While few debate that Shostakovich’s Eighth String quartet is an important statement, many argue over what exactly is being said. Walking the line between explicitness and vagueness that was a trademark of Shostakovich’s music, this piece can be linked to many meanings (a statement on the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, a backhanded critique of Stalin, an inner autobiographical reflection) but decisively anchored to none. Whatever the case, there is no question that the piece was of profound personal significance for the composer, who embedded a cryptogram of his name into the piece’s main melodic idea and reportedly wept at an early trial performance by the Borodin Quartet.