Let's say you don't know a thing about Dmitry Shostakovich, but you've heard people say he was the greatest composer of the 20th century and you're curious to find out what all the fuss is about. Where should you start? Should you start with the Fifth Symphony or the Tenth Symphony, with the Eighth Quartet or the Fifteenth Quartet, with Laurel Faye's "Shostakovich: A Life" or Elizabeth Wilson's "Shostakovich: A Life Remembered?" Or should you start with this package called "Dmitry Shostakovich -- A Portrait." Musically, it ...
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Let's say you don't know a thing about Dmitry Shostakovich, but you've heard people say he was the greatest composer of the 20th century and you're curious to find out what all the fuss is about. Where should you start? Should you start with the Fifth Symphony or the Tenth Symphony, with the Eighth Quartet or the Fifteenth Quartet, with Laurel Faye's "Shostakovich: A Life" or Elizabeth Wilson's "Shostakovich: A Life Remembered?" Or should you start with this package called "Dmitry Shostakovich -- A Portrait." Musically, it's got two discs of excerpts from many of symphonies and string quartets plus several of his ballets, a few of his film scores and a handful of his piano works. Some of the performances are absolutely first-rate -- the Éder Quartet's razor-wire quartets are arguably be the finest non-Russian recordings of the works -- some of the performances are more or less third-rate -- Ladislav Slovák and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra's lumpy symphonies are more than adequate but less than...
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