Beethoven, Schubert, Shostakovich: String Quartets

Album review

The David Oistrakh String Quartet is not just named for the great Russian violinist but has received explicit permission from David Oistrakh's family to use his name. It is a fitting homage, for the fiery Russian-school playing of the namesake seems to live on in these performances. For the most part, the program covers well-trodden ground, but the interpretations are fresh. The Beethoven String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, is fast and intense, with a blistering Prestissimo finale coming off of an extremely agitated Menuetto; the finale is more than 30 seconds faster than that of the Pražák Quartet, the Oistrakh's labelmates. The Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73, is the subject of some debate, with claims on one side that Shostakovich added wartime subtitles to the movements only to avoid charges of "formalism" from Stalin's cultural henchmen. The David Oistrakh Quartet offers an argument for the other side; the booklet notes take the titles at face value, and, more importantly, the performance seems imbued with the haunted quality of the postwar era. This is a superb performance of this work that really inaugurated the predominant style of the latter part of Shostakovich's career, with tentative opening movement, truly grim slow movements, and sardonic finales that resolve nothing. The album concludes with a finale, the single-movement Schubert String Quartet No. 12 in C minor ("Quartettsatz"), and an encore, an arrangement of Paganini's Caprice No. 24 for string quartet by the group's violist, Fedor Belugin. The enterprise sounds ridiculous, but the results are delightful, with virtuoso requirements for all four players. This hardly follows on the highly serious program, but it doesn't really matter; the arrangement is one of a kind. This is a strong entry from a young quartet with a growing reputation.
© James Manheim /TiVo