Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 49

“Vivid, profoundly intelligent accounts of six of Shostakovich's Quartets. The Jerusalems prove eloquent exponents of these works' tragic intensity and bittersweet lyricism.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ****

“the maturity of an experienced composer is clear, his music dynamically and compellingly realised here.” The Independent on Sunday, 15th April 2012 *****

“These Shostakovich quartets present vast musical and psychological challenges...[the Prokofiev's] originality is telling: the sinewy, heterophonic workings of folk material in its second movement here sound like music from much later.” Sunday Times, 29th April 2012

“exceptional both in the musicians’ maturity and breadth of expression and in the sheer humanity and emotional force of the playing...Everything about these performances points to an ensemble with an acute understanding of the music’s implications and with a capacity to communicate it freshly by means of a broad, astutely applied spectrum of timbre and a compelling blend of immediacy and intimacy.” The Telegraph, 10th May 2012 *****

“It adds up to another powerful listening experience.” Financial Times, 12th May 2012 ****

“Their playing is always clean and well focused - tonally, technically and interpretatively. But it works best, I feel, when the musical character itself is clear-cut...if you are looking for excellent modern recording and clean playing, plus the bonus of extra revelant repertoire, or if you are allergic to overstatement in Shostakovich, then there is certainly much to enjoy...But if a distinctive interpretative angle is your priority, I would advise looking elsewhere” Gramophone Magazine, August 2012

“The expected rhetoric and terror of Shostakovich's Soviet armour are here carefully measured with universal frameworks of great sonic beauty, whether fragile or strong: Beethoven, thank goodness, looms larger than Stalin...[in Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2] the Pacifica Quartet's sophisticated teamwork is stretched to the limits, but it works beautifully.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 *****

“The playing is excellent throughout, with no sense of strain and perfect tuning between the various members of the quartet. They can well withstand the close balance of the recorded sound to which they are subjected...Certainly there is much to admire in these excellent, civilised and deeply considered performances.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“The Eder Quartet...brings a mature understanding and empathy to the recording that is wonderfully satisfying.” American Record Guide

“Beauty and warmth of string tone seem to be paramount, and that helps us to buy into the old-fashioned yet utterly sincere Romanticism of Myaskovsky's last quartet.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 ****

“The playing is faultless throughout, and the extremely clear and cleanly defined recorded sound forms part of the performance. I look forward with anticipation to the remaining releases.” The Strad

“…in the Piano Quintet. Martin Roscoe and the Sorrels offer a dynamic and intense performance with Roscoe bringing marvellous shape and colour to the piano part.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2005 ****

“Volume 6 of the Sorrel Quartet's Shostakovich series gives us two of his outwardly formulaic works framing one of his most audacious, the Twelfth Quartet. It's a rather peculiar programme, not that this need bother anyone collecting this particular intégrale.
The playing is as idiomatic as you might expect from an ensemble once coached by Rostislav Dubinsky, founder member and first leader of the Borodin Quartet. True, the almost casual opening of the First Quartet is not ideally euphonious and, in the first movement of the Twelfth, there's a momentary lapse of concentration from the viola, whose expressive swoops elsewhere may not be to all tastes. What matters more is the palpable, very human sense of engagement, something you don't always get from glitzier groups.
Given that the best recordings of the Piano Quintet are 20 years old and either tucked away or buried altogether, the present account is not unwelcome, though it is relatively small-scale.
It's the subtle intimacy of the final pay-off one remembers, the warmth of the Maltings acoustic masking any thinness of tone.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010