The only thing that lets down this Teldec-Ultima reissue is the boring monochrome cover art. But then you’re not going to listen to text blocks or liner images, and everything else about this two-CD set of Shostakovich chamber works is so extraordinary as to make it self-recommending. Take the Borodin Quartet’s celebrated performance of the Piano Quintet Op. 57, with Elisabeth Leonskaya. Indeed, it seems to be in the direct lineage of the 1940 recording made by the Beethoven Quartet, with Shostakovich himself at the piano.
The Borodins and Leonskaya recorded the Quintet in 1995, coupling it (as here) with the enigmatic Second Piano Trio. Selecting generally fast tempos provides a high level of excitement throughout, particularly in the fugue, scherzo, and finale. And you also fully sense the symphonic breadth of the piece, since the Borodins mould and propel the music with unerring skill, especially in the intermezzo. But they also appreciate the worth of under-statement, so even in the confrontational dialogues of the first movement, the sense of equal exchange between piano and strings is always to the fore.
There have been several very good versions of the Second Trio, and the Borodin/Leonskaya version is up there with the best of the best. Great playing abounds, as with Valentin Berlinsky’s hushed intensity of expression in the tricky solo cello passage at the beginning. Of more recent accounts, that by the Vienna Piano Trio on Nimbus is good here, but it’s a pity the performance seems to lose focus quickly, whereas the recording by the Laredo/Robinson/Ax trio comes closer to the Teldec account, with superb playing and excellent recorded sound.
As for the Borodin performances of Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos. 1 & 15, which occupy disc 2, they say all that’s required and are technically beyond reproach. DG’s Emerson Quartet turns in a very pleasing live account of No. 1, and the Decca Fitzwilliam Quartet cycle includes decent accounts of both works, but it’s fascinating to hear Shostakovich’s first and last quartets back-to-back, and the Teldec package lets you do just that. In sum, all four performances here are superlative, and this is an essential purchase.
