The
Mandelring Quartet's sharp, edgy, and hard approach, which hasn't worked so well in recordings of Brahms and Schubert, is just the ticket for tackling Soviet modernist repertoire. This, the quartet's second volume of the string quartets of
Shostakovich, validates that approach yet again with performances that just feel right. There is a fiery, harrowing quality to the sound and musical choices that suits
Shostakovich's uniquely pessimistic world view, and one gets the sense that the musicians are really under the music's skin. Because the Sixth Quartet is less anguished by nature, the point and thrust of the
Mandelring Quartet is less appropriate, and thus less persuasive in that work. Still, this disc is well worth hearing by fans of the works, particularly in Audite's wonderfully immediate super audio sound.