Shostakovich: String Quartet & Piano Quintet

Evgeni Koroliov, piano; Pavel Hula, violin & The Prazak Quartet

Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartets opp.108, 110 / Piano Quintet, Op.57

Certainly the most intense chamber programme that might be dedicated to the joint memory of Sviatoslav Richter and Dmitri Shostakovitch : the Quintet, which the composer played on tour with the Beethoven Quartet in the 1940s Soviet Union - and frequently programmed, with the Prazaks, by Evgeni Koroliov, one of the rare Russian pianists who can pride himself on being a direct descendant of Richter in the Russian repertoire and Bach - coupled with the 1960 quartets: no 7, Op 108, a funeral divertimento dedicated to Nina Vassillevna and no 8 op.110, a vigorous protestation perhaps in reaction to the sight of a destroyed Dresden but especially in memory of the massacre perpetrated by Bolshevism and the war.

Price: $27.98