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JANSMUSIC RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Schidlof Quartet with Ian Brown: Shostakovich
Linn Records CKD065

String Quartet No.7, String Quartet No.4, Piano Quintet in G minor

This is the first of my recommended Quartets of the month.  Shostakovich's 8th quartet is one of the very well-known works for that medium so I was interested in getting to know some alternatives. Writing for a string quartet requires very different skills from a composer, and I think it is one of the best tests of all the different elements involved in writing music.

I actually have found it quite hard to sum up what I like about this recording.  I guess it's because I've been at home with Shostakovich for as long as I can remember.  There are the characteristic Shostakovich devices, like the undulating arpeggio figuration, and the slightly spooky high solo lines, but his quartet writing often shows the reflective side of a composer who lived a stressful and much publicised life.

The 7th quartet is typically dark, even in the lighter passages - Shostakovich's light hearted writing often seems to come across as ironic.  This is quite a short quartet and is very much in the style of his later works - quite concise and often angular.  The first movement contains many moments reminiscent of his later symphonic writing, the second movement is beautiful, with some profound bass writing, which then moves into a frenetic last movement which harks back to the first movement but fills it out.

The 4th quartet is quite different, and quite lighthearted - with lilting folk melodies and a denser texture, and I probably prefer this work to the 7th - I mean I love the terse, detached later writing, but this is more flowing, more neo-romantic, and it suits perfectly the Schidlof Quartet who play these works with a warmth and depth of feeling that brings out the underlying emotions of Shostakovich's writing.

To end the CD Ian Brown joins the Quartet for a lilting rendition of the piano Quintet in G minor, which has a wonderful scherzo, with leaping thumping piano lines.