Added: 5 years ago
From: alicelizard
Views: 108,478
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (250)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • you played slowly 2 part . ı dont understand . the part is wanna articulation and speed . but you dont . viola and 1 keman played just like student . if you play shostakovich you must study hard ... this song name is shostakovich but ı dont hear shostakovich ı am sorry ..

  • Comment removed

  • For all of the people trying to defend this quartet and say the piece is dissonant and what not... well you are right and wrong... You are right, because the piece IS dissonant; however, what they played is not dissonance. That was merely poor intonation.

    Not only were SEVERAL notes out of tune, but they also improvised on that style in a way that completely detracted from the piece. A lot of slides were not only gross, but unnecessary. And at 6:00... What are you thinking?!?!?!

  • I love the second movement of this piece :D i first hear this song at my school when our symphony played it

  • everything was awesome with how you played the music. what was with the violist, she wasnt even swaying with the beatand he had a horrible stance. ours will be just as good or even better.

  • Bernard Hermann must have loved this piece, too... hear PSYCHO?

  • AMAZING!!!! BRAVIIII!!!!

  • The melody that starts at 6:00 is that from another piece? It sounds extremely familiar.

  • @kimisizer alot this piece was written by schostokovic in tribute to himself so alot of the material is taken from his previous works

  • @kimisizer I think it might be from his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk"

  • @kimisizer well she butchered it up so that might be why it sounds familiar because it shouldn't unless you are thinking of DSCH.

    First, that is NOT the intended bow stroke and this is not the piece to bring "personal style" to.

    Second, what the hell is she doing with the turn or trill-like thing at 6:04. Makes it sound Arabian and screws with the style.

    I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say the pitch/intonation is the mics fault but regardless...this needs some MAJOR work.

  • This is made of awesome. Very nice!

  • why are the cello and the viola a different way round?

  • @wiffleymammoth This is a very common SQ seating...by far the most used in North America. Juilliard, Budapest, Guarneri all used it. Many European Quartets have the cello on the outside. Most unusual was the Pro Arte/Kolish (with Rudolf Kolish the leader of both) They sat l to r. 2nd violin, viola, cello, 1st violin...Rudolf Kolisch bowed with the left hand because of a childhood finger injury. I saw this setup many time as I was a Kolisch student. I was also at this performance above.

  • Me disculpo, se me olvido referirme a la exquisita interpretacion de estas cuatro bellas señoritas.

  • El maestro Shostakovitch, es uno de mis grandes favoritos musicos rusos, es admirable lo descritivo de su musica que aqui logra vincular lo cruel de la politica

    con el alma humana...Admirable Shostakovich

  • great job, sounds amazing. Greetz from Holland

  • amazing we are playing this as an orchestra and not quartet in school and cello part 2nd movement is the hardest for me =)

  • I was looking for a good youtube video of this piece and this was the first to come up- and who is it but my second cousins once removed! Sounds great!

    -Sonia Oram

  • I was looking for a good youtube video of this piece and this was the first to come up- and who is it but my second cousins once removed! Sounds great!

    -Sonia Oram

  • Actually he wrote this based on his feelings of The Holocaust and its Survivors... This had nothing to do with his vies of Stalin or The USSR.

  • awesome

  • amazing.

  • the main theme is actually him spelling his name in notation, DSCH = Dmitri Shostakovich. in german notation dsch is D, E flat, C, B

  • Comment removed

  • Amazing! absolutly beatiful

  • he wrote this as a "fuck you" to the USSR communist rule. ive studied shostakovich a lot. favorite composer.

  • to all fascism, not just soviet russia

  • @indikinsable well according to my AS course, which exam I have on Friday, he wrote it after a visit to Dresden where he saw the effect of WWII bombings. It's dedicated to 'the memory of the victims of fascism and war'. It was also probably a tribute to himself. We have the quote, "When I [Shost.] die, it's hardly likely someone will write a quartet to my memory. So I decided to write it myself."

  • @indikinsable

    that is only your stupid western insinuations. Shostakovich was absolutely loyal to that times rule.

  • i was under the impression this piece was more about the communist rule of the USSR. because everyone lived in fear of hearing knocks on their door at night which signaled they would be killed by the government. that's just what i was told it was about. which i do think the piece does have an ominous and terrifying sound.

  • @redneckprincess14 Well, not quite. Shostakovich certainly lived his life with that fear, but this particular piece is about something else.

    He wrote this after the bombing of Dresden, one of his beloved cities, and the thought of something so beautiful being completely destroyed sent him into possibly his deepest depression; he intended to finish the quartet and kill himself afterward. He did not succeed, but this piece is one of his most touching ones. My personal favorite.

  • @hithererandom hey sorry I totally just copied your comment without seeing yours down here, sorry bout that :P

  • il tema dsch è il tema della grande fuga di beethoven

  • muy buen trabajo felicidades chicas!

  • it is very mushy and out of tune, but for a live performance of such an intense work: not bad. maybe slow practice would help?

  • 4:50 really picks up the story based theme of this music composition.

  • It's quite funny how this was meant to be his last piece/suicidal note and then he lived for another 15 years

  • intonation on the second movement is meh.

    and the style, i don't even want to mention it

  • First Time I hear the Shostakovich's string quarter...and I love it...thanks

  • Great!! Beautiful piece, Beautiful playing, beautiful players jejeje

  • Very well played, my only complaints would be to play the entire quartet, get it professionally recorded (shouldn't be too hard for a group this talented), and work on the interpretation. I didn't quite get the whole "totalitarian and fascist victims" feeling from this, and it seemed to be played to be played, rather than trying to convey the deepest essence of the music. It is a difficult piece, and if that was all you were trying to do, then bravo. I congratulate you on the fine performance.

  • Comment removed

  • didnt like their interpretation on the 2nw mvt. too much. It was too slow. It has a much greater impact when played faster than they did. But not bad .... :x

  • dynamics....?

    the second movement is full of them yet i heard none.... but other than that very well done

  • Oh my god...

    I hear rock, metal, reggae but....

    Shostakovich touched my heart...i feel like i´m at a war...

    Rate 5 congratz

  • malpractice!!! YEAAAH

    FAITH NO MORE

  • Nothing like seeing this piece played well by a group of beautiful women. I'd like to sit in the middle of all of them like at a sacred harp singers church.

  • wicked much?

    :)great jobs guys!

    i love this song.

    :)the second movement anyways.

    my quartets playing this same peice also.

  • Excellent !

  • 4:56 on is brilliant. Classic Shostakovich.

  • everything's ok,except the last time theme appears(probably on the last page of II part)....Viola and cello are not playing quite equal and there's a bigger amount of mistakes,....that's specially for viola,I don't really like the color of the tone she gets there....I'll upload a video of our trio playing that piece(1st and 2nd part)....I hope for critics,cause it's quite unordinary,trio consists of Accordion,Viola and Violin.check it on my tube in a couple of days!Thanks!

  • i wish i could play this on bass. its my favorite string piece ever.

  • i can probably write this peice for bass. i just need the score. and what other instuments you want in the quartet. bass would get melody. lol sorry im such a music nerd. and its my favorite too ^_^

  • i own the score. its really high pitched on cello, alot of the piece goes into alto clef (i think thats the clef name..)

  • shouldnt be a problem. i may have to bump it down an octive or too, but i can do it. and not just cello part either. i play the violin, and i can read violia(thats alto clef) and cello/bass (bass clef). no biggie.

  • Hi there grammarjew.

    It's "two" not "too"

  • way to forget the comma after there! what a tool!

  • Stop being a pretentious twat and stop using jew as an insult! Prick.

  • I was being a grammar nazi (someone who pointlessly corrects other peoples grammar/spelling) so that's where the jew bit came in.

  • I wish i was cool enough to play this piece. lol

  • el 8 es uno de los más grandes cuartetos del SXX. y narra, en su trama sonora, el terror stalinista tanto como la invasión Nazi. En toda la obra de Shostakovich hay una resistencia a la burocracia enquistada en el poder sovietico. ya lo habia anticipado en la Nariz. Prohibida por 40 años. como así también en toda su obra hay un mensaje oculto durante el infierno stalinista. Era el Galileo Soviético.

  • Amazing,I love this piece,truly lovely.

  • Phenomenal! Earth-shattering.

  • Excuse me?!? I think I misread that?!

    No, really, I know that it takes some time to get used to the russian soviet-sound of Shostakovich, but in my opinion this is one of those composers who did not write one bad piece AT ALL.

    A nice thing: the first four notes happen to be D - E flat - C - B. In german, you write D - Es - C - H. This is Shostakovich's signature; in German spelling you write D.Sch ... ostakovitsch. So every time he writes this he's putting his personal signature in his music.

  • thats really interesting piece of infomation.

    bach did the same in the last piece he wrote i belive but using B-A-C-H (B being Bb and H being Bnat.

  • Nice ensemble! I'm so jealous. When I was part of a quartet, they didn't want to play music like this. But if I had my way, I'd play Shostakovich as much as I want :D

  • my friend luke showed me this one night cause he knows how much of a metal head I am. I almost crapped my pants at the second movement. the beautiful and mellowness of the beginning makes it all the better. I've always liked classical music but this is by far the best I've heard period.

  • Check out more from Shostakovich (cello concerto #1) the string quartets of Bartok and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. As aggresive as any metal.

  • Hmmmm? sounds like the music that plays in my head. : ) I loved it and I love the violin; such a magical instrument.

  • AWESOME VIDEO, definetely a AAA+

    BUT, to the girl in the viola.

    sit at the edge of the chair, it gives you more agility and it improves a lot your performance during the concerts ;)

  • and while her playing was very good, I'm not even going to address those chunky, inappropriate shoes.

  • Well, she was in 8th grade at the time.

  • 4:50 wow, what a major shift. so raw!

  • "This quartet is based on World War II and the Holocaust victims, and the second movement is about the war itself. So the horrendous chords and mismatched rhythms symbolize the chaos of war, not the ineptitude of the players. :)"

    That was the explanation imposed by Russian authorities that Shostakovich went along with to not be accused of Formalism. In truth there is reason to believe that the Quartet is deeply personal to Shostakovich, or perhaps about his life in the Soviet Union.

  • actually it was written part of a suicide note...offcourse he didnt suicide but he was seriously contemplating it..

  • Sounds nice! The video quality isn't very good, but the sound quality is pretty good. I like the clarity of the cello in the beginning. The vibrato sounds nice too! The only thing I would critique about is that there were a few moments where the intonation wasn't perfect, but those problems are easy to come by, especially in string. If you aren't professionals, I think you are ready to go professional.

  • Where are the rest of the movements? I was looking foward to seeing how this talented quartet perform the third movement my favorite one.

  • I positively loved playing the viola part in this quartet. The fingerings are just too awesome!

  • Very nice keep up the good work.

    I love Shostakovich please play more.

  • I'm listening to the change at 6:00 in again and again...

    So good...

  • hey be fair... the second movement is a difficault piece to play technically... the first piece is relatively complex expression wise aswell... don't go around slagging off peoples performances...

  • i agree with greyimage, that song is pretty hard to play

    especially the cello part

    and that second movement is murderously hard

  • Why do you say it's a song? I don't see people singing.... Its a piece..

  • It's called dissonance. Shostakovich wrote that whole second movement to sound intentionally out of tune. This quartet is based on World War II and the Holocaust victims, and the second movement is about the war itself. So the horrendous chords and mismatched rhythms symbolize the chaos of war, not the ineptitude of the players. :)

  • And because of the dissonance, it is even more important to play in tune. Although I agree that the intonation could be improved and that some areas could be cleaned up, given the players' (assumed) young age, I think they did a very good job.

  • @nerdin8or also to add to that, he also wrote it because he looked back at all the stuff he wrote and was like well fuck im pretty much dead might as well make more fun of the soviet union and their ways.... brave guy ^_^

  • @nerdin8or Thank you for your explanation:)

  • is it really hard to play in tune on violin?

    (not sarcastic)

  • shostakovich?

    yes.

  • well i play bass so im not sure but since the different fingerings are so close together im thinking its gotta be pretty hard to get the write note

    slip even a few millimeters and the note changes

  • I like it. However, are these professionals? Sometimes there are little mistakes and awkward moments.

  • Why is the viola leaning back on her chair?! She would look and play so much better if she sat at the edge so her bow doesn't hit the chair edge (trust me i know :P)

  • Hey, my conductor says that too:)

  • This quartet is supposed to be a concatenation of 5 movements...very strange to have it stopped at the second....

  • I have seen it performed like this many times. The first two movements work well on their own (albeit not as well as the whole piece), especially for audiences with a short attention span, or if there is a time restriction.

  • in around 4:50. Shastakovich used such raw emotion combined with these very talented young musicians makes it a phenomenal PIECE. Happy? :)

  • Pretty good yes! 1st mvmt a little too expressive not quite flat enough setting the context properly. A little too romantic and indulgent perhaps? But given the age of performer that should mature with understanding. They're good otherwise.

  • this has become one of my new favorite songs!

  • T_T#### I meant piece I hate those people who get so worked up, I know a song has words and a piece doesn't I've been playing the violin for long enough why are you getting so worked up about it?

  • I love those people. This piece is not a joke; it commands proper respect. ;-)

  • Fine this PIECE brings to me the emotion of anger using the shrill tone of the higher strings combined with the sudden crescendo

  • Wow. I'm very impressed as well. Very nicely in tune, very nice. This is really good.

  • i am very impressed... how old are these people? considering that they are not pro im very impressed

  • im in the ensemble group in my high school, and we are playing this... and the second movement is gonna make me crap myself =P

    luckily im in second violin, so its not so rough

  • why mark me neg?(just curious dont mean to offend anyone or anything)

  • Kudos to the performers. Yes, the second mvt. was a little slow, but I've heard professional recordings closer to this tempo that brought goosebumps. These girls are fantastic, I hate to say, for their age. Yes, maybe a few technical problems and intonation issues, but Shostakovich himself did not consider these to be the maker or breaker of great performances. It is about the music. This quartet has been a favorite of mine since I was 12, and I always love hearing new interpretations.

  • decent. id like to see all the mvts though. some intonation problems but over all pretty good

  • I thought there was somewhere on youtube where there weren't many childish arguments. I thought that place was this great video. It's so funny how the disagreements in comments almost never have anything to do with the video itself.

  • My god, how many times does Shosty have to reference to himself?

    Still, this quartet is perhaps one of the best in existence.

  • I have to ask...why is the cello on an inside stand?

  • The sexiest musicians I've ever seen, especially the second one from the left. I love cultured women.

  • Yet you seem to be among the least cultured of people on youtube.

  • You can ask one of my ex-girlfriends (also a violinist) how cultured I am. In the meantime I suggest you see a psychiatrist. It is truly a Brave New World when a person is accused to vulgarity on account of finding the opposite sex attractive.

  • Was Beethoven uncultured too? He also loved women. For that matter, so did Shostakovich (though not in the same numbers).

  • I thought Beethoven was in love only wth his sister-in-law. That's why all the angsty music :/

    Maybe you're referring to Mozart? He was the ladies' man XD

    Although I'm not entirely sure ^__^

  • I think you may be right hannahkii. After looking at wikipedia it seems that B. had only three loves in his life that are well known. Still, that doesn't affect my point in this thread, which is that aesthetics and priggishness are not related in any way.

  • Ah. Well, I was just saying. :D

    *goes off to search for Dvorak serenade*

  • 4 energetic Woman playing with passion,precision, maybe with understanding, suddenly the door opens, they are found out and have to stop in mid-flight!!!

  • I think they simply set out to only play the first 2 movement of the quartet (in the string class studio).

  • the end is very abrupt unresolved ,probably deliberately composed like that, not meditative.

  • if it is true that this is a suicide note ( i have no idead if it is. no one knows exactly) then an abrupt ending would make sense

  • I wrote this with butch humor, a hasty climax

  • My classmates and I are performing this for a quarter final. I have an awesome group but are celloist is really lazy. And I think she has a solo in the 4th movt. Anyway...any advice? I'm a 2nd Violin btw. ^_^

  • dont suck

  • lol i'll try to keep that in mind! XD

  • page turning skill,

    no lie.

  • holy crap, the ending gave me goosebumps.

  • outstanding! i can say only good things about these musicians.

  • ha, id like to see you do this

  • I rate your mama 3 out of 10

    :D

  • take yor "3 out of 10" and stick it up a certain orifice of your choosing.

  • Very well done.

  • ABSOLUTLY AMAZING!!!!!!!! I LOVE IT!

  • ahhh! That was amazing!!!

  • I have trouble figuring out this comment. Is the individual making it arrogant, or stupid?

  • He was probably high. Excellent interpretation, sounds very professional.

  • I did not relize how wonderful this recording was. I got so consumed by the incredibly fast recording that another group posted on youtube and didn't understand the meaning of this quartet that I disliked your recording. Now that my eyes have opened I see that you play this more wonderfully then any other group. Sure you have a few wrong notes and some of the passages are a little messy but this is absolutly perfect otherwise.

  • I LOVE how you lady's mesh together as a quartet! The sound and tone is simply amazing! You picked a piece that was suitable for you and it fits very well with what you are trying to convey with the music. Excellent Job and hope to see more vids of you 4!

  • I love this piece! Shostakovich was such a clever composer.

  • that was impressive.

  • Sam D from Kinhaven

  • Nah, the Smiths.

  • who are you? cuz i'm caeli lol

  • Oh man, I went to camp with two of the girls in this video. Just noticed the names.

  • did you go to camp with the tabbys?

  • ohh by the way the comment i posted was a reply to loreley9 about "rachlin and friends" if you didnt know....you guys sound great im playing this quartet too

  • wonderful performance -- well done

  • girl on second violin looks mint as!!!

  • Having seen this piece of music performed live (but as a string orchestra transcription) and being a violinist myself, I'd say that this was very good considering how young these girls look!! I don't think there were any intonation problems either! One thing I would like to say is that there could've been a little bit more dynamic contrast. One the whole, very good.

  • second movement was slower then normal but still great

    why play super fast if its going 2 sound like crap

    great job guys :)

  • I know It might be hard for you guys but the second movment needs to be quite faster. You guys need to be also more musical by adding more contrast

  • I just love this piece but I think the performance could be much better...You can find the best performance of this quartet at youtube, at "julian rachlin and friends" (with Rachlin himself, M. Vengerov, M. Maisky and M. Rysanov). the viola player there (Rysanov) is just amazing...well, all of them are!

  • what are you talking about...they might be really good but thats probably one of the worst performances ive ever seen...the second movement completely falls apart (all thanks to the page turner) but i must thank you because ive been watching it over and over again because its just hilarious watching the page turner and then maisky get pissed

  • You shut up. it was great.

  • "sodoesplastic (1 day ago) Marked as spam

    I'd do the second violinist. "

    really mature. you tube sure needs more people like you. NOT

  • Also, since the 2nd violinist was in 8th grade at the time of the recording, sodoesplastic could do a some jail time...

  • Viola player is terrible , but like group is ok, maybe more tone !!! But it*s ok! who known , from where is this quartet?

  • Wow amazing! My school performed this piece, I enjoy it a lot.

  • first movement just ok, but second movement is really great!! See the first and the second violin, they match so well...

  • it's a solid performance...i sit somewhere in the middle between the two groups of critics here...yes, wonderful performance....but could use some shining up here and there (especially "hearing" one another) but a solid performance nontheless...

  • Great performance. My favorite quartet. They used it on a UK series about drugs called Traffic. The music of Shostakovich is full of anger and despair. Really need a fix of that now & again. I hope you go pro, ladies.

  • I'm in band, so I don't have too much knowledge on strings, but this is amazing! The strings at my school are kind of mediocre (most of them... our band is amazing though) but you guys are amazing.

  • A year later and I still love this clip. :)

  • I love all these comments from people who probably have no idea what they are talking about and don't know how much work it is to put together a shosty 4tet. Until you people learn a few things about quartet prep. shut up

  • Up to this point I said nothing.

    I know nothing.

    But this I like.......

  • P.S. You guys went REALLY overboard with the vibrado. Tone it down a little and try to match your vibrado with your group. the Cello break through twice as hard and create a even more depressing mood.

  • Wow...I did NOT enjoy your performances. You guys were all playing wonderfully...ALONE! Your emotions didnt match neither did your style of playing. Try to match it! Even if the piece neglects you from playing together with your group its your job to work hard put your group together. Just a little more!

  • Yall look really young.

    how old are you????

  • At the time of this video we were 14, 15, 15, and 16. Now we're 15, 16, 16, and 17!

  • Although the 2nd mvt was just a tiny little bit slower than what I usually listen to, you made it up with violent, psychedelic playing. Bravo.