Shostakovich: Last Three String Quartets: 50th Anniversary Recording

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These transparent, refined and frequently brilliant performances are thoroughly up to date. Which is not to suggest that they lack passion or understanding of the idiom. George’s presence guarantees... — Gramophone Magazine, January 2020 More…

Release Date: 25th Oct 2019
Catalogue No: CKD612
Label: Linn
Length: 85 minutes

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Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 138

Work length20:14

Album only

Fitzwilliam Quartet

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 14 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 142 in F Sharp Major

Work length27:55

$4.50

$6.90

$9.15

Fitzwilliam Quartet

I. Allegretto

Track length9:22

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

II. (Adagio -)

Track length9:33

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

III. Allegretto – Adagio

Track length9:00

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15 in E-Flat Minor, Op. 144 in E Flat Minor

Work length37:45

$7.05

$10.55

$14.30

Fitzwilliam Quartet

I. Elegy (Adagio -)

Track length12:49

$2.05

$3.05

$4.05

II. Serenade (Adagio -)

Track length6:49

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

III. Intermezzo (Adagio -)

Track length1:39

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

IV. Nocturne (Adagio -)

Track length4:47

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

V. Funeral March (Adagio molto -)

Track length4:45

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

VI. Epilogue (Adagio)

Track length6:56

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

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Interview, Alan George on Shostakovich's String Quartets

10th October 2019

Violist Alan George looks back on fifty years of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, and remembers their unique relationship with Dmitri Shostakovich.

• The Fitzwilliam String Quartet celebrates a remarkable milestone with this special fiftieth anniversary recording of Shostakovich’s last three string quartets.

• Fittingly, this landmark recording will look back to the music which first propelled the Fitzwilliam to international prominence.

• Shostakovich entrusted the Fitzwilliam with the western premieres of his last three quartets (nos.13, 14, 15), and before long they had become the first ever group to perform and record all fifteen, winning many international awards along the way.

• The highly innovative String Quartet no.13 is notable for its unique single-movement form and the virtuosic viola writing, which shines a spotlight on founding member Alan George.

• No.14, despite its twelve-tone structure, is perhaps the most accessible of Shostakovich’s late quartets with a wealth of identifiable melodies.

• The six movements of no.15 are profoundly melancholic and intimate, with the composer’s obsession with death a clear influence.

• The Fitzwilliam’s pre-eminence in the interpretation of these works has persisted: Benjamin Britten reported after Shostakovich’s death in 1975 that the composer had told him the Fitzwilliam were his ‘preferred performers of my quartets’.

Reviews

January 2020

These transparent, refined and frequently brilliant performances are thoroughly up to date. Which is not to suggest that they lack passion or understanding of the idiom. George’s presence guarantees that, and his own warm and eloquent playing is one of the glories of this disc. None of these four players is afraid to push things to extremes...you’re repeatedly blindsided by the tenderness and humour of this supposedly death-haunted music.

Shostakovich: Last Three String Quartets

2 CDs

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Interview, Alan George on Shostakovich's String Quartets

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