The vesuvius quartet Violist Eric Wong, cellist Felix Umansky, violinist Joseph Krumholz and violinist Nathaniel Anderson-Frank.

On a sunny Friday afternoon, Annie Fullard and members of the Vesuvius Quartet sit in a windowless studio at the Cleveland Institute of Music, working on Shostakovich. The students - violinists Nathaniel Anderson-Frank and Joseph Kromholz, violist Eric Wong and cellist Felix Umansky - have been studying the composer's 14th string quartet as part of CIM's String Quartet Intensive. Along with five other student ensembles, each working with different Shostakovich quartets, they are putting on the finishing touches in preparation for the Intensive's big event, a concert in which the groups each deliver the fruits of their labor.

Before starting the run-through, they talk about how it went earlier in the week, as each group played through its quartet for the rest of the class. Kromholz says it was a "nuts and bolts" runthrough. Anderson-Frank says they don't have "a convincing emotional narrative" yet. And at this point, having mastered the notes, convincing emotional nuance is what they're going for. So they begin to play.

Fullard, violinist for the Cavani Quartet, CIM's string quartet in residence, says, as a form, the string quartet offers a microcosm of the best and worst of what humanity has to offer. "It's like reading a personal diary in which the composer has expressed his most intimate thoughts," she says. The Shostakovich quartets, then, offer the Russian composer's reflections on the Russian Revolution, the dictatorial reign of Stalin, and the imprisonment or assignation of friends and relatives, not to mention two world wars. His ability to use accessible, neo-classical harmonies yet still push musical language forward made his music very popular, but the Soviet government banned it, twice.

"You can definitely hear pain, anguish, nostalgia and tenderness," Fullard says.

She casts the musicians like characters - the "noble" viola, a voice of reason; the cello, the protagonist; the second violin, a guard, walking on and off stage; the first violin, the girl.

"Sorry," she says to Nathaniel.

In several passages she encourages them to "get weirder," to go for the sarcasm of a composer whispering, his chamber works beyond earshot of a disapproving government. There are parts where the cello plays higher than the violins, which produces what she describes as a "screaming" quality. In the third movement there's a passage where each instrument in turn barks out variations on a motif, passing it seamlessly around the square. Depending on how they play, it can sound like a conversation or an argument. There's a three-note rhythmic motif, which they're trying to infuse with the ominous, intimidating sound of the KGB knocking at the door. As they make their way through the piece, Fullard periodically stops them with a question or suggestion, and they play a passage again.

The vesuvius quartet Violist Eric Wong, cellist Felix Umansky, violinist Joseph Krumholz and violinist Nathaniel Anderson-Frank.

"You start with the score," she says of the interpretive process, "but the notes don't play themselves. We try to get the students to make themselves vulnerable to this process. After you know the map, it's about how you're going to get the audience to feel what Shostakovich was feeling."

MOST OF THE QUARTETS in the Intensive were already formed when they came to the class, though some came together as a result of it. The Vesuvius Quartet formed as a result of round-robin, musical mixing events in the students' first year. As they all approach graduation four years later, they've become the longest-standing student quartet at CIM in some time.

All of its members have been playing their instruments nearly two decades. Among the four, cellist Felix started latest in life, at 7. Nathaniel took up violin at 3. They've studied with some of the biggest names in string quartet music. With the Cavani Quartet and Cleveland Quartet violinist Peter Salaff as their mentors, they've also studied with the Juilliard, Miro, Tokyo and Takacs quartets.

But highlights of a resume don't say anything about the musical relationships that got them here. By now the Vesuvians are best friends and clearly admire each other's different skills. Joseph, who's the most talkative, has naturally evolved as spokesperson for the group. He and Nathaniel take turns as first and second violin. He praises Eric Wong's ability to switch equally from viola to violin. He suggests that in the process of choosing which of the 15 Shostakovich quartets they'd learn, they ended up with No. 14, in part, because Felix is "a bad-ass cellist." Shostakovich dedicated the piece to Beethoven Quartet cellist Sergei Shirinski. It features the instrument prominently.

In that time together, Fullard says they've developed a musical personality as a group. They are the inaugural fellows in the Cleveland Chamber Music Society's outreach program, which recently had them performing and speaking with students at Lomond Elementary School in Shaker Heights. They've commissioned and premiered a quartet by CIM student composer Evan Fein. Their performances have been broadcast on SWR Radio in Germany, and on Cleveland's WCLV. The Miro Quartet described them as "the next great young quartet ... possessed with technical ease, seductive sounds and heartfelt musicality."

With all that going for them, they're hoping to keep together as a quartet after graduation, even as Kromholz heads to the New England Conservatory, and Anderson-Frank to the Royal Academy of Music in London. Umansky and Wong will stay in Cleveland for further studies at CIM. For now, though, they're intensely focused on coaxing all they can from Shostakovich's Quartet No. 14. After two hours in the afternoon, the members go their separate ways for a little while. Eric has to get to another rehearsal. Nathaniel has to retrieve his car from the shop. But a few hours later, even if it's Friday night on a college campus, they'll be back in the studio for another rehearsal.

Intensive String Quartet Seminar Concert/Works by Shostakovich, Featuring Azurite Quartet, Quarteto Novo, Iannis Quartet, Matisse Quartet, Aeolus Quartet, Vesuvius Quartet: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6 at Cleveland Institute of Music's Mixon Hall, 11021 East Blvd., 216.791.5000. Free.