Shostakovich rarely changed or revised his works, but the Ninth Quartet is one of the rare exceptions. Elizabeth Wilson writes in her biography Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, "Shostakovich finished the first version of the Ninth Quartet in the autumn of 1961. In a fit of depression, or, to quote his own words, 'in an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt it in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926.'"
| Date of composition | 1964 |
| Premiered | 1964, November 20th in Moscow, Russia |
| Dedicated to | Dedicated to composer's third wife, Irina Antonovna Shostakovich |
| Type | String Quartet |
| Tonality | E-flat Major |
| Catalogue | Op. 117 |
| Approx. duration | 24 minutes |
| Instruments | String Quartet |
| Autotranslations beta |
Dmitri Chostakovitch: Quatuor à cordes n°9 en mi bémol majeur, Op. 117 Dmitrij Šostakovič: Quartetto d'archi n. 9 in mi bemolle maggiore, Op. 117 Dmitri Dmitrijewitsch Schostakowitsch: Streichquartett Nr. 9 Es-dur, Op. 117 |