Solo, the cello opens the quartet no. 8 with Shostakovich’s signature DSCH motif, the notes D, E flat, C and B which correspond to the composer’s initials in German notation. This motif recurs throughout the slow and tragic first movement. It also forms the basis of the third, one of only two fast movements in this quartet of five. Quotes from and references to Shostakovich’s earlier works also appear throughout the first four movements of the quartet no. 8, including a piece of a Jewish melody he used in his Piano Trio no. 2 that we would hear later in this evening’s program. A few seconds into the fifth movement, the DSCH returns. In C minor, this is a dramatic quartet that seems to inject one with a viral neurosis, the DSCH theme continues to pop up and circle around in your head long after the music is gone.

The little-known and seldom-performed Jazz Suite No. 1 (1934) followed. The suite consists of three movements, a waltz, a polka and a foxtrot. Eleven musicians were on stage for this small ensemble piece, some as well or better-known in the jazz world than in the classical world. Not really 'jazz' in the way we usually think of it, it was the sort of music played for entertainment in Moscow 'jazz' cafés of the time. The Soviet regime of the day believed jazz to be a decadent Western influence on culture but, for whatever reason, changed its position in 1934 and sponsored the jazz competition for which Shostakovich wrote this score. The waltz had a cabaret feel to it at times and the polka was played with the kind of village band style that European jazz musicians often incorporate in their compositions. The foxtrot, the most 'jazzy' of the movements, began with a tango flavour, then moved into blues and vaudeville. Though there was no room for improvisation it was played with exuberance.

The second half of the program was a multimedia performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67 (1944), dedicated to the memory of his closest friend Ivan Sollertinsky. While Annette-Barbara Vogel, Amanda Forsyth and Andrew Burashko wove their musical magic, Andrea Nann danced her own choreography on the opposite side of the stage. On the large screen at the back of the stage, Peter Mettler and Nick de Pencier projected archival images taken from the films Shostakovich against Stalin by Larry Weinstein, Heart of a Dog by Vladimir Bortko and Seasons by Artazd Pelechian along with video images of Andrea Nann’s dance. Between movements, what sounded like scratched old recordings of someone reading excerpts of letters written by Shostakovitch enhanced the experience.