Hey, Dmitri! Happy birthday!

Oh, okay. Act like you don’t know me then. I understand. In Stalinest Russia, one can never be too careful.

We’ll divine what we can from your String Quartet No. 4 on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.”

While Shostakovich had an on-again, off-again history with the Soviet authorities that made him justifiably cautious, his fourth quartet grew out of a newfound confidence, the result of Stalin having personally selected him as a cultural ambassador to the West.

But these things had to be navigated very carefully. A sign of favoritism from Papa Joe often had the effect of setting a recipient up for a very big fall.

Still, Shostakovich was determined to leverage his new-found currency. He took the opportunity to persuade Stalin that if he were going to be sent out into the decadent West, then perhaps it would be a good idea to lift the ban on performances of his music at home. Otherwise, the situation might appear a little peculiar to outsiders. Stalin recognized the logic in this, and Shostakovich was rehabilitated.

He was not by any measure a stupid man. Yet the artistic impulse was not to be denied. Shostakovich wasted no time in embarking on a new string quartet, which he loaded up with inscrutable subtexts, Jewish folk songs, and all sorts of things that had a history of angering the “wise leader and teacher.” Fortunately for the composer, his friends convinced him not to allow the work to be performed publicly, and he put it in a drawer for another day.

That other day is now. We’ll hear it played at the 1983 Marlboro Music Festival by violinists Sylvie Gazeau and Yuzuko Horigome, violist Philipp Naegele, and cellist Robie Brown Dan.

Anton Arensky was a pupil of that icon of Russian nationalism, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. However, in his music, he tended to gravitate more toward the cosmopolitan approach of Rimsky’s rival, Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky. Arensky’s Piano Trio in D minor is full of good tunes, by turns melancholy, turbulent, reflective, and good humored, but unfailingly charming. It’s the kind of piece that will have you humming for the rest of the day.

We’ll hear it performed by pianist Frederick Moyer, violinist Isodore Cohen, and cellist John Sharp, at Marlboro in 1982.

It’s a cryptic birthday cake for Shostakovich, with a strong cup of open-hearted Arensky. The composer is gifted in more ways than one, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page