String Quartet No. 15

Dedication: “To the Memory of Sergei Petrovich Shirinsky”.

Duration: 37’

String Quartet No.15

in E-flat Minor

op. 144

The Fifteenth String Quartet, Op. 144, was begun on 13 April and finished on 17 May 1974, soon after the composer was hospitalised once more.

The Fifteenth Quartet is one of Shostakovich’s few compositions in this genre that does not have a dedication. Shostakovich’s previous four quartets were dedicated to members of the Beethoven Quartet, the ensemble that first performed all of his quartets, beginning with the Second (1944). The premiere of the Fifteenth by this ensemble scheduled for the autumn of 1974 could not take place due to the death of the cellist, Sergey Shirinsky, on 18 October 1974. The Quartet was performed for the first time on 15 October 1974 in Leningrad, in the hall of the Glinka Academic Capella, by the Leningrad Taneyev Quartet—Vladimir Ovcharek, Grigori Lutsky, Vissarion Soloviev and Iosif Levinson. The Beethoven Quartet gave the Moscow premiere (on 11 January 1975 in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory) with a changed lineup: Dmitri Tsyganov, Nikolay Zabavnikov, Fedor Druzhinin and Yevgeni Altman.

According to Derek Hulme’s catalogue, in 1974, the copyist’s score was circulated by Muzyka Publishers, while Anglo-Soviet Music Press put out the full score and parts presumably the same year. In 1975, the full score and parts came out in Muzyka (Nos. 8961 and 8962) and Hans Sikorski (Nos. 2204 and 2209 [in the same volume as the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Quartets]) Publishers; an arrangement of the Fifteenth Quartet for piano four hands by Aleksandr Dmitriyev appeared in theDmitri Shostakovich. Quartets series (Muzyka Publishers, Leningrad, 1979).

Recordings:

- Beethoven Quartet: Tsyganov D.M., Zabavnikov N., Druzhinin F.S., Altman E. 1975 // Melodia Eurodisc 89 803 XDK,
- Beethoven Quartet: Tsyganov D.M., Zabavnikov N., Druzhinin F.S., Altman E. 1975 // Melodia S 10-06495-6, 1976
- Borodin Quartet: Kopelman M., Abramenkov A., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1978 // Melodia C 10-11757-8, 1979
- Borodin Quartet: Kopelman M., Abramenkov A., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1978 // Victor VIC-2176, 1979 (?)
- Beethoven Quartet 1975 // Shinsekai SMK-7887,
- Taneyev Quartet: Ovcharek V.Yu., Lutsky G., Soloviev V., Levinson I. 1975 // Melodia S 10-06639-40, 1976
- Sukovo kvarteto: Novák A., Jouza V., Řehák K., Štros J. 1981 // Panton 8111 0195, 1981
- Borodin Quartet: Kopelman M., Abramenkov A., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1978 // HMV Melodia EX 270339 E 2703451, 1986
- Brodsky Quartet: Thomas M., Belton I., Cassidy P., Thomas J. 1989 // TELDEC 9031-71702-2, 1990
- Borodin Quartet: Kopelman M., Abramenkov A., Shebalin D.V., Berlinsky V.A. 1995 // TELDEC 4509-98417-2, 1996
- Fitzwilliam Quartet: C. Rowland, J. Spary, A. George, I. Davis. 1975 // LONDON 455 782-2 (Set 455 776-2), 1998
- Shostakovich Quartet: Shishlov A.A., Pishchugin S., Galkovsky A.V., Korchagin A.A. 1988 // OLYMPIA OCD 534, 1994
- Beethoven Quartet: Tsyganov D.M., Zabavnikov N., Druzhinin F.S., Shirinsky S.P. 1976 // PRAGA PR 254 043, 1994
- Kremer G.M., Phillips D., Kashkashyan K., Ma Y. 1985 // CBS MK 44924, 1989