Customer Reviews

Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich, Volume 4: Cello Sonata/Piano Quintet

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Incredible piece of music performed by the composer and master himself. I could listen to this over and over and never hear the same thing twice.

I still have the lp recordings of both these works: the Quintet on Vanguard, the Sonata on the Monitor label. It is good to have both together on one CD, featuring the composer at the piano, with musicians who were both colleagues and dear friends.

An earlier recording of the Quintet, also with the Beethoven Quartet (1940), is more broadly paced, and probably closer in tone and mood to the premiere performances in the late 1930s. However, this later recording has always semed 'right' to me, the balance between tragedy and naive simplicity perfectly struck, unequalled in later recordings. The pace seems based on Shostakovich's limited ability to negotiate the more animated passages for the piano. Ironically, his playing is fleet compared with 1940, when he had greater command of the keyboard.

As for the Sonata: Rostropovich is in complete command; composer and 'cellist are a match for the ages. The lp version is coupled with the Prokofiev sonata, Richter at the piano. The First String Quartet (with the Komitas Quartet) is coupled with the Piano Quintet on the Vanguard lp. On my equipment the CD and lps are equally enjoyable.