January will still be Shostakovich String Quartet Month

[San Antone]

Beethoven SQ ~ Shostakovich No. 13



The only single movement SQ of the 15.

I've listened to all 15 but will continue revisiting them for the rest of the month.  What  I might do is go through them, start to finish, from among  the complete sets I own, e.g. Emerson, Borodin, Shostakovich, etc.

[Karl Henning]

Beethoven SQ ~ Shostakovich No. 13



The only single movement SQ of the 15.

I've listened to all 15 but will continue revisiting them for the rest of the month.  What  I might do is go through them, start to finish, from among  the complete sets I own, e.g. Emerson, Borodin, Shostakovich, etc.

Likewise, I am not here to content myself with a single pass through the circuit. Ready to dig in more!

[kishnevi]

I listened to the first three CDs of the Shostakovich Quartet set last night.  General impression (subject to listening to the other 2 CDs) is that they have a darker tone through most of the music, but aren't as manic in the scherzos/fast movements, as other performances I'm used to (for instance, the Borodin partial cycle on Virgin which was my first exposure to several of the quartets).    And to tell the truth, I like it when performers bring out the mania.  DSCH knew how to make the devil dance.....

I suppose my ideal set of DSCH quartets would have the dark tone of the Shostakovich Quartet and the mania of the Emersons and Borodin partials.    Perhaps the full Borodin set that arrived today will do it?  Fingers crossed.

btw, the information with the recordings is very limited about the Shostakovich Quartet (although the liner notes are rather full, and sometimes fulsome, about the music itself), giving only the names of the perfomers.  Can anyone supply some background information on them?

The order of the performances on this set btw
Vol 1  4, 8, 10
Vol 2 CD 1 Two pieces, Op. 36 (the arrangements from Lady Macbeth and Tea for Two), Quartets 1, 5, 9
Vol 2 CD 2 2, 3, 7
Vol 3 CD 1 6, 11, 15
Vol 3 CD 2 12, 13, 14 
It's the works on Vol 3 I have yet to listen to.

[San Antone]

Yesterday I pretty much lived with the Shostakovich Quartet's complete set of the quartets.  Today I am planning on something a bit different. 

I will choose one of the complete sets, probably the Emerson, load that into my "Play Queue" on MOG, but also add in a Bartok (6), a Schoenberg (4) and a Carter (5) box - that about balances out the mix so that Shosty's are half the numbers - and then put it on Random Play.

I should find this an interesting, if an unorthodox, way to experience these works.

[Karl Henning]

Yesterday I pretty much lived with the Shostakovich Quartet's complete set of the quartets.  Today I am planning on something a bit different. 

I will choose one of the complete sets, probably the Emerson, load that into my "Play Queue" on MOG, but also add in a Bartok (6), a Schoenberg (4) and a Carter (5) box - that about balances out the mix so that Shosty's are half the numbers - and then put it on Random Play.

I should find this an interesting, if an unorthodox, way to experience these works.

Nice! I've thought of doing something similar (though I need to load the Carter quartets onto my devices . . . .)

For instance, a similar exercise I did with Hovhaness & Scelsi, I found highly engaging.

[Karl Henning]

The Allegretto opening to the Fourteenth Quartet always surprises me with its cheerfulness, and its apparent ease.

[snyprrr]

I listened to the first three CDs of the Shostakovich Quartet set last night.  General impression (subject to listening to the other 2 CDs) is that they have a darker tone through most of the music, but aren't as manic in the scherzos/fast movements, as other performances I'm used to (for instance, the Borodin partial cycle on Virgin which was my first exposure to several of the quartets).    And to tell the truth, I like it when performers bring out the mania.  DSCH knew how to make the devil dance.....

I suppose my ideal set of DSCH quartets would have the dark tone of the Shostakovich Quartet and the mania of the Emersons and Borodin partials.    Perhaps the full Borodin set that arrived today will do it?  Fingers crossed.

btw, the information with the recordings is very limited about the Shostakovich Quartet (although the liner notes are rather full, and sometimes fulsome, about the music itself), giving only the names of the perfomers.  Can anyone supply some background information on them?

The order of the performances on this set btw
Vol 1  4, 8, 10
Vol 2 CD 1 Two pieces, Op. 36 (the arrangements from Lady Macbeth and Tea for Two), Quartets 1, 5, 9
Vol 2 CD 2 2, 3, 7
Vol 3 CD 1 6, 11, 15
Vol 3 CD 2 12, 13, 14 
It's the works on Vol 3 I have yet to listen to.

The ones on Olympia? The keeper there is 12/13/14.

[snyprrr]

The Allegretto opening to the Fourteenth Quartet always surprises me with its cheerfulness, and its apparent ease.

Very Beethoven,...hm? Shostahoven!

[kishnevi]

The ones on Olympia? The keeper there is 12/13/14.

Yes. those are the performances.  Which mean would make the last CD a truly grand finale, if you're right.

I have the fourth CD now in the player,  with SQ 15 in the batter's box.

[Brahmsian]

Yes. those are the performances.  Which mean would make the last CD a truly grand finale, if you're right.

I have the fourth CD now in the player,  with SQ 15 in the batter's box.

Tomorrow is # 11's turn in the spotlight.  I'm truly enjoying this experience!   

[Karl Henning]

To-day is the day for the Fifteenth, by me.

. . . Shostakovich's limbs caused him considerable pain. One consolation his doctors now permitted him was alcohol. Installation of an elevator at the Zhukovka dacha and alterations made for his benefit at the Repino artists' retreat allowed him as much independence of movement as possible. When Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer visited him for the last time in April 1974, a weak and tired Shostakovich told him: "I know now that I will never be cured. But I have learned not to let it torment me any longer." One can only speculate at what cost, physical and psychological, Shostakovich rose to deliver the opening address—reaffirming the constructive interdependence of Soviet music and Communist ideals—to the Fifth Congress of the USSR Union of Composers at the Kremlin on 2 April 1974.

Shortly before entering the hospital in May, Shostakovich  phoned [Isaak Davidovich] Glikman and told him he was working on a new quartet, his Fifteenth. He completed its composition on 17 May. This was the first quartet since his Sixth, and one of a total of only three, that the composer did not provide with a dedication. The bleak introspection and elegiac cast of its unprecedented succession of six adagio movements left no doubt in his contemporaries' minds that the String Quartet no. 15 in E-flat Minor, op. 144, could be regarded as a personal requiem.

Shostakovich: A Life, pp. 279-280

[Karl Henning]

Well, I'm ready to start all over again.

The Sarge Theorem (Different is good) holds true: I am much enjoying the Fitzwilliams, which is no knock on my yet-beloved Emersons.  At some point I should probably have more intelligence to offer, but for the moment, just the obvious:  more time spent with the entirety of this cycle helps focus on its many riches.

[Brahmsian]

Well, I'm ready to start all over again.

The Sarge Theorem (Different is good) holds true: I am much enjoying the Fitzwilliams, which is no knock on my yet-beloved Emersons.  At some point I should probably have more intelligence to offer, but for the moment, just the obvious:  more time spent with the entirety of this cycle helps focus on its many riches.

Happy to hear that you are enjoying the Fitzies set, Karl!    Still no date yet on when my Borodin set will arrive. 

Going through both the Fitzwilliam and Eder sets, at this point, I seem to have an ever slight preference towards the Eder.  However, it is too close to almost bother mentioning.    Happy to have both.

[Fëanor]

Happy to hear that you are enjoying the Fitzies set, Karl!    Still no date yet on when my Borodin set will arrive. 

Going through both the Fitzwilliam and Eder sets, at this point, I seem to have an ever slight preference towards the Eder.  However, it is too close to almost bother mentioning.    Happy to have both.

Personally I prefer the Fitzwilliam to the Borodin and the Eder; I haven't heard the Emerson.  Sound quality is significant factor for me: the Fitzwilliam generally good sound to me, in particular the distance perspective.

Right now I'm working through the quartets in sequence at a moderate pace. I'm up to No. 13 listening exclusively to the Fitzwilliam in during this exercise.

[kishnevi]

I seem to be in a decided minority here, since the Fitzwilliams  are at the moment my least favorite set.  Part of it is the sound quality, which to me is inferior to the Emerson and Mandelrings.   But I also had  the feeling that the Fitzwilliams were often too sedate and polished.  Can I ask (other than the sound quality that Feanor mentions) what virtues the rest of you find in the Fitzwilliams? 

As a recap, my current list, in order of preference, among the full cycles or partial cycles that  I currently have.  Numbers in boldface are the "ranking" if only full cycles are considered.

Pending in the listening pile: Borodin II

1) Pacifica Quartet (now in progress)
2) Jerusalem Quartet (incomplete cycle, no immediate prospect of completion that I know of)
3)(1) Emerson Quartet
4) Borodin Quartet"III" (the partial cycle recorded in the 1990s now available as a Virgin double CD)
5)(2)Mandelring Quartet
6)(3) Shostakovich Quartet
7)(4) Fitzwilliam Quartet
8 )Julliard Quartet (late quartets with the Piano Quintet)

There are plenty of times when the Pacifica, Jerusalem, Emersons and Borodin "III" could shift places among themselves in a very fluid fashion, but the last four are fairly stable.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

4) Borodin Quartet"III" (the partial cycle recorded in the 1990s now available as a Virgin double CD)

You may have no interest in this information at all but there are a couple of stragglers to Borodin III which for some reason aren't on Virgin, but are on Teldec. In case you've a hankering for completeness...

And the Teldec recordings match the Virgin for quality.

[Karl Henning]

I seem to be in a decided minority here, since the Fitzwilliams  are at the moment my least favorite set.  Part of it is the sound quality, which to me is inferior to the Emerson and Mandelrings.   But I also had  the feeling that the Fitzwilliams were often too sedate and polished.  Can I ask (other than the sound quality that Feanor mentions) what virtues the rest of you find in the Fitzwilliams?

You deserve a better considered answer, but my quick-&-dirty answer is:  While the set does not 'threaten' the Emersons as my favorite, either, there is a sort of "domesticity" and angloiserie in their approach which I am finding a nice variant tone to the music.

[mszczuj]

SQ No.3. Shostakovich and trying to Borodin on LP, but like the latter less.

As I hadn't check till yesterday the information in the site linked by Karl, I didn't know about the titles of the movements given for the premiere. So I noticed that the intensity of expression increased from movement no.1 to no.4 with heavier and heavier ostinatos and then passacaglia theme and that this tension was partially released in the last movement but I couldn't grasp what is the sense of this last Moderato - nor can do it fully now, but at least I know where I should look for understanding. Of course Shostakovich withdrew this programmatic remarks but the meaning in the music works in the very same way the meaning in the film music works  - just by being appropriate for combining with some extramusical ideas - so it is some kind of clue.

Well I like this quartet less than previous but I think  that is extremely typical Shostakovich work till the point of "The essence of Shostakovich can be found in THIS work".

[Fëanor]

You deserve a better considered answer, but my quick-&-dirty answer is:  While the set does not 'threaten' the Emersons as my favorite, either, there is a sort of "domesticity" and angloiserie in their approach which I am finding a nice variant tone to the music.

Angloiserie -- Cool !!! ... Whatever it means.

[Fëanor]

I seem to be in a decided minority here, since the Fitzwilliams  are at the moment my least favorite set.  Part of it is the sound quality, which to me is inferior to the Emerson and Mandelrings.   But I also had  the feeling that the Fitzwilliams were often too sedate and polished.  Can I ask (other than the sound quality that Feanor mentions) what virtues the rest of you find in the Fitzwilliams? 
...

Queer indeed.  I like the sound quality of the Fitzwilliam and hate that of the Manderling.

As for the Fitzwilliam performance, I'm not a trained musician so a I really can't describe what it is I like about that aspect of it.