Ravinia 2026 Issue 3

immediately followed by a quiet, graceful de- scent—calling to mind an operatic overture. Repetition of short melodic phrases is common at first. The contrasting theme turns to imitation among the violins. A brief development offers mild harmonic interest, then the main ideas re- turn in near-original form. Mozart’s Andante introduces a pair of lyrical themes. Violins offer a simple, but elegant, initial melody. Later, ele- gant dissonances lend poignancy to the second theme. The Presto rondo finale brings the diver- timento to a spirited close. DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) String Quartet No. 3 in F major, op. 73 Shostakovich composed his String Quartet No. 3—his first bona fide masterpiece in the form—between January 26 and August 2, 1946. Musical and ideological ambiguities in this work reflect the precarious nature of his rela- tionship with Soviet officialdom and its policy of “Social Realism.” Its five movements origi- nally carried programmatic titles: no. 1, “Calm awareness of the future cataclysm”; no. 2, “Rumblings of unrest and anticipation”; no. 3, “The forces of war unleashed”; no. 4, “Homage to the dead”; and no. 5, “The eternal question— Why? And for what?” All descriptive titles were withdrawn immediately after the Beethoven Quartet gave the premiere on December 16, 1946, at the Moscow Conservatory’s Malyi Hall. Soviet authorities naturally considered this a “war quartet,” coming as it did one year after the end of World War II, with a program that out- lined the phases of conflict and its dismal after- math. However, Shostakovich had conceived a hidden meaning, one dangerously at odds with the government. This message—as somewhat controversially interpreted by certain scholars— emerges through musical codes: Stalin is repre- sented by the number two, and the people by three. Cataclysm, forces of war, and the dead summoned memories of the Terror of 1936–38, when one-tenth of the Soviet population fell Red Square Military Parade (1945) victim to Stalin’s purges. However, in the Quar- tet No. 3, the people gain the upper hand. The repeated three-note figure (“people”) dominates paired (“Stalin”) pitches. Tragically, the “forces of war” were unleashed a second time on Shostakovich, with even greater fury, at his pub- lic humiliation before the anti-Formalist con- gress of the Soviet Composers’ Union of 1948. Like many of Shostakovich’s defiant creations, this quartet symbolized the unbroken spirit of the man and his countrymen. The Allegretto in- troduces a naive, carefree theme from the first violin, filled with short three-note motives. A gentle second theme is subdivided into several phrases, each with a clipped ending. In the de- velopment, a fugue is built from the first-theme’s material. The movement reaches a frantic conclusion. An aggressive theme, over a three-note viola ostinato, opens the Moderato con moto , but this Joseph Stalin (ca. 1945) Signed photograph of Dmitri Shostakovich (1946) is soon suppressed. Three-versus-two oppo- sition is brought into bold relief in the scher- zo-like Allegro non troppo . Time signatures alternate between 3/4 and 2/4, although two beats prevail in the end. Shostakovich com- posed the Adagio , a threnody for the dead, while visiting his mother in war-torn Lenin- grad. The music proceeds uninterrupted into the questioning rondo finale, which concludes quietly with slow triplet patterns. LUDWIGVANBEETHOVEN (1770–1827) String Quartet No. 16 in F major, op. 135 Beethoven’s nephew Karl, who was a ward of the composer, attempted to end his life on July 31, 1826. Constant reproaches from his uncle and the pressure of the approaching examinations at the Polytechnic Institute drove Karl to this des- perate act. Suicide was a criminal act, and the police watched Karl carefully while he recuper- ated in the hospital. Death by suicide would have meant a burial in an isolated cemetery, called Rabenstein, since those taking their own lives could not be interred in hallowed ground. Fortunately, Karl survived, and it was decided that a military career might restore discipline in his life. Beethoven was devastated both by his part in Karl’s suicide attempt and the humilia- tion he suffered as a result. Before his enlist- ment, Karl convalesced for two months in Gneixendorf, a small village northwest of Vien- na where Beethoven’s brother Johann owned a 400-acre estate. During this period of recovery, Karl gradually asserted independence from his domineering uncle. Meanwhile, Beethoven’s own health was failing—signs of the post-hepa- titis cirrhosis of the liver that would end his life on March 26, 1827, already were apparent. During this sojourn in Gneixendorf, Beetho- ven worked on his last completed compo- sition, the String Quartet in F major, op. 135. Karl van Beethoven (November 5, 1831) RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 3 – AUGUST 16 , 2026 72