Musicologist Marina Frolova-Walker discusses the complete Shostakovich quartets.

We often refer to Shostakovich’s quartets as his most private works, while they were to all intents and purposes public – written for the concert stage and often subjected to intense scrutiny by committees and critics. In this overview of the whole cycle, Marina Frolova-Walker will ask the question: what was Shostakovich able to do in his quartets that he couldn’t do equally well in other genres? Do the quartets give us some kind of privileged access to the inner life of the composer?

This event will last approx. 45 mins with no interval

This event forms part of Brodsky Quartet’s weekend celebration of all of Shostakovich’s String Quartets. See details for The Complete Shostakovich Quartets.

Marina Frolova-Walker is a Moscow-born British musicologist. She is Professor of Music History at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Music at Gresham College, London. She has lectured and written widely on Russian and Soviet music and is a regular guest on BBC Radio 3.