The CCP string quartet performs three of Shostakovich’s great string quartets on this program; a powerful end to a year long exploration of the composer’s chamber music. The Colorado Chamber Players’ yearlong study of Shostakovich’s chamber music continues with Quartets no. 3, 7, and 11, which roughly correspond to the composer’s early, middle and late periods in his quartets. The passionate Quartet no. 3  was too controversial to be published during Stalin’s reign of terror. Quartet no. 7, the shortest of all the quartets, captures the composer’s love for his first wife Nina. Quartet no. 11, is dedicated in memoriam to Vasili Shirinsky, 2nd violinist of the Beethoven Quartet and the composer’s close friend; no. 11 is made up of seven miniature movements, played without pause.