[I may have lost Jim's part 1 post in this series, so I will see
 if we can get it back.  -Dave]

(Actually written from Paris.  Any weird typos I blame this time on the
European keyboard which is different frm the one I know at home.)

Shostakovich at the Kammermusiksaal--Quartets 5, 6, 7, 8.  Philharmonia
Quartet.

A while back, someone on the list asked if Shostakovich quartets are
ever performed.  His timing could not have been better, because this is
Shostakovich's centennary year; the Philharmonia Quqrtet (Berlin), the
Fine Arts Quartet, and no doubt others, are playing them all this season;

The hall is worth descibing for those who have never been there, and
is worth visiting.  Part of the Philharmonie complex and under the
direction of Simon Rattle, like the Philharmoniker, it is much larger
than I expected.  It must seat 12-1500, making it about half the size
of the Philharmonie's Grosse Saal.  The performing area is large enough
to accomodate a significant chamber orchestra.  The seating is steeply
raked and in sections of about 75 seats on different planes.  Ours were
more than halfway up, but very good.  Behind each seat is an oak backing,
higher than one's head qnd presumably serving an acoustic function.  As
in the large hall the floors throughout are of oak.  No carpet.  The
resulting sound was superb; the quietest notes were clearly audible, and
Berlin audiences are the quietest I have ever encountered.  Here they
included a large number of young people, some informally dressed.

The performance was extremely good--transfixing even.  The tonal, as
well as the expressive quality of the playing was outstanding.  At the
end there was a tremendous ovation, with yelling, and some standing this
time.  As an encore the quartet played a piece by Britten.

Jim Tobin