Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 10 in A flat major, Op. 118

This is the third instalment in the Pacifica Quartet’s highly anticipated, and already highly acclaimed four-volume CD survey of the complete Shostakovich string quartets: The Soviet Experience: String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries.

It 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.

The Pacifica’s previous instalment, The Soviet Experience Volume II, received an extraordinary reception from critics. “The playing is nothing short of phenomenal, bringing new dimensions of interpretative depth and a subtle fusion of intensity and clarity. . . . When the series is complete, it looks set to be the one to own” (The Telegraph).

All the musicians in this quartet are Viennese. The Aron Quartet’s intention is, as well as to perform classical repertoire, to devote itself to the second Viennese School.

Shostakovich's fifteen string quartets probably represent the most important corpus of string quartets of the 20th-century. His most innovative work, and perhaps his most important quartet, is the String Quartet No. 12 (1968) where the composer makes systematic but not dogmatic use of dodecaphonic methods for the first time. String Quartet No. 14 (1973), on the other hand, was written during his final period when Shostakovich increasingly composed slow movements and intoned laments. String Quartet No. 10 (1964) where the goose-step of the rulers can be heard, as well as the will of the individual to survive, sets the tone. Here the Mandelring Quartet present the fourth volume in an already acclaimed cycle.

This year the Mandelring Quartet will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its concert debut and since 2001 has issued its recordings on the Audite label.These CD and SACD recordings illustrate its outstanding quality and wide-ranging repertoire, including a Schubert string quartet cycle, piano quintets by Brahms and Franck and chamber works by the French early romantic composer Georges Onslow.The series 'Brahms and his Contemporaries' is devoted to the quartets of Brahms and less well-known composers such as Friedrich Gernsheim and Heinrich von Herzogenberg.