Shostakovich, Dimitri. (1906–1975). Autograph Musical Quotation for Sol Hurok.
An intriguing brief autograph musical quotation from the important Soviet composer, who has penned a single measure in ink on what appears to be a cocktail napkin. An engraved tag on mat reads, "Last notes of 1966 Spring [sic!] Quartet inscribed by Dimitri Shostakovich for Sol Hurok during a luncheon in Moscow, February 1966." Sight size 4-1/2" square. Framed to 17-1/2" x 16".
In the early 1950s, the famed impresario Sol Hurok arranged for Shostakovich to tour the United States, bringing his music to a broader American audience. The tour helped establish Shostakovich's reputation in the West, despite the Soviet Union's attempts to control the image of its artists. Autograph musical quotations from Shostakovich are uncommon and this, from a major string quartet and and interesting occasion, is of particular interest.
The String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122 was finished on January 30, 1966, in Moscow and premiered by the Beethoven Quartet, with whom Shostakovich had an unusually close association and which premiered all of his quartets from Nos. 2 through 14. He dedicated the Quartet No. 11 to the memory of Vasili Shirinsky, second violinist of the ensemble, who had died in 1965. It was at the Quartet's Leningrad premiere on May 28 - part of a program of his recent work - that Shostakovich made his last public appearance as a pianist. He collapsed afterward and suffered a heart attack, one of a series of strains on his health that marred his final decade.
Shostakovich, Dimitri. (1906–1975). Autograph Musical Quotation for Sol Hurok.
An intriguing brief autograph musical quotation from the important Soviet composer, who has penned a single measure in ink on what appears to be a cocktail napkin. An engraved tag on mat reads, "Last notes of 1966 Spring [sic!] Quartet inscribed by Dimitri Shostakovich for Sol Hurok during a luncheon in Moscow, February 1966." Sight size 4-1/2" square. Framed to 17-1/2" x 16".
In the early 1950s, the famed impresario Sol Hurok arranged for Shostakovich to tour the United States, bringing his music to a broader American audience. The tour helped establish Shostakovich's reputation in the West, despite the Soviet Union's attempts to control the image of its artists. Autograph musical quotations from Shostakovich are uncommon and this, from a major string quartet and and interesting occasion, is of particular interest.
The String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122 was finished on January 30, 1966, in Moscow and premiered by the Beethoven Quartet, with whom Shostakovich had an unusually close association and which premiered all of his quartets from Nos. 2 through 14. He dedicated the Quartet No. 11 to the memory of Vasili Shirinsky, second violinist of the ensemble, who had died in 1965. It was at the Quartet's Leningrad premiere on May 28 - part of a program of his recent work - that Shostakovich made his last public appearance as a pianist. He collapsed afterward and suffered a heart attack, one of a series of strains on his health that marred his final decade.