Search - Dmitry Shostakovich :: Shostakovich: String Quartets (Complete), Vol. 6

Eder perfect again

Erik D. Lofquist | Shoreline, WA | 07/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos may be a budget label, but many of their recordings would be worth owning at any price. This is one of them. Of Shostakovich's fifteen String Quartets, the No.11 is perhaps the most immediately appealing, in spite of the composer's advanced age and poor health. The Eders give it all the the Slavic warmth and lyricism that lesser ensembles might miss. The quartet No.13, on the other hand, is given the jagged cynicism that it calls for. The Eders always seem to find and project the right mood of every movement in every Quartet, without ever resorting to cheap showmanship or empty emotional hamming. The recorded sound and engineering is up to Naxos' usual high standards--warm, lush, and immediate, without the phony over-brightness that many other labels seem given to."