Shostakovich / Auerbach · after Shostakovich Op. 143
Shostakovich / Auerbach Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva
for Alto and String Quartet
Lera Auerbach’s 2005 arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s late song cycle for low female voice and string quartet: six Russian settings of Marina Tsvetaeva, translated from piano into the concentrated, exposed sonority of four strings.
Commission
Co-commissioned by Festival Les muséiques, Basel, and NDR’s das neue werk, Hamburg. The arrangement was made by Lera Auerbach in 2005.
First Performance
1 June 2006, Basel. Zoryana Kushpler, contralto · Petersen Quartet.
Source
After Shostakovich’s song cycle Op. 143. Six settings of Marina Tsvetaeva in Russian, originally composed in 1973.
Poems
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I
My Poems
Largo
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II
Whence Such Tenderness?
Allegretto
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III
Hamlet’s Dialogue with His Conscience
Largo
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IV
The Poet and the Tsar
Moderato
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V
Not the Drum Sounded …
Allegretto
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VI
To Anna Akhmatova
Largo
Work Information
Abbreviations PDF
The Work
Shostakovich’s Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva is among the composer’s late vocal works, austere in scale and severe in emotional concentration. Auerbach’s arrangement transfers the piano part into a string quartet, sharpening the cycle’s chamber-theatre quality and placing the voice inside a surrounding field of bowed sonority.
The string quartet does not function as accompaniment in a decorative sense. It becomes the pressure around the poems: intimate, darkly resonant, and capable of both lyric breath and harsh articulation.
- Source Shostakovich Op. 143.
- Poet Marina Tsvetaeva.
- Arrangement Lera Auerbach, 2005.
Context
Shostakovich’s original cycle sets six carefully selected poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, one of the central Russian poets of the twentieth century. The Boosey & Hawkes note describes the cycle as one of Shostakovich’s powerful late compositions.
Auerbach’s arrangement was co-commissioned by Basel’s Festival Les muséiques and the NDR concert and broadcasting series das neue werk in Hamburg. Its first performance took place in Basel on 1 June 2006 with Zoryana Kushpler and the Petersen Quartet.
Online Materials
Public links related to Shostakovich/Auerbach: Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva. Use the filters to view recording, catalogue, and reference materials.
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RecordingZoryana Kushpler and Petersen Quartet Discogs / Capriccio reference
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CatalogueAuerbach Work Catalogue Boosey & Hawkes PDF
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PublisherBoosey & Hawkes / Sikorski Boosey & Hawkes
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ScorePurchase Score Boosey & Hawkes
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WebsiteLera Auerbach Catalogue of Works leraauerbach.com
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MaterialsAbbreviations PDF Boosey & Hawkes
Publisher and Materials
Published by VAAP and available through Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski. The official publisher page and purchase page are linked below.
