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
The Shostakovich Quartet (Andrei Shishlov;
Alexander Balashov; Alexander Galkovsky; Alexander
Korchagin) 
