Soviet reunion

It started with two meals, six months apart. In fall 2008, the local classical stars of Pacifica Quartet sat down for lunch at Greektown staple Pegasus. The foursome, which had recently concluded its performance of Beethoven’s quartets, asked Henry Fogel, dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, for ideas on what to do next. Fogel suggested the Shostakovich string cycle. “We had wanted to delve deeper into his work for a long time,” violist Masumi Per Rostad recalls. “We thought, Why not?”

The following spring, the quartet was eating Thai fare on Michigan Avenue with Shauna Quill, executive director of the University of Chicago Presents concert series. When the ensemble, quartet in residence at U. of C., told Quill of its plans to play the Shostakovich quartets in their entirety—for the first time in Chicago history—a spark was lit.

“During the car ride from downtown back to Hyde Park, I started crafting an idea of something bigger,” Quill says. “I wanted to broaden what Pacifica was doing and find a way to bring it to the university.”

“Bigger” is an understatement. The intrepid 35-year-old brought together a think tank of scholars from art history and the Slavic languages to help plan the fest, and she started connecting with arts orgs across the city. “I had a very busy social calendar last year!” she says with a laugh. “I basically had lunch with everybody.”

The result of her efforts, the Soviet Arts Experience is one of the city’s largest interdisciplinary efforts since Silk Road Chicago in 2006–07. Under the U. of C. Presents banner, the fest joins together 26 arts institutions for a 16-month showcase of artists, most of whom worked under, and in response to, the politburo of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Arts Experience includes lectures in Hyde Park; Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Goodman, which begins previews Saturday 16; and Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Harris in February. As it happened, the Art Institute had been planning to exhibit newly restored Soviet WWII propaganda posters in summer 2011, while Riccardo Muti declared his intention to include Shostakovich in the CSO season (Jaap van Zweden will conduct Symphony No. 8 on October 28). When these groups learned about Quill’s project, they jumped on board as partners.

“Shauna just took this project to a whole new level,” Per Rostad says. “She’s a real fireball.”

Although much of the art produced during this repressive period was fired by political dissidence, Quill explains she wants to shine a light on art, not politics. “Some of the lectures are going to touch on the politics of the time,” she says, “but we want to be clear that we’re not in any way celebrating the politburo. There’s actually a rabbi who’s kind of upset with us because he thinks that’s what we’re doing, but we’re not!”

Per Rostad believes “Shostakovich himself tried on some level to avoid problematic content, although it’s inevitable that it’s there. He had such a difficult life, and it was a terrible time to be a prominent composer. I think he really suffered for it, and the music reflects that.”

After presenting five installments of the Shostakovich cycle in Chicago, starting with two concerts in Ganz Hall Sunday 17 and ending in February, Pacifica will take the series to the Met in NYC and Wigmore Hall in London. “The Shostakovich quartets are probably one of the great collections of string quartets of the 20th century,” Per Rostad says. “Every piece I’m working on has become my new favorite.”

Pacifica Quartet plays the first three Shostakovich string quartets Sunday 17 at 2 and 7pm.

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