Search - Dmitry Shostakovich, Emerson String Quartet :: Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor

Great, but maybe a little too perfect?

S. Hawkins | New York, NY | 02/04/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's definitely difficult to go wrong with any recording of the Emerson String Quartet. They all have nearly flawless technical abilities, and their many years together as an ensemble allows them to musically communicate by intuition. They are truly amazing.But, on a piece like this, they seem to be their own worst enemy. This rendition of the 8th quartet is spectacular and sparkling, but is that what we really want? I feel that this is TOO perfect, and thus lacks a lot of the dirtiness that would result from truly digging into this monumental work.Take the third movement on this recording. It's really quite excellent, but it feels to me as though it just isn't sinister enough. At times it sounds almost like a grotesque organ grinder playing over a macabre folk-like accompaniment. In other words, the third movement has moment in which it must sound downright filthy. I don't feel Emerson truly captures this mood. They come awfully close, but a little something is missing. Likewise with the second movement, in spite of its explosive and anguished nature, occasionally the quartet sounds as though it is using this movement as an opportunity to show off HOW WELL they play their instruments.All whining on my part aside, this is still a fine recording. And at such a low price, you would be insane NOT to buy it. However, I still feel that the Borodin String Quartet has recording the definitive version of the Shostakovich Quartets, and the Emerson Quartet has failed to surpass it."

Why it's so cheap ...

S. Hawkins | 10/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Potential buyers: [price] often signals an inferior recording by less than stellar musicians. That's NOT the case here. This is a superb recording by cats who can play. I suspect the low price reflects the 19:34 playing time and the disc's function as a marketing piece for the ESQ's five CD set of the complete Shostakovih String Quartet cycle."

Dark document to the present as the past

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 06/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My first introduction to Shostakovich Quartets was the Borodin Quartet,who bring the overwhelming power that these quartets certainly can imply.They do that with an aggressive approach to gesture where you can almost visualize the rosen dust hovering above the proceedings, where the impassioned tones as in the Allegro molto here almost bend out of tune. You sense this with Emerson however these gents are ever so sensitive and gentle coaxing the ethereal spiritual qualities from this quartet a reading seldom encountered. This lightness is forever present in the first violin, well the upper heavenly regions who has a difficult time, like a lone voice from a devasted village, weeping against his more brooding dark brethren.At first I thought this light sensibility distracted me from the focus of this work, But no. The subject of the Quartet is devoted to the victims of fascism and war, the Second World War, actually a frequent subject in of this composer. Shostakovich himself is no stranger to political struggle nor inexperience with the atrocities of this century, having experienced it first hand, having friends disappear around him, humiliated himself with the mindlessness of the cultural apparatchiks in Stalin's bureacracy.The disappeared is something we have come to associate with the in Central and South America in our times. but the voice of Shostakovich's profoundly extends to the present.If this Quartet has any content it is because it extends itself into the modern,for these atrocities haven't abated.If it ends, forecloses its content for the unknown millions of the Forties, of fascism and that war the Quartet has a museum quality, a content for passive reflection in the safe confines of our homes.I cannot except that view. This Quartet along with The Fourth are those which imply this timeless content, a voice that extends to the present. Musically the structure implies this and is felt in marking this Quartet framed oppressivily with Largos,then flying into the welter of violence in Allegro molto."