Sentimental Work: Julian Rachlin on Shostakovich’s String Quartet no.8

I feel like I have a multilayered connection with the music of Shostakovich. I was born in Lithuania when it was part of the Soviet Union, and moved to Vienna with my parents when I was three. I grew up with stories of the Stalin era ringing in my ears, and I can remember how careful we had to be, even on the other side of the Iron Curtain. My nursery school was on the same street as the Russian Embassy and my father instructed me never to speak Russian whenever I was on that street! So I was aware of the suppression that came with growing up under a dictatorship, and no Russian composer was more eloquent in captivating the feelings of angst and hopelessness than Shostakovich…