Shostakovich Strings Quartets Nos. 1-13? Why aren't No. 14 and No. 15 here? They're not here for the simple reason that the original Borodin String Quartet broke up before Shostakovich composed them. These recordings were made before 1971 when the Borodin Quartet was led by Valentin Berlinsky, when it was a hard, tough, and tight quartet; when it was an acerbic, ascetic, and violently expressive quartet; when it was, above all, a modernist quartet. If that's the way you hear the first 13 string quartets of Shostakovich, ...
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Shostakovich Strings Quartets Nos. 1-13? Why aren't No. 14 and No. 15 here? They're not here for the simple reason that the original Borodin String Quartet broke up before Shostakovich composed them. These recordings were made before 1971 when the Borodin Quartet was led by Valentin Berlinsky, when it was a hard, tough, and tight quartet; when it was an acerbic, ascetic, and violently expressive quartet; when it was, above all, a modernist quartet. If that's the way you hear the first 13 string quartets of Shostakovich, this set is mandatory listening. And this should be the way you hear the first 13 Shostakovich string quartets because as much as they are Shostakovich's secret musical biography, his quartets are a history of modern times and for most of humanity in modern times, especially citizens of the U.S.S.R, when modern times were as hard and violent as Shostakovich's quartets. The Berlinsky-led Borodin Quartet's recordings of the 13 quartets are real, honest, true, and overwhelmingly moving...
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These are the original Borodin players, who were intimately associated with Shostakovich, and when these recordings were made - mostly in the late 1960s and early 1970s - they had already been playing many of these still-underrated masterworks for years. I could have asked for a little more push in 12, but 3 gets a really powerhouse reading. The sound is hissy but you'll quickly get used to it. The big downside is that this original group didn't quite last long enough to do the final two quartets, so you'll have to look elsewhere for them.
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