Search - Dmitry Shostakovich, Manhattan String Quartet :: Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 9, 10

The best of the series

09/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lovingly recorded, played; studied interpretations of Shostakovich's most personal, emotional, deep works. Some of the finest string quartets of the 20th century."

Somewhat glib readings

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 08/15/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Manhatten's reading here is somewhat glib. The Ninth Quartet the opening moments can be rendered with incredible mystery,anxiety,almosta distrubing danger,something Shostakovich knew quite well in the dark times he lived through. Manhatten really don't bring enough contrast to their playing, I didn't feel there was a large dynamic spectrum,that's where mystery resides, in travelling from barely perceptible moments to,untrappled fury to Brucknerian cathedral-like sound.All the dynamic spectrum here was either an uncommitted loud or a soft. They also don't infuse their playing with colour schemes, where for instance the Borodin Quartet's reading there is always a biting nasal sound with an edge to it,or a provincial-like baseness,Gypsy-like colours of string sound to portray some irony. But that's a matter of judgemental taste. Still the lack of mystery in the Ninth here is disappointing,listen to the Borodin in comparison. Manhatten also strives,it seems to blend themselves all the time,like a lounge quartet,which has no place in Shostakovich and,which again makes for uninteresting listening when extended over the course of a quartet's length. The Tenth seems to hide some of these interpretive problems for its massive opening sound. The key of Ab major was always a positive key for Shostakovich, and here he relishes, basks in the hopeful sun of it.Frequently these Quartets are juxtaposed next to his immense Symphonies in that both genres moved together throughout his life,but that's incorrect I think. The Quartets had a purer conception,one that Shostakovich left for relatively more private reflections even though the gestures do parallel the Symphonies,well his music did have a one-dimensional cast to it,like he was retelling, working over the same dramatic icons over the course of his creativity."