b'beautifully serene cello solo midway through the fourth movement, which offers a moment of redemptive hope. The final Largo rounds off the piece by harkening back to the first movement and providing a cool and joyless resolution to the work. Shostakovichs eighth quartet was received with overwhelming enthusiasm from its very first performance. It remains the best known of the fifteen quartets, and Shostakovich himself was reduced to tears both while composing it and each time he heard it. Violist and conductor Rudolph Barshai received permission from Shostakovich to arrange the quartet for the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, which resulted in the string orchestra version Opus 110a.~Nell Flanders, Assistant ConductorPrinceton Symphony OrchestraPSO performance and rehearsalat Morven Museum & Gardenprincetonsymphony.org/ 16'