Review: Shostakovich Festival Spot/De Oosterpoort (Netherlands)
31 January–2 February 2025

It is fifty years since Dmitri Shostakovich passed away: 2025 is therefore a special one for musicians, conductors, and audiences. Early in the year a festival dedicated to the composer took place in Groningen (Netherlands), during which the Danel Quartet played Shostakovich’s fifteen string quartets, spread over three days.1 Special guests were Alan George, the Fitzwilliam String Quartet’s violist for 56 years,2 who led masterclasses; and Elizabeth Wilson, well-known to DSCH Journal readers for her books.3 Both met the composer, and George corresponded with him. Other guests were musicologist Daniel Elphick (musical history and analysis), The Jazzmob (a jazz band), and young string quartets such as the Otilka Quartet and Quarteto Iro. Both string quartets studied at the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie NSKA (artistic director Marc Danel).4

Friday
Elphick and Wilson gave the (English-language) introduction to the quartet cycle, perfectly combining general history with what to expect of the first three string quartets, and complementing each other well with occasional moments of humour. Through their colourful explanations, the audience was able to acquire a clear picture of the period in which Shostakovich composed these works.5 This was an enjoyable introduction for the audience, and what they might expect of Shostakovich’s music. After the break there followed a performance of the first three string quartets, with the Danel Quartet now allowing the audience to hear what words fail to describe.

Saturday
Alan George, who retired in 2024, coached the young Otilka Quartet with compassion and warmth. This promising ensemble is already able to perform with an impressive soft pianissimo and much attentiveness.

After lunch the Danel Quartet treated the audience to performances of the Shostakovich String Quartets nos. 4 and 5. The progress in ensemble playing was noticeable since I heard their last integral performance. Especially tangible was the extremely close cooperation between members of the ensemble. The first and second violins formed a complete unity as did the combination of viola and cello. The results were inspiring performances, followed by an upbeat talk by Elphick and Wilson about the following quartets, supported by the Otilka Quartet.

The evening programme began with Quartet no. 6: for me, a not-so-sparkling work, although it has its light moments, but in a way it forms a nice transition to Quartet no. 7 and Quartet no. 8, a work that is often indifferently interpreted, as Lev Markiz remarked in an interview in a past edition of the DSCH Journal.6 However, it was perfectly played by the Danels.

At a special “talking dinner” event, the audience ate on stage during Elphick and Wilson’s lectures, and later on the Jazzmob played—Shostakovich, of course. This allowed members of the audience to speak with Wilson, Elphick, and Alan George about the Festival and its dedicatee. It was here that Alan George told me he was in possession of as-yet unpublished letters from Shostakovich.7 The Journal is pleased to include one of them in this article-review and extends its thanks to Alan George.

The evening closed with Shostakovich’s String Quartets nos. 9 and 10.

Letter from Shostakovich to Alan George

12 November 1974, Moscow.
Dear Alan George,
I was glad to receive your letter.
I am very pleased that you give my
quartets a lot of attention.
Soon I will send you the score and
parts of the <…> 15th quartet.
I will be very happy if you are
interested in it.
I send you and your colleagues in
the quartet my heartfelt greetings
and best wishes.

D. Shostakovich

P.S. <…> is indecipherable

Translation by Larissa Danel

Sunday

The programme followed the format of the previous day: talks, masterclasses and performances of Shostakovich’s string quartets—in this case, the final ones. Alan George led a notable masterclass with the promising Quarteto Iro, advising these youngsters on their sometime wild and overly dynamic yet brilliant interpretation. Following the Danels’ performance of String Quartets nos. 11 and 12, Elphick and Wilson gave what might be termed a lecture recital, illustrated by the Quarteto Iro. The lecture included, among other things, a focus on the beautiful viola part in the Thirteenth Quartet and a quotation of the Italian love song “Don’t Forget Me” in the Fourteenth String Quartet—strikingly so, as Shostakovich had lost two of his friends of the Beethoven Quartet during the time he composed these late pieces. The Danels followed this with a fascinating performance of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth String Quartets.

To conclude, Shostakovich’s celebrated Fifteenth String Quartet—six adagios, reminiscent of the seven slow movements forming Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ. In a well-known remark concerning the first movement, the composer advised his friends from the Beethoven Quartet to “play it so that flies drop dead in mid-air.” 8 The Danels performed it with the utmost concentration and care, expressing with perfection the work’s frozen stillness in time, almost unearthly. As an encore the festival ended with the two pieces Elegy and Polka for string quartet.

This was a praiseworthy closing of a fascinating weekend, a tribute to Shostakovich, the audience leaving the hall not “from sheer boredom” but with the music of Shostakovich in their hearts and minds.

From left to right: Marc Danel, Gilles Millet, Daniel Elphick, Vlad Bogdanas, Alan George, Elizabeth Wilson, Yovan Markovitch. Credit: Egbert Baars

Alan George and the Otilka Quartet. Credit: Henny van der Groep

Notes:

1. John Leman Riley‚ “Quatuor Danel Returns to Shostakovich,” DSCH 62. 59–62.
2. “The Fitzwilliam Quartet at 50!” DSCH 50, 69–70. Judith Kuhn‚ “The Last Three Quartets,” DSCH 52, 62- 63.
3. Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, Legend, and Playing with Fire about the pianist Maria Yudina. Wilson still lectures across Europe.
4. https://www.nska.nl/en/education/teachers
5. The difference between the seemingly insouciant First String Quartet, composed before the war and the starkly contrasting subsequent quartets composed during and after the war goes far beyond the composer’s development in writing for this form. It’s no accident that shrill cries, ambiguous waltz motives, and Jewish dance themes begin to appear from the Second and Third Quartet onwards.
6. DSCH 18, 41–43.
7. The Fitzwilliam Quartet met Shostakovich in England in 1972. During his stay he listened to their performances.
8. Elizabeth Wilson, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (London: Faber & Faber, 2006), 531.

Henny van der Groep
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