Haydn once said “I was completely separated from the world. No one could distract or confuse me about myself; in this way I became original.” Each in their own way, Shostakovich and Haydn both lived isolated from the world and in the service of a higher power: Shostakovich under the Soviet regime and Haydn at the court of the Esterhazy’s in the eighteenth century. But, as Haydn said, they are both undeniably original and unique. Although there is almost two hundred years between Haydn and Shostakovich, these quartets – closely related in key signature – are closer to each other than you would expect at first sight.