Sam Pawlett:

>So far in my short time on this list, I haven't heard Zino Francescatti

ZF, a fine somewhat old fashioned master, really beyond the scope of
music I prefer.

>or the Manhatten String Quartet mentioned.

Fine musicians surely, but I've only heard them in the below:

>especiallly the Manhatten's Shostakovich cycle.

A rather lacking cycle, at full price not a contender (today on ESSAY?),
unless You are a MSQ hard neck devotee, I would not bother.  Mostly
lacking becuse they seem to not understand the musical maxims Shostakovich
music needs, probably because the have not enough understanding of the
extramusical context of these (and all of) DDS compositions, ie.  music
is more than the signs on the paper.

peter lundin, gothenburg.se