In recording a complete cycle of Shostakovich’s quartets, the St. Petersburg String Quartet takes the great risk of being compared to other ensembles (the Emerson, Borodin, and Fitzwilliam Quartets, among others) who have made exceptional recordings of this music. For the most part, this Russian group holds its own, but comparisons are inevitable, especially when the results don’t quite measure up, as is true here. While this volume offers quite a few moments of beauty, there also are times when you yearn for those other performers.
The disc opens promisingly, especially in the sharply acidic tang of No. 11’s scherzo. The energy in that section sets a provocative if ultimately unfortunate tone for the rest of the album: there’s a brisk, committed vitality in the faster movements that the slower-tempoed movements all too often lack. While the lively syncopations of the Quartet No. 13’s Doppio Movimento are a highlight of the recording, the return to the single-movement piece’s original Adagio tempo offers a sluggish, lumbering pace. There’s no doubt that this is supremely somber material, but it is so heavily weighted here that the music simply suffocates.
Similarly, the players bear down so hard throughout the Eleventh Quartet’s Elegy that the music never gets a chance to breathe or sigh. Nor is there a sense of shape to the Nocturne of the Quartet No. 15: the viola solo does not emerge in clear enough contrast to the accompaniment, and the relatively gossamer (as ethereal and fairy-ish as Shostakovich ever gets) effect is lost. The sound, as on previous discs in this cycle, is roomy but still warm. We can hope that the group’s energies and interest in this project aren’t flagging: after all, there are two more volumes to go (the penultimate is scheduled to be released in early 2003). If there weren’t such strong competition in this repertoire, this St. Petersburg version would be acceptable, but it pales in comparison.
