Last Saturday I heard Joanna Mendoza (violist for the Arianna Quartet) and Alla Voskoboynikova perform Shostakovich’s Sonata for Viola and Piano in C Major, [the link is to another world-renowned violist’s performance, available on YouTube) described in the liner notes as the celebrated composer’s last work written while dying from lung cancer.

Apart from the gorgeous performance, somehow a viola seems the perfect instrument for a personal elegy, as it does not possess the natural perkiness of the violin or the foundational authority of the cello. The viola is naturally melancholic (to me anyway) although great violists (like great string players generally) make the instrument bend to their emotional will. What fascinates me about the piece is that the composer embedded “quotes” from all fifteen of his symphonies, but even more, the third movement is one long riff on Beethoven’s moonlight piano sonata, which the composer credits for his decision to become a composer in the first place.

Most people are familiar with fragments from the Moonlight even if they don’t associate with Beethoven or are not classical music buffs. It is interesting to hear how a composer takes his own themes and melodies and those from another great from past eras and integrates them into something new. Subconsciously, our influences are always at work, I suppose, but in the case of this Sonata it is overt. Plus, he wasn’t phased by using one of the most celebrated piano pieces of all time to carry him towards his exit. For the listener, we are allowed a rare “cover” (of sorts), something that is routine in popular music, but (at least to my knowledge) rare in classical music.

The free performance took place in a church and it reminded me of being in Paris many years ago and discovering that on any given day (especially Sundays), you can hear wonderful chamber music in any number of the city’s magnificent churches. For free! Similarly, the St. Louis area’s top classical musicians often play free of charge (or for next to nothing) at  churches, schools, and community venues. While the country’s great orchestras are suffering financially, chamber music seems to be blossoming. Or maybe I’m just paying more attention.

The Shostakovich Op 147 is not what you’d call uplifting. It has its ethereal passages, undoubtedly the composer coming to terms with passing to the great unknown. If the last movement doesn’t move you to wet eyeballs, then you are probably just acting tough. But the Sonata also feels like a summary of a life in music, the composer’s suffering (like many artists, he suffered for his art in his native Russia during the Stalinist period) transcended by the joy of what he was leaving behind.