2020 54,416 reviews and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here You can also use this FreeFind              International mailing

Searching Musicweb Monthly index Recordings of the Year Label index Masterwork index Series index Search engines Review Archive Classical Downloads Jazz Concerts Nostalgia Books Film music Resources Composer pages Tony Duggan's Mahler survey National discographies Mark Morris's Guide to Twentieth Century Composers Ralph Moore's Surveys Online books Piano Trio Survey Pot Pourri - Early MusicWeb Gerard Hoffnung Arthur Butterworth's columns Philip Scowcroft's British light music collection Interviews Programme notes MusicWeb Listening Studio Other material Articles Seen & Heard Jazz reviews Message Board Announcements About Musicweb About Musicweb Contact Musicweb Contributors What they say about us Visitor stats Site Map

Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn

BUY NOW    AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Alexander GLAZUNOV (1865-1936) String Quartet No. 3 in G major op. 26 (1886) [27:45] String Quartet No. 5 in D minor op. 70 (1898) [28:45] The Fridays (Les Vendredis or Pyatnitsy: cycle for string quartet: Prelude and Fugue (book 1 No. 1) [10:16]; Kuranta (book 2 No. 6) [2:02] The Shostakovich Quartet (Andrei Shishlov; Alexander Balashov; Alexander Galkovsky; Alexander Korchagin) rec. State Radio and TV Committee of the Moscow Central Recording Studio 1979 (3); 1975 (5); 1974. ADD REGIS RRC 1211 [69:15]

This welcome CD restores to circulation a recording that first appeared on the lamented defunct Olympia label. The self-same analogue recordings appeared on Olympia OCD 525 circa 1992. I am not aware of any other Glazunov quartet cycles; not at bargain price anyway. The Shostakovich Quartet had the field to themselves and a fascinating survey they put together too. The Slavonic Quartet, written at about the same time as the Second Symphony, is a gracious and winsome piece with its first two and final movements similar to the whirling and smiling spirit of parts of Smetana's First Quartet. Despite the title it's not specially Russian although a more nationalistic flavour infuses the Mazurka style third movement. The Shostakovich Quartet play the piece with convincing high-spirited abandon. It fairly flies. The recording balance is up-front and so warm you could play this in the car on a winter's morning to defrost the windscreen. Just as warmly recorded, is the Fifth which in its first movement at times looks towards the Violin Concerto. The trippingly carefree playing of the scherzo keeps faith with the allegretto marking. It parallels the mazurka-allegretto of the Slavonic. The finale is at times bustlingly incessant to the point of oppression although the clear-eyed galloping final pages are a delight. The warmth and resonance of the acoustic are once again very welcome. The two make-weights are from the sequence of pieces written for Mitrofan Belyayev's Friday evening meetings. Both are in romanticised baroque get-up. This CD makes a good start. Perhaps if the reception is as good as the disc deserves we will also see Regis reissues for the other Olympias: OCD 173 quartets 2 and 4; OCD 526 quartets 6 and 7. I commend this inexpensive disc to explorers of the string quartet who already know and love their Smetana and late-Dvořák chamber music. Rob Barnett     Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat     Recordings of the Month January Linda BUCKLEY From Ocean’s Floor December Conner Riddle Songs Rodzinski Sibelius Of Innocence and Experience November Symphonies 1, 2, 3

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.