FLINDERS QUARTET
Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba • violin
Wilma Smith • violin
Helen Ireland • viola
Zoe Knighton • cello

PIRULÍ STRING QUARTET
Jasmine Milton • violin
Haneulle Lovell • violin
Sterling Rieck • viola
Caleb Christian • cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing
THOMAS GRUBB, MANO MUSICA sound engineering, editing and mastering

Filmed August 2022 at Tempo Rubato, Brunswick

This project was made possible through support from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Australia Council, and Musica Viva Australia’s Strike a Chord

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH  1906-1975

Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11  (composed 1925)

I. Prelude. Adagio
II. Scherzo. Allegro molto 

Shostakovich wrote this octet before his nineteenth birthday, before his fifteen symphonies and before his fifteen string quartets. Composed whilst he was still a student at the Petrograd Conservatory, it exemplifies his fascination and continuous study of J. S. Bach. The complexity of an eight-person piece is one in which Shostakovich revels. A slow prelude, fascinating fugal and contrapuntal writing and larger than life recitatives are all packed into this contrite first section.

As string quartet players, one wonders why he didn’t write more than one octet. (In fact, we are yet to discover a composer who has written multiple string octets for independent voices.) 

The scherzo is full of characteristic satire and drive, far removed from the scherzo of its main predecessor, in the octet of Mendelssohn. It’s definitely not a scherzo which takes the literal meaning of “a joke” but more one that has evil twists and turns and many witch-like cackles. After an extended recitative up one string from a cello, the piece descends into a mad dash for the end and points to some of the easily identifiable Shostakovich rhythms that he was to use throughout his life.