The transcription of the Eighth String Quartet was the first of Barshai's arrangements. The piece was written over just three days in July 1960 while Shostakovich was working on a film score in Dresden; the circumstances of its composition, coupled with the composer's personal upheavals, doubtless influencing its predominantly somber tone and highly autobiographical nature-witness quotations from several of his earlier works. It was premièred in Leningrad that October by the Beethoven Quartet and Barshai's transcription followed soon afterwards.

The opening movement begins with the composer's 'DSCH' motto given in brooding terms, after which the viola unfolds a ruminative melodic line before violins continue with a soulful cantilena. The music briefly takes on a more consoling manner, but the return of the motto brings with it that of the initial mood. Suddenly the second movement erupts with a pulsating theme hurled between upper and lower strings, its fervent progress abetted by the ceaseless underlying motion, and which culminates in a sudden crescendo before being cut off at its height. From here the third movement sets off as a quizzical intermezzo with the motto now transformed into a tripping idea deftly offset by trills in the middle register. The intervening episodes provide more substantial contrast, before the initial idea is resumed against subtly held dissonant chords; subsidiary ideas flitting past as the music winds down to an uncertain pause. The fourth movement now commences with glowering chords which expand into a searing unison threnody, then tension subsides heading into a heartfelt dialogue across the strings, followed by a touching melody for viola prior to the return of the initial chords. The motto gently reasserts itself at the outset of a finale that is otherwise free of quotations or allusions, unfolding in restrained terms towards a conclusion poised between despair and resignation.

Writer: Richard Whitehouse