With this latest volume of their ongoing cycle, recorded in 2023, Quartetto Noûs reaches the halfway point of Shostakovich's 15 quartets. The previous parts have been recognized and praised for their full-blooded intensity and uncompromising detail in these compelling scores. The present album returns almost to the beginning of Shostakovich's quartet cycle, with a piece that he claimed (perhaps as a joke) he originally wrote as his second quartet, before adding a piano part to make it a piano quintet with which he could tour and earn much-needed income.

In any case, the Piano Quintet took shape in 1940 and soon became one of his most popular chamber music pieces: less radical in form and harmony than most of his quartet compositions, more extroverted in mood and more accessible. The actual second quartet was composed in 1944, shortly after the Leningrad Symphony, which had brought the composer international fame. However, the two works illustrate the contrast in style between Shostakovich's "public" and "private" works.

The Waltz of the second quartet is one of the most extraordinary examples of his ability to transform instrumental compositions into a kind of nightmare factory. The quartet begins in a resolute A major and ends in a much more ambiguous minor.

The fourth quartet from 1949 also begins in an almost folk-like D major, using elements of Yiddish melodies, and its skies gradually cloud over as the four movements progress, until the sadness of the second movement and the vitality of the third merge to create the violent, plaintive and screaming sounds of a dance of death in the complex finale. By the sixth quartet, written in 1955, Shostakovich had become a practiced exponent of double-edged rhetoric, music that puts on a happy face while twisting its hands in anguish or even agony.

The cheerful light of G major floods the opening Allegretto, but there are signs of sadness throughout the composition, perhaps caused by the recent death of his wife Nina.

The Quartetto Noûs (from the Greek: Intellect, spirit, but also inspiration, creative capacity) has established itself as one of the most interesting Italian musical ensembles of its generation, offering captivating interpretations in which the Italian tradition of string playing merges with other important European schools such as the Musikakademie in Basel (where they studied with Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet) and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena (Gunter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet).

The Quartetto Noûs, which has won the Farulli Prize at the Abbiati Competition, the most prestigious award in Italian music criticism, among others, demonstrates its individual approach to music that encompasses the entire quartet repertoire, and in demanding contexts such as playing from memory and completely in the dark.

The new edition of Shostakovich's complete string quartets, performed by Quartetto Noûs, brings together Quartets 2, 4 and 6 as well as the impressive and moving Piano Quintet.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is without doubt one of the most famous and influential composers of 20th century Russia. He lived in a time of Soviet repression and although outwardly a loyal communist, he resented the restrictions the regime placed on his creativity. This led to a fascinating duality between conformism and the expression of his innermost feelings, fears and anger.

Shostakovich's 15 string quartets form an impressive body of work that traces the development of his style over the course of his life. They are the testimony of a tortured soul struggling to remain true to itself, expressed in anguish and desolation, but also in serenity and bliss. The Quartetto Noûs, founded in 2011, has quickly established itself as one of the most interesting chamber music ensembles of its generation. Its haunting performances are the result of a professional training combining the Italian tradition and the most influential European schools. The quartet studied with the Quartetto di Cremona at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona, at the Musikakademie Basel with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), at the Escuela Superior de Música "Reina Sofía" in Madrid and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) as well as at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet).

The first edition of the Shostakovich quartets by Quartetto Noûs for Brilliant Classics was enthusiastically received by the press. Musicweb writes: "This is one of the best recordings as it impressed me with both the range and intensity of Shostakovich's genius. RECORDING OF THE MONTH."