Concert "Shostakovich / Karetnikov"

On October 31, the AZ Museum will host a concert featuring two outstanding works of Soviet modernism: Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet and Nikolai Karetnikov's String Quartet, performed by the Valentin Berlinsky String Quartet and pianist Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev.

Like many artists and composers of the generation of the 1960s, Nikolai Karetnikov absorbed the achievements of Western modernism, which became accessible during the Khrushchev Thaw. In the late 1950s, finding little inspiration in the possibilities offered by the second wave of the European avant-garde, he chose to adopt the technique of serial twelve-tone composition. By that time, this technique had already become part of the established musical canon in the West, and interest in it was declining. Breaking free from the powerful influence of Dmitri Shostakovich on Soviet music, Karetnikov developed his own distinctive style within the principles of the Second Viennese School. His String Quartet (1963) is one of his finest chamber works of the 1960s and one of the first compositions in the USSR to employ serial twelve-tone technique.

Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet (1940) is considered one of the pinnacles of the composer's chamber music and a masterpiece of twentieth-century music. Written on the eve of the Great Patriotic War at the request of the Beethoven Quartet, it established chamber music as a medium of expression comparable in power to the symphony in Shostakovich's oeuvre. The composer frequently returned to the musical ideas of this work, and many years later quoted the theme of its tragic fugue in his famous final string quartet, No. 15. In 1941, Shostakovich was awarded the Stalin Prize, First Class, for the Piano Quintet. The work's overwhelming success in the USSR marked an important stage in the composer's ideological rehabilitation following the devastating criticism of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in 1936.

PROGRAMME:

Nikolai Karetnikov (1930–1994)
String Quartet, Op. 18 (1963)

1. Moderato energico molto rubato, espressivo
2. Vivo, scherzando molto grazioso
3. Lento cantabile leggiero sempre rubato
4. Largo sempre molto sostenuto

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 (1940)

1. Prelude: Lento
2. Fugue: Adagio
3. Scherzo: Allegretto
4. Intermezzo: Lento
5. Finale: Allegretto

PERFORMERS:

Valentin Berlinsky String Quartet
Dennis Gasanov (first violin)
Fyodor Kalashnikov (second violin)
Pavel Romanenko (viola)
Mikhail Kalashnikov (cello)

Founded in 2018, the quartet is named after Valentin Berlinsky, the distinguished cellist and founding member of the legendary Borodin Quartet. The ensemble won the 4th Nikolai Rubinstein International Chamber Ensemble Competition in Moscow (2021) and received Second Prize at the Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China (2025). The quartet performs extensively throughout Russia and collaborates with renowned soloists, including Eliso Virsaladze, Dmitry Masleev, Pavel Nersessian, Alexander Knyazev, Konstantin Emelyanov, Filipp Kopachevsky, Eva Gevorgyan, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, and many others.

Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev (piano)

One of the most outstanding and promising pianists of the younger generation, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev is the grandson of the renowned Russian pianist and teacher Tatiana Nikolayeva. He won the Alexander Scriabin International Piano Competition in Moscow (2012) and has received prizes at numerous international competitions, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition (USA, 2013, Second Prize and a Special Prize for the performance of Russian music), the International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in Bergen (Norway, 2014), and the Sydney International Piano Competition (Australia, 2016). He collaborates with the record labels Decca Classics and Universal Music and was awarded the prestigious Chigiana International Prize in Siena, Italy (2017).