Steve Schwartz replies to Scott Peterson:

>>I have the Borodin String Quartet's version of the Shostakovich string
>>quartet cycle and love it.  I recently found a great price on the Emerson
>>String Quartet's version, however, and was wondering if anyone has heard
>>it.  Is it worth picking up on sale as an addition to the Borodins?
>
>I have both.  I may be in a minority, but I prefer the Emersons.  The
>Borodins seem too ponderous to me.  Also, did the Borodins record all the
>quartets, or did they stop at No. 12?

Steve, you may be in a minority, only because you are not in thrall to
received ideas.  Emersonian incandescence sweeps the field, sort of, though
on occasion it is light without corresponding heat.  There are two Borodin
Quartet DSCH cycles:  The vastly superior pre-1976 group recorded for
Melodiya 1-13, of which 1-12 [and the early string octet] appeared in
two 3-LP Seraphim sets, and at least 1-7 in two 2-LP MHS sets.  The later
Borodin Quartet recording, variously licensed from Melodiya by EMI and BMG,
has only a ghost of the heartfelt precisionism of the earlier playing.

>Actually, better than both are the individual recordings by the Beethoven
>Quartet.  Less heavy than the Borodins, more insightful than the Emersons.

Tonal weight is an objective property, and I concur with you.
Insightfulness is an intangible, and I do not fully concur.  Any of
the recorded Soviet quartets has lived for a long time with this music,
and may have internalized it more completely than the Emersons have had
time or experience of place and language to do.  Whether or not this
internalization entirely correlates with insight also remains to me an
open question.  One must put up with numerous flaws of execution in the
Beethoven Quartet set [five individual Consonance CDs, lacking Quartet no.
5] and with recorded sound at least one generation away from master tapes,
maybe more.  I still won't be parting with these CDs any time soon.  My
personal favorite cycle of all time is that of the Taneyev Quartet of
Leningrad, recorded between 1968 and 1978, last seen on six Melodiya CDs
[SUCD 11-00308/00313].  The Taneyevs have their own very consistent point
of view, with an ensemble sound approaching the lightness of the Beethoven
Quartet, but with more deliberate and volitional application of string
tone color.  The Emerson Quartet remains the only non-Russian ensemble to
achieve fully effective accounts of most of this music; we may continue to
honor the industry and commitment of the Fitzwilliams, the Brodskys, and
the Manhattan Quartet, but their playing fades rather severely in this
company.

Some individual CD issues will allow the newcomer to sample the Beethoven,
Taneyev, and early Borodin Quartet ways with Shostakovich without making a
major investment:

[1] Vanguard OVC 8077, issued in 1994.  Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57;
String Quartet No. 2, op. 68.  Beethoven Quartet, composer is pianist in
op. 57; monaural.

[2] Praga PR 250 077, issued 1996.  String Quartets Nos. 5, 6, and 7; mid
1970s Czech Radio broadcasts, the Taneyev Quartet in nos. 5 and 7, the
Beethoven Quartet in no. 6, monaural.

[3] Intaglio INCD 7561.  Piano Quintet, op. 57, Borodin Quartet,
Sviatoslav Richter, pianist, recorded at Spoleto in July 1966; String
Quartet No. 12 in D flat, op. 133, Borodin Quartet, recorded at St.
John's Smith Square, London, July 1970, monaural.

John Wiser
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