Sheffield Chamber Players return with a discussion and performance of String Quartet No.10 in A-flat major, Op.118 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Written in 1964, soon after the premiere of his 13th Symphony (“Babi Yar”), it is widely believed that this quartet expresses resentment over the active measures taken by Soviet authorities to sabotage the premiere of the symphony. Babi Yar, on the outskirts of Kyiv, is infamous as the site of one of the largest massacres of Jews by German Nazis, and the symphony was intended to pay tribute to it. Shostakovich’s fury at the double standards of the party and its pervasive antisemitism blends with his personal response to the tragedy and manifests in this simultaneously towering and intimate composition. Prior to performing the work, Sheffield artists will discuss its roots in more detail and explore musical themes developed in each of the four movements of the piece.

This is an in-person event, open only to students, staff, and faculty in the Wellesley College testing protocol.