Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 92, was composed in autumn 1952. It was premiered in Leningrad in November 1953 by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated.^[1]

Structure

It consists of three movements, performed without a break:

Playing time is approximately 30 minutes.

The work grows from a five-note motif, C–D–E♭–B–C♯, which contains the four pitch-classes of the composer's musical monogram: DSCH (E♭ being Es and B being H in German). This motif appears in a number of his other string quartets, including String Quartet No. 8, the first Violin Concerto, and the Symphony No. 10.^[2]