Brodsky quartet shostakovich string

United KingdomBrodsky Quartet – Shostakovich: Royal Leamington Spa Pump Room. Warwickshire, 28 & 29.9.2024. (CP)

Brodsky Quartet – Krysia Osostowicz – violin, Ian Belton – violin, Paul Cassidy – viola, Jacqueline Thomas – cello

The Brodsky Quartet’s performance of the fifteen string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich proved to be a lesson in his art of quartet writing! The visit to the historic and once beautiful Royal Leamington Spa Pump Room and Baths, was their sixth visit since 2002 at the request of Leamington Music. They returned in the knowledge their audience would, as always, be a most friendly and knowledgeable one. With an absence of coughs, an absence of dropped programmes and a total absence of mobile phone interruptions, the weekend proved to be a most welcoming event with visitors from across the West Midlands and from further afield. For many attending, the memory of these two days of six concerts will stay with them for the rest of their lives, no doubt marvelling at the stamina of the four players who performed for a total of more than 450 minutes, offering, in addition, anecdotal introductions to each of the fifteen quartets. Such tenacity is to be much admired! As August 2025 will be fifty years since the death of Shostakovich, this foursome deserves to play a large role in any celebrations.

In 1938 Shostakovich teamed up with the Russian Beethoven Quartet, formed in 1922, for a lifetime of collaboration. Quartets Nos. 3 and 5 dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet provide evidence of the composer’s ability to surprise his audiences with the unexpected; a lopsided march in the third movement as an example enjoyed by violinist, Krysia Osostowicz. Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14 dedicated to individual players of the Beethoven Quartet. These fifteen quartets are a private diary – each quartet would be a chance for the composer to say something personal. Shostakovich identified No.1 as a ‘springtime work’, learning the art of quartet writing;

String Quartets is an album by D. Shostakovich, released in 2003. String Quartets includes a.o. the following tracks: "Brodsky Quartet - String Quartet No.1 In C Major,", "Brodsky Quartet - String Quartet No.1 In C Major,", "Brodsky Quartet - String Quartet No.3 In F Major,", "Brodsky Quartet - String Quartet No.3 In F Major," and more. The album is a classical 6-CD.

The sound of the group and its attitude to these scores has not remained static. Two Brodsky stalwarts have departed since the old Teldec recording. Something else has changed, too, in that the competition is much fiercer today. Set against the fabulously integrated sonority of the Borodin Quartet and the heartfelt homegrown advocacy of the Fitzwilliam, the Brodsky’s original studio-made series felt distinctly ‘contemporary’. That impression (only partly attributable to the drier sound of what was the first such sequence to be digitally encoded throughout) was also the product of a certain detachment and self-consciousness of approach. Nuances were applied sparingly a

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Complete String Quartets
Brodsky Quartet (Daniel Rowland (1st violin), Kian Belton (2nd violin), Paul Cassidy (viola), Jacqueline Thomas (cello))
rec. live, 4-6 March 2016, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam
CHANDOS CHAN10917(6) [6 CDs: 397:27]

This is not the first time the Brodsky Quartet has recorded a complete set of Shostakovich’s string quartets, and Paul Shoemaker’s review of the 2003 re-release is an interesting read on this subject in general. I remember this Teldec set as being very fine, but also something of an also-ran in comparison to the red-blooded character of what remains my favourite set of these works, that with the Fitzwilliam Quartet on Decca. This and the more recent Alexander String Quartet recording on Foghorn Classics (review) are my main references when it comes to full sets these days, though there are now numerous excellent complete recordings around.

I’m hopeless for getting out to concerts and am ashamed to admit I didn’t make the trek from The Hague to Amsterdam to hear any of these performances. I do know the Muziekgebouw well however both from on stage and as an audience member, and these recordings are a vivid recreation of that lively space. The Brodsky Quartet certainly responds positively to this environment, and the crackle of freshness and invention leaps out at you from beginning to