Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 4 / Piano Trio No. 2

On this CD:

1. String Quartet No 3, in F Major, Op. 73
Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich

2. Trio for piano & strings No. 2, in E Minor, Op. 67
Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich

3. String Quartet No 4, in D major, Op. 83
Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich

Tracks:

Str Qt No.1 in C, Op.49: Moderato
Str Qt No.1 in C, Op.49: Moderato
Str Qt No.1 in C, Op.49: Allegro Molto
Str Qt No.1 in C, Op.49: Allegro
Str Qt No.2 in A, Op.68: Ov-Moderato Con Moto
Str Qt No.2 in A, Op.68: Recitative & Romance-Adagio
Str Qt No.2 in A, Op.68: Dance-Allegro
Str Qt No.2 in A, Op.68: Theme & Vars-Adagio
Str Qt No.3 in F, Op.73: Allegretto
Str Qt No.3 in F, Op.73:Moderato Con Moto
Str Qt No.3 in F, Op.73: Allegro Non Troppo
Str Qt No.3 in F, Op.73: Adagio
Str Qt No.3 in F, Op.73: Moderato

Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 3, 5, 7

Average customer rating:

Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 3, 5, 7
Alla Aranovskaya , Andrei Dogadin , Leonid Shukaev , Ilya Teplyakov , and St Petersburg String Quartet
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00000DSMH
Release Date: 1995-05-30

Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 3, 14 & 15

Average customer rating:

A great bargain in wonderful sound

Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 3, 14 & 15

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

J.S. Bach: Concertos
Couperin: 4 Livres de pièces de clavecin [Box Set]
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 / From Jewish Folk Poetry - Bernard Haitink
Shostakovich: String Quartets 1-13
Misterioso

ASIN: B000EHPY1Y
Release Date: 2006-10-03

Tracks:

Allegretto
Moderato Con Moto
Allegro Non Troppo
Adagio
Moderato, Adagio
Allegretto
Adagio
Allegretto: Adagio

Tracks:

Elegy (Adagio)
Serenade (Adagio)
Intermezzo (Adagio)
Nocturne (Adagio)
Funeral March (Adagio Molto)
Epilogue (Adagio)
Prelude: Lento: Poco Piu Mosso: Lento
Fugue: Adagio
Scherzo: Allegretto
Intermezzo: Lento: Appassionato
Finale: Allegretto

Amazon.com

Shostakovich must be one of the most written-about composers. His works have been analyzed for their musical content, their political subtext, and their relationship to his personal and public life, ignoring the fact that music follows its own laws. However, they have now become familiar enough to render further words unnecessary; just listening to them tells us all we need to know. For example, the assertion that the 15 quartets sound much alike is easily disproved by this recording, with which the Juilliard String Quartet is celebrating the composer's 100th birthday as well as its own 60th anniversary. These three quartets differ greatly in length, structure and feeling, though they share Shostakovich's characteristic mood-swings and frequent reversal of instrumental registers. No. 3 Op. 73 (1946) begins cheerfully only to become spooky, ferocious, and mournful, until the sparse, timorous Finale brings back the opening theme like a wistful dream. No. 14 Op. 142 (1973), dedicated to the cellist of Shostakovich's champions, the Beethoven Quartet, has a prominent cello part bristling with stratospheric virtuoso cadenzas. By turns wild, sardonic, bleak, and lamentatious, it fades away in forlorn desolation. No. 15 Op. 144 (1974) has been called the composer's own requiem. Its six very slow, mournful movements include an Elegy and a Funeral March; played without pause, they are punctuated by violent slashing chords and feverish running passages; the end is a dying whisper. Yefim Bronfman joins the Quartet for the Piano Quintet Op. 57 (1940). Despite its intense, somber opening, diabolical Scherzo and solemn Fugue, it is primarily optimistic, ending with a confident smile. The Quartet has naturally undergone many personnel changes. Today, none of the original members are left, but its spirit of adventure, commitment to a wide-ranging repertoire, and musical integrity are fully intact. The players focus on character rather than purity and homogeneity of sound, but the violin tone has a singularly beguiling sweetness. They are at their best in the lyrical, expressive parts; the wild, unbridled ones seem too civilized. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

A great bargain in wonderful sound.......2007-03-17

I guess my headline is a give away--I like the beautiful, natural sonics of this 2-CD package more than the performances. The Shostakovich quartets have inspired a range of great ensembles, such as the Borodin and Beethoven Quartets from Russia, the Emersons from America, and the Hagens from Germany, all of whom dig in with more passiona nd modernist attack than the Juilliard Qt., which remains stylistically a bit too neutral.

They play with elan and accomplishment, there's no doubt about that. Ms. Eisler, the best of Amazon's current crop of reviewers, is dead on about the sweet first violin and the relative lack of overall perfection in ensemble. And as she implies, the playing is cheerful most of the time, undermining the bleakness of Qt. # 15 (no bad thing, perhaps). QT. #3 is the most popular work here, and the most often recorded in the whole cycle; the Juilliard's reading doesn't make the strong impression that it should.

The best performance comes in the reissue of the Piano Quintet with Yefim Bronfman, a strong if straightforward account. Bronfman is to the manner born, and Sony's recording is once again top-flight. I don't come away with a complete sense of the music's irony and edge, but this is a lovely recording. Considering the 2-for-1 pricing, you could do worse for sleek, modern readings of all three works.

Average customer rating:

Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 2 &3

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

String Quartets 11 13 & 15
Shostakovich: String Quartets Op.83, 101, 110

ASIN: B00001QGSH
Release Date: 1999-09-07

GLAZUNOV: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 5 - Shostakovich Quartet

Average customer rating:

GLAZUNOV: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 5 - Shostakovich Quartet

Manufacturer: Regis Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000FII8WE
Release Date: 2006-05-01

Product Description

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)

String Quartets No. 3 in G major Op.26 "Slavonic"
String Quartets No.5 in D minor Op.70
Music from "The Fridays"

The Shostakovich Quartet
Violins I & II: Andrei Shishlov, Alexander Balashov
Viola: Alexander Galkovsky
Cello: Alexander Korchagin

Shostakovich - String Quartets Nos. 1, 3, 4 - The Beethoven String Quartet

Average customer rating:

Shostakovich - String Quartets Nos. 1, 3, 4 - The Beethoven String Quartet

Manufacturer: Melodiya
ProductGroup: Classical
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000J0Q6ZO

Product Description

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 49 1 1. Moderato 4. 34 2 2. Moderato 4. 20 3 3. Allegro molto 2. 08 4 4. Allegro 2. 51 String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 76 5 1. Allegretto 6. 51 6 2. Moderato con moto 4. 41 7 3. Allegro non troppo 3. 58 8 4. Adagio 5. 08 9 5. Moderato 9. 03 String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 8 10 1. Allegretto 3. 11 11 2. Andantino 5. 49 12 3. Allegretto 4. 02 13 4. Allegretto 8. 11 The Beethoven String Quartet: Dmitri Tsyganov (1st violin), Vasili Shirinsky (2nd violin), Vadim Borisovsky (viola), Sergei Shirinsky (cello) Dmitri Tsyganov (1st violin), Nikolai Zabavnikov (2nd violin), Fedor Druzhinin (viola), Sergei Shirinsky (cello) Recorded in 1961 (1-4, 10-13), 1965 (5-9)

Shostakovich: Quartets Nos. 3 & 7; Prokofiev: Quartet No. 2

Average customer rating:

Shostakovich: Quartets Nos. 3 & 7; Prokofiev: Quartet No. 2

Manufacturer: Nimbus Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000EHS75O
Release Date: 2006-05-09

Album Description

"A group that sings as one voice, with Kopelman as a stunning lead singer...that the Kopelman Quartet can have it all - clarity of line and texture, plus richness of sound and a vast color palette - is not in doubt...the finale's wild excitement [Prokofiev No. 2] came without sacrifice of direction or diction." - ANN ARBOR NEWS

All four members of the Kopelman String Quartet studied together and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in the 1970s. Mikhail Kopelman was the renowned leader of the Borodin String Quartet and Tokyo String Quartet during his career. All four members of the quartet have worked personally with Shostakovich. Their tours of Europe and the U.S. have received rave reviews. This is the first release in a new relationship between the Kopelman Quartet and Nimbus Records.