Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8, arranged for Wind Quintet
One of the treasured items in my CD collection recently moved from Cardiff is a boxed set of the Shostakovich String Quartets by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet:
When I took it out of the packing case last night it suddenly reminded of the following video I saw a few weeks ago. I think the String Quartets contain some of Shostakovich’s finest music, and the 8th (Opus 110, in C Minor) – written in just three days after the composer saw the aftermath of the bombing of Dresden – is especially intense. I don’t usually like rearrangements of string quartets for other instruments – there’s something very special about the texture produced by string instruments which is difficult to improve upon – but this is really interesting. It’s arranged by David Walter for five wind instruments (clarinet, French horn, cor anglais, flute and bassoon) and played by the Aquillos Wind Quintet, an unusual combination that provides a very fresh take on this piece while maintaining its dark expressiveness and brooding atmosphere.
P.S. Regular readers of this blog might recognize the clarinet player…
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In the Dark 
September 7, 2021 at 12:40 pm
Wow! I didn’t know there was a wind version of this. I’ve played it in SQ and string orchestra, amazing piece of music
September 7, 2021 at 12:41 pm
That said, I miss the drama of bows flying around in the second movement!
September 7, 2021 at 1:23 pm
What an absolutely wonderful video recording!
September 17, 2021 at 12:14 pm
I was fortunate enough to witness the Fitzwilliam Quartet performing the last four of these when I was a student at York University forty years ago. The first string quartet outside Russia to record all fifteen.