The composition of Elgar’s rarely performed string quartet bore witness to the First World War with the second movement having been completed after the Armistice, and the full work premiering in 1919. Shostakovich wrote his String Quartet No. 8 over 3 days in 1960 during a visit to the war-devastated Dresden, officially dedicating the work to the ‘victims of fascism and the war.’

Despite the 40 year gap between these works, both quartets grapple intensely with themes of despair, nostalgia, and anxiety for a world uncertain— the Zenith Quartet from the Royal Academy of Music pair these two emotionally driven works in a cathartic programme highlighting the introspectively expressive nature of these two composers who navigated their tumultuous inner landscapes under larger global circumstances of conflict and oppression.