Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets (1-15), String Quintet [Box set, Original recording remastered]

Dmitri Shostakovich (Composer), Sviatoslav Richter (Performer), Borodin Quartet (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Sviatoslav Richter, Borodin Quartet
• Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
• Audio CD (August 12, 1997)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 6
• Format: Box set, Original recording remastered
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: BMG Classics / Melodiya
• ASIN: B000001HDU
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,678 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Rarely do we come across as intimate and wide-angled a set as this collection of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets, all of them played by the Russian Borodin Quartet. Recorded in Moscow between 1978 and 1983, the quartets are excellently reproduced in digital sound by Sviatoslav Richter, who maintains just enough shadow from the old Melodiya vinyl's audio vérité to make the music breathe passionately. Of course, it's the Borodins who really amp up the musical breath, whether in their near-giddy reading of the third quartet's first movement or in the 14th's complex, stoutly metaphysical somberness. These recordings will likely always remain the standard for Shostakovich's chamber repertoire because the Borodins were so focused on the Russian quartet literature and so little of anything they played by one composer approached the immediate, mature fullness of Shostakovich's quartets from the first to the last. And they played the music with unflagging intensity. Over the six CDs, it's a fascinating exercise to hear the development of compositional elements between the first (1935) and 15th (1974, the year before his death) quartets. Variations on the passacaglia technique, for example, permeate the music, allowing telescopic focus on Shostakovich's careful mediation of the dialogue between constancy and change, flying motifs from violin to viola to cello and back even as it appeared little fundamental groundwork had changed. Polyphony, dissonance, and aching resonance find a home in the music, showing Shostakovich's Catholic reach--and surely the impetus for his long-standing troubled relationship with Soviet politics. --Andrew Bartlett

Amazon.com

Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets are second in quality only to Bartók's magnificent half-dozen among the sets produced in this form by 20th-century composers. But outside of Russia, they were ignored or disparaged for a long time, dismissed as "not really chamber music" and criticized for technical "weaknesses," largely because they did not follow the standard patterns invented and developed in Vienna. The Borodin Quartet, Russian colleagues and friends of Shostakovich (though not as closely associated with him as the Beethoven Quartet), lived with the music for years before this, their second complete recording. They play with power and elegance, and the attractively priced set has a substantial bonus: a magnificent performance, with pianist Sviatoslav Richter, of the Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, one of the masterpieces of 20th-century chamber music. The sound is variable and never outstanding by current digital standards. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars large palletttes of colour ,drama ,and aggressiveness, August 12, 2000

By 

scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets (1-15), String Quintet (Audio CD)

I don't know if we can classifiy this as THE definitive reading of the life work of one of this centuries most celebrated creator,but The Borodin certainly capture in a profound way the emotive dramatic core, the essence,colour,gesture,tone and philosophic depth reflecting the weight of this century.

These Quartets inhabit a different space than the Symphonies although the two genres are always placed side by side, incorrectly I think. The Quartets had a purer conception,and they always worked best when left alone without addendums as,the Piano Quintet Op.57, included with admirable aggressive playing from Sviatoslav Richter.Here in the Quintet I thought rendered the strings as mere accompaniment,not first chair actors/ speakers. Shostakovich's creativity always required a voice, that is one element that is shared with the Symphonies,where flute,clarinet,bassoon are given solo roles as a form of commentary on some previous atrocity,or a sense of repose,of serene reflection, and the various First Violin Solos especially that occur throughout all these works is one focus,a parallel with his immense Symphonies.The Borodin allows interpretive freedoms,like concerto soloists each role,and gives it the space it needs, as in the demonic Allegro molto from the Eighth Quartet. The Borodin continually distinguish themselves in not being afraid to play an ugly sound,a Gypsy-like gesture, as again moments from the Eighth where the viola merely marks out a chord quite obviously, with an ugly tone, or the simple provincial minor chord outlines in the Third Quartet,something a street musician might have done.

The Borodin know how to create great tension as in the opening of the Ninth Quartet,compare their reading with others as The Manhatten Quartets rather glib reading (for the lunch time crowd) of the Ninth. This tension is created by a larger dynamic gradation of sound, between what is loud and what is almost barely perceptible with The Borodin. Great drama is engaged here with biting nasal(again ugly) violin sounds always in the demonic Allegrettos throughout these works. Shostakovich's creativity does have a one-dimensional cast like he was revealing/telling the same story over and over again waiting patiently for humanity to change. Well not in the last century. There are more hopeful utterances however as in the opening moments of the Tenth Quartet,a incredibly expansive timbral one with a large Brucknerian sound,yet framed within classic proportions. The Third Quartet as well,written right after the Second World War is positive momentarily,where more Russians perished than anyone else.

The Emerson Quartets readings,for they have a complete set, I found quite reserved,restrained,but not uninteresting opting for a more spiritual,solemn reading,with thinner overall timbres,less overall density of sound, rather than the Borodin here who bring a very large pallette of colour,drama,aggresiveness and irrationality to their playing.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential Recordings of a Seminal Quartet Cycle, October 31, 2002

By 

Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets (1-15), String Quintet (Audio CD)

The 15 Shostakovitch Quartets are almost the mirror image of the 15 Symphonies. While the Symphonies are big public statements, albeit statements filled with many private meanings, the quartets are intensely private. Listening the the entire cycle is like reading a locked diary. You feel as if you are listening in on Shostakovitch's private thoughts. And while the symphonies are primarily works of his early years (the first ten were written before the early fifties) the most of the quartets were written later in his career, the last ten date from about 1950 onward.

These are wide ranging works, from the almost Haydnesque 1st quartet through the almost serial 13th quartet, and onward to the intensely elegaic 15th quartet, composed of 7 slow movements. The early quartets are mostly written in Shostakovitch's middle style as reflected in the 5th symphony. The music is clear and very tonal, as most works of Shostakovitch's Soviet Realist style would be. But they reveal underlying secrets in the occasional dissonances and dark moments. And starting with the 6th quartet the music begins to transition into the composer's late style. These works are more enigmatic. The musical language is more chromatic...based on the same synthetic scales that inspired Scriabin and Messiaen...and much more dissonant than the earlier quartets. Shostakovitch is much more experimental, stretching his language and formal structures. Also, there seems to be crytic messages in the music based on numerical symbolism, hidden letter messages, and references to the composer's other music.

These performances are definative. The Borodin Quartet, along with the Beethoven Quartet, have the best pedigree with these works, having worked personally with the composer, and actually premiering some of these works. This boxed set is a beautifully remastered version of the original Meloydia recordings. Where the Meloydia pressings were muddy and boxy, this remastering sounds spacious, like they would sound in a concert hall. And the emotional content of the playing is stunning. If you can get it, this is the recording to have of these seminal pieces. Get them now!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite Simply the Best Boxed Set Ever, July 1, 2001

By 

Justin Weaver - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets (1-15), String Quintet (Audio CD)

Sure there are other good recordings by other quartets of the complete String Quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich -- for double (or triple!) the price. But not only are the Borodin Quartet recordings cheap, they are the best. The Borodins give an unshakably consistent reading of every quartet (and Shostakovich fires no blanks!). They even throw in the Piano Quintet and the two String Octet movements. Each performance is among the best ever recorded and some ARE the best ever recorded, especially the immensely convincing and coherent readings of the middle-late dodecaphonic quartets (12, 13) and the late 'introverted' quartets (14, 15). Even the over-recorded 8th quartet sounds amazingly fresh here. I can't recommend this set enough. You won't regret the purchase for a nanosecond.