Artists: Pacifica Quartet

Composers: Dmitri Shostakovich & Alfred Schnittke

This is the final instalment in the Pacifica Quartet’s highly anticipated, and already highly acclaimed four-volume CD survey of the complete Shostakovich string quartets, the first Shostakovich quartet cycle to include works by other important composers of the Soviet era, adding variety and perspective to the listening experience. Volume IV features Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos. 13–15 from the 1970s. These three quartets are paired with Schnittke’s allusive homage, String Quartet No. 3, written in 1983. It is a work full of quotation including a 12-tone row transposed from a theme by Shostakovich, whose influence was felt throughout Schnittke’s career.

The Pacifica Quartet’s previous instalments have received an extraordinary reception from critics. London’s The Telegraph writes, “…The playing is nothing short of phenomenal, bringing new dimensions of interpretative depth and a subtle fusion of intensity and clarity. . . . When the series is complete, it looks set to be the one to own.”

In 2011–12, the Pacifica played the Shostakovich quartet cycle in London’s Wigmore Hall to great acclaim. Founded in 1994, the Pacifica won the 1998 Naumberg Chamber Music Award and Chamber Music America’s 2002 Cleveland Quartet Award. In 2006, the Pacifica received an Avery Fisher Career Grant and also was featured on the cover of Gramophone magazine.