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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Shostakovich: String Quartets
A judicious coupling of Shostakovich recordings by the Jerusalem Quartet who have won BBC Music Magazine Awards no less than three times. “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 **** | 
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| |  | The Soviet Experience Volume IIString Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries
The Soviet Experience is the first Shostakovich quartet cycle to include works by other important composers of the Soviet era, adding variety and perspective to the listening experience. This superbly performed series of audiophile recordings, produced and engineered by multiple Grammy Award winner Judith Sherman, will appeal to everyone interested in great Russian music of the 20th century. Volume 1 received universal praise on both sides of the Atlantic and was included on the best classical albums of 2011 lists of The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The New Yorker, San Jose Mercury News, Newark Star-Ledger, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “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 ***** “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 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 “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 “the maturity of an experienced composer is clear, his music dynamically and compellingly realised here.” The Independent on Sunday, 15th 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 ***** | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Shostakovich: The 'Great Quartets' Nos. 4, 8 & 10
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| |  | Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 3, 4 & 7
In recent years, the Finnish string quartet Meta4 has become one of the world’s top quartets. The ensemble won the Shostakovich Competition in Moscow in 2004, so are well qualified to record these works. Their first release of Haydn’s Op.55 quartets won an Echo Klassik Award. “Unlike most of their peers, Meta4 have found their way to the particular world of musicality that Shostakovich inhabits...Listen to the highly contrapuntal central section of the first movement of the Thrid Quartet and marvel at the range and precision of colour and articulation...I'm not sure I've ever heard the opening folk-like Allegretto of No. 4 more subtly explored” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 4, 11 & 14
Shostakovich’s 15 string quartets provide a very personal response to the events that were taking place in the Soviet Union during his lifetime, and are among his most popular works. The three quartets heard here are not linked, but they are similar in some respects, all beginning with an understated intimacy, their simple ideas becoming tense and turbulent, eventually reaching some kind of uneasy calm. The haunting Quartet No. 4 was composed in 1949, when Soviet Jewish culture was under real threat. Shostakovich’s blatant use of Jewish motifs in the bittersweet fourth movement would not have pleased the Soviet authorities at the time so it was not performed until 1953, after Stalin’s death. The string quartets 11 to 14 are all dedicated to members of the Beethoven String Quartet, who gave the first performances of nearly all the quartets. The cryptic but elegiac Quartet No.11, composed in 1966, marks the start of Shostavich’s late period. Quartet No.14 was written two years before Shostakovich’s death in 1975, its close a lingering farewell. The Hagen Quartet, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is one of the most highly respected string quartets in the world. They are noted for the precision of their ensemble playing and the colour and nuance they bring to performance, all of which help them to unearth deeper emotions beneath the surface. This recording was made in 1993. “… in the fifth-movement Humoresque of the Eleventh the limelighted second violin – Rainer Schmidt, the quartet’s febrile and ever-impressive outside influence – brings so much forceful tone to the swelling of his
two repeated notes that it sounds for all the world as if two violins are playing in unison, not just the one … the joint approach to chants and combats, not to mention Lukas’s extraordinary handling of the glissandos in
the second movement, bring an urgently vocal quality to the work. The Hagen’s Shostakovich will no doubt acquire even greater authority over the years, but it’s hard from this standpoint to see how.” Gramophone Magazine, September 1995 “The Hagen Quartet is as impeccable an ensemble as any now before the public … these belong among the most beautifully played and thoughtful readings of these Quartets” Penguin Guide “They make a compelling case for the unusual seven-part continuous structure of No 11, and their reading of No 14, with its heartbroken (yet Tristan-ish) adagio, is deeply touching.” Sunday Times, 17th April 2011 *** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich -String Quartets Nos. 2 & 4Arranged by Marijn van Prooij
Not all string quartets are suited to be played by a string quartet. Sometimes the instrumental set-up is too vulnerable or an execution does not seem technically feasible. On this recording, the aim was to let symphonic proportions merge with moments of chamber music intimacy. For both quartets, double bass player and arranger Marijn van Prooij has written a wonderful bass part. First and foremost there is the genius of Shostakovich, a composer who has been a source of inspiration for Amsterdam Sinfonietta for two decades. “Curious that the Second is among the last of the quartets to be given orchestral treatment, as its symphonic weight and expressive range make it the most suitable in any case. The Amsterdam group respond with playing of tremendous dynamism.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich - String Quartets 3, 14 & 15
“The Julliard String Quartet remains the standard by which all other quartets must be judged.” – Los Angeles Times | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets Volume I
“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 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich - String Quartets Nos. 1 & 4
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Shostakovich - Chamber Symphoniesarranged by Rudolf Barshai
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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