# Making sense of all that vinyl!



## Vinyl (Jan 22, 2014)

I was actually thinking about blogging about going through my newly acquired record collection, and this seems like just the place for that.

My thought was that while simply picking things to play at random works, I will quickly forget what I've listened to and what I thought of it, and this could help me sort through in a more conscious manner, perhaps, plus it will help me remember what I've heard and what I liked (and why).

Mostly, this is for me, then. But you can help, of course, by commenting. So please do. 

Most entries will probably be on what I'm currently listening to, but some will go back and catch up with some of what I have been listening to the last couple of months as well.

Here we go, then. Blog entry number one:

*The string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovitch*

One of the things about taking over someone else's record collection is that I'm limited to the choices made by a man with different taste than mine, often made in a time with different aesthetic ideals. The guy started collecting seriously in the early sixties. HIP wasn't hip yet. Or at least not as ubiquitous.

The Borodin quartet, however, can claim to be more HIP than just about anybody, since the composer himself often "informed" the performances.

So I figure that as long as the recording technical aspects are taken care of, you can probably do worse than owning a 6-LP box set of Shostakovitch's string quartets. 1 through 13.









The quartets were all recorded by Melodiya in the USSR in 1967 (except number 13, which was recorded in 1972), and released by EMI under the HMV logo. I have no issues with the recording at all. Sounds great to me. Good balance, excellent dynamics. Not the widest soundstage ever, but now I'm looking for stuff to complain about.

And I don't know why, because this is very very good. 
I don't know why, but I've never heard these quartets before. I was expecting them to be rather less accessible, pointier. More abrasive. I don't know why, even, maybe it was because I sat though "Testament" in its entirety this summer and "Shostakovitch" somehow got mixed up with "blisters on my butt". 
The music is demanding, in the sense that it grabs my attention and I have to write between sides and disks. This isn't something you put on in the background. Or put on and tell a friend "Oi, listen to this!!!" 
String quartets should be used sparingly, and in solitude.

Now, the thing about box sets is they are too big. If I race through all of it in one session, well first of all I'd never get any sleep, but of course it's not fair to the music. But even if I portion it out, I often end up never listening to some of the disks. How, for instance, does one get past number eight? 
During this session I heard the first record, with quartets number one and two, and record five, which has number eight on it. 
I'll be playing that one more, that's for sure.

Just look at that label!









OK. I am very happy with this box, and will probably not be looking for other versions of Shostakovitch quartets for a few years. This is quality! Good start. My highest praise right fro the get-go. Oh, well.

That final Largo... *sigh*


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Usually considered the best release of these quartets, this is one of the cases where I´d believe that the LPs could have perhaps an even better sound than the CDs.

I only own some of the quartets with the Borodin4 on Eurodisc, and the complete sets with Fitzwilliam4 (LP; also good!) and the Shostakovich4/Regis CD. If the Borodin turns up at an attractive price, I might skip one.


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## Vinyl (Jan 22, 2014)

Whoa! I wanted to hear more, and put on side 3. 
I had noticed this when I first wrote this, but so many hours later the fact that the 13th quartet is "crammed in" on side 3 had escaped me. So I was expecting to hear quartet number 3, and also that number 3 was somewhat related to one and two. Number 13 was a very interesting and haunting piece of music, but some water has run under the bridge between the second and thirteenth quartets. Big surprise, then. 
I am now enjoying number three. And promise to read the label from now on.

Oh. The Adagio movement!


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