In a suitably elegiac farewell to London, last night the Emerson String Quartet – retiring next year – took Shostakovich’s final journey into silence, playing his deeply introspective last three quartets to close their landmark five-part Southbank cycle. For most of the past four decades they have brought a distinctly Western emotion to this intensely Russian music. That has sometimes drawn some criticism: how can Americans truly understand the stark Russian sensibility that runs through every note of these quartets? But that misses the point: music does not exist in a nationalistic time capsule. It must live, breathe and be reborn. Besides, who could miss the message of these pieces when they are played so brilliantly?
Shostakovich’s quartets are seen as his personal diaries, vividly reflecting his persecution at the hands of the Soviet state. The last three, however, are dominated by his failing health; he knows that death is approaching. The Emersons took the quiet reflective opening of the single-movement String Quartet no. 13 in B flat minor from 1970 with measured grace, each long phrase interlocking with solemn inevitability, until interrupted by a cry of pain from the viola. This harsh interjection is taken up by the other players until a moment of relief arrives, signalled by a perky violin theme from Philip Setzer, with British cellist Paul Watkins adding a seductive pizzicato jazz bass line. Despair was never far away, with Shostakovich directing that the players should strike their instruments with their bows in frustration as death stalks nearer. He dedicated this work to the Beethoven Quartet’s viola player, Vadim Borisovsky. Lawrence Dutton dug deep in the closing pages, searing us with the harsh, heartfelt desolation of the viola’s final, bitter solo: big-boned, muscular playing of the highest order.