I'd say its because the Shostakovich quartets are a tough sell.  The
audience for string quartets is probably smaller than for, say, symphonies.
And a subset of this small audience likely prefers Haydn and Mozart to
Shostakovich.  Further, some of those without this preference possibly
hear the word "Shostakovich" and somehow find another outlet for their
entertainment dollar.>>Since I have a complete Quartet set by the
Fitzwilliam, I've decided >to >listen attentively to all of them and see
if I can answer my own >questions.  >But it would nice to hear some other
opinions.

I have this set and listen to it often.  In fact, I listened to the
8th a couple of times during the past week.  I find the early and middle
Shostakovich quartets to be accessible; the later quartets, as well as
the later symphonies, are more of a challenge for me.

Mitch Friedfeld