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Disc 1:
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Disc 6:
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Fitzwilliam Quartet is English by birth but shows a lot of Russian soul in these works, which were recorded in consultation with the composer. Their technique is flawless, their immersion in the music total, their interaction with one another and with the music spontaneous and intense. Priced competitively with the Borodin Quartet, they do not have any added attraction to match the Piano Quintet in that set, but this close-up stereo recording is significantly better. Highlights of the set include the relaxed, folk-flavoured No. 1; the tense, autobiographical No. 8, which recalls the terrors of World War II, quotes a lot of Shostakovich's earlier works, and mourns for the "victims of fascism and war"; the contrasts of quiet beauty and fierce intensity in No. 10; and the bold structure of No. 15, Shostakovich's last quartet, in which he looks at death, steadily and without blinking. --Joe McLellan
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exquisitely played - not for the morally indifferent,
By
This review is from: Shostakovich: The String Quartets (Audio CD)
For those who have ears to hear, these pieces tell the tale of a man who had hope, dignity and the possibility of joy crushed out of him by the years of Stalin's terror, and then by the siege of Leningrad. While he was obliged to compromise some of his public large scale music in the name of socialist-realism, simply in order to survive as Stalin's pet composer, he managed somehow to preserve the highest degree of artistic integrity for his chamber music.
For me, the special quality of the Fitzwilliam's performance is that they are transparent with regard to the composer's original intentions. The beautiful parts are played beautifully, the furious parts furiously, but all the parts are bought into an integrated whole that you can't help but feel would have satisfied the old man tremendously. I have heard various other performers attempt these works, with more or less success, but it seems that they always come with baggage and an agenda to press. The Borodins play-up the Russianism, the Kronos overdo the modernism, etc. As for the quartets themselves none of them are minor in their scope or ambition. They all have something quite specific to say about the nature of human existence and folly, as masses and as individuals. There are brief moments, more perhaps towards the later quartets, where bitterness and dark intimations of mortality give way to a peaceful acceptance, but always briefly and provisionally. There are no happy endings, only surrender to the inevitable, alone in the knowledge of the truth of what we are and what we have been. I could perhaps talk about the quartets one by one, but all are deep and wide enough that one's comprehension of each must grow indefinitely with repeated listening. Left alone with these disks on a desert island a true music lover would never be bored, but they might need to dash their own brains out with a coconut for light relief.
49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great recording of stunning music,
By A Customer
This review is from: Shostakovich: The String Quartets (Audio CD)
How good is the Fitzwilliam's set of the Shostakovich String Quartets? Well, put it this way: I work to music on may laptop(s) and I have two "must have" sets of CDs to rip on to any new computer: this set and the Glenn Gould Goldberg & Well-Tempered Clavier... it's that stunning. Like most people, I first got to know about Shostakovich from the symphonies. At university in the late 70s I spotted one of the Fitzwilliam LPs (I think it was quartets 9 & 10) and thought it was worth a listen. I was bowled over. I saved my paltry grant to get the set on vinyl (at full price in those days), and as soon as I saw the set re-issued on CD I was at the counter. There is great music in the Shostakovich symphonies, but the quality of the music is quite variable within and between works. We can (and do) argue historically about why that may be: what the quartets prove is that Shostakovich was truly a composer of the first rank - perhaps the Beethoven of the 20th Century: an all too-human genius. Shorn of the brilliance of orchestration to be found in the symphonies, Shostakovich runs us through a virtuoso range of musical styles encompassing brilliant polyphony, tone rows, neo-classicism and virtual minimalism. The quartet is made to sound like a single wonderful instrument - for which, on this recording, the Fitzwilliams must, of course, also take great credit. My particular favourite is probably quartet No. 12, which after starting with a set of waltzes and melancholic interludes, goes into a scherzo that can only be described as manic and then has a breathtaking finale that takes a simple motif from the earlier interludes that is wound into ever more complex and exuberant patterns in a manner not dissimilar to the final of Mozart's Jupiter symphony. The 8th quartet is almost Shostakovich's own greatest hits as it winds a number of themes from older works together into a whole of terrifying intensity. Written in Leningrad during the siege, it could easily have been the composer's last work. The composer's last major work turned out to be quartet 15, surely Shostakovich's own epitaph with six Adagio movements, one of which is designated a funeral march. The tone is generally ruminative, almost minimalist. I can't compare this against any other sets - I have heard various versions of other quartets, particularly the 8th, and the Fitzwilliams stand up well against any of them. Sound quality is generally very high. As mentioned above, the great thing about the playing on this collection is the quality of the ensemble work. I believe that they worked with the composer on how he wanted these pieces to be played. It certainly sounds that way. Let these quartets work themselves into your life, and then go and buy Tatiana Nikolayeva's version of Shostakovich's Preludes & Fugues... but that's a different story!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent recording, brilliant music,
By
This review is from: Shostakovich: The String Quartets (Audio CD)
I wanted to buy a single set of all the Shostakovich quartets, as I was familar with only a few of these pieces yet I wanted to get to know all of them. I can't say whether this set is the best, not having any others to compare it with, but I can however say that:
- the performances are full of energy, pathos, and brilliant musicianship - the technical recording quality is outstanding - the production quality of the set itself is very good, with copious "liner" notes etc After having rationed myself to one quartet per day, I can say that it's well worth getting to know all of this music. Whether it is genuinely ironic or (as some critics, I understand, have said) the music is derivative, I can't say - I think it's subjective. However there are some staggeringly beautiful moments of "pure music" and I am thoroughly enjoying listening to these pieces (and these recordings) over and over again.
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