rostad said. Brahms was plagued by doubts about himself as a composer. He felt he was Beethoven’s successor but didn’t think his music lived up to Beethoven’s standards. ‘He lived under Beethoven’s specter,” Rostad said. “It would be interesting to see what he had destroyed.”
- CONCERT DETAILS
- What: Pacifica Quartet
- Venue: Libby Gardner Concert Hall, University of Utah
- Time and Date: 7:30 p.m. March 6
- Tickets: $30 general, $10 students
- Phone: 801-467-2181
- Web:www.cmsofslc.org
(Click here to read Edward Reichel’s review of the Pacifica Quartet’s recordings of the complete Shostakovich string quartets.)