Although many of the works of Dmitri Shostakovich have been labeled political, they delineate the travails of only one victim: Shostakovich himself. The composer was obsessed with his own suffering and was most eloquent as a chronicler of the 20th-century Russian experience in all of its horror when at his most personal. The String Quartet No. 8, performed on Friday evening at the Metropolitan Museum by members of the Marlboro Music Festival, is ostensibly about the ruins of Dresden, but in actuality is totally about himself. Over time, this quartet has become the most famous of the 15.

There is a policy at Marlboro that no work shall be presented until it is ready for performance, even if an ensemble spends all summer on it. For this concert, the Shostakovich was definitely ready.

The three younger string players — Lily Francis, first violin, Yu Jin, viola, and Wendy Law, cello — were all fiercely intense, while the grizzled veteran Arnold Steinhardt, long of the Metropolitan’s Guarneri Quartet, put the lie to the stereotype of playing second fiddle by imbuing his characterization with a ghastly elegance. His performance recalled the “friend Death” persona of the scordatura violin in the Symphony No. 4 of the composer with whom Shostakovich most closely shares his musical lexicon, Gustav Mahler.

Especially memorable was the unrelenting bottom of this positively frightening rendition, with the viola and cello at their most percussive. It is clear Ms. Law owes at least some of her interpretive power to the memory of Rostropovich. While Ms. Francis may not have consistently moved seamlessly from rhythm instrument to melodic one, she played expansively nonetheless.

The program listed another piece as the Trio in G Major, K. 496 of Mozart, but what was offered was a rather ornate piano sonata with occasional violin obbligato and the rare sighting of a cello. Mozart composed the piece for home use and added the string ornamentation almost as an afterthought. Pianist Anna Polonsky was delicate of touch but strong of character. Hers was a virtually flawless performance, with just the right sense of melodic flow and balanced grace. Ms. Law was a good sport, intoning her few passages with broad humor. She knew that she had other moments in which to shine this evening.

A taut reading of the Piano Quartet in E Flat Major of Antonín Dvorÿák rounded out the program. With Mr. Steinhardt in the first chair, the sound of the group was thin for a lush Romantic work, but the overall interpretation carried them through spiritedly. The opening and closing solos by Ms. Law in the Lento demonstrated an admirably controlled intensity.