Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: String Quartets 5, 7, and 9

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The recording, which is a winner of the Chamber Music America award for the best chamber music performance of 2001, reminds me of my homecity character. Well, it has to do both with composer and performers who came from St.Petersburg and know the city's history of culture very well. The CD has everything you could wish for an exciting chamber music evening. The slow movements are played with tremendous sence of tragedy and sometimes it seems to me that there is nothing more important than these performances in the world of music. For me, exactly this part is missing in the new-released set of Emerson Quartet. The St.Petersburg' players produce playing of a technical command as well. This recording is a celebration of first-rate quartet playing.

I bought this CD both because I wanted a better recording of the 5th quartet and also because I had heard so much about the excellence of the St. Petersburg players in this repetoire. I'm pleased to say that the St. Petersburg
players live up to their most favorable reviews. Their performances are warmer than those of the fabled Borodin quartet. However, the players are masters of tone color and put enough of the Russian "edge" on the music to satisfy those who crave dollops of sour cream in their borscht. I suspect that part of the Borodin's fabled "edge" was distortion introduced by Melodiya's engineering. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of their Shostakovich cycle.