Yuri Bashmet, known to many as a phenomenal violist, appears here as conductor of the Moscow soloists, which he founded in 1992. The group is composed entirely of musicians under the age of 30, all of whom are recent graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. There's nothing young or immature sounding about this ensemble; in fact, it produces an amazingly sophisticated and appealing Russian sound. The balance is impeccable, and the distinct presence of the bass section is made all the more remarkable considering there's only one bass player. The sound is articulate and unified, and the variations in the tone color are vast.
The
Shostakovich Eighth String Quartet was written in an especially tumultuous time during the composer's lifetime. The performance here of the Chamber Symphony arrangement of that composition brilliantly captures all of the angst from the tumultuous second movement to the glass-like fourth movement and its lonely drone. It is the Sviridov Chamber Symphony, however, that deserves the spotlight on this album.
Bashmet himself was instrumental in resurrecting the score with the composer for this world-premiere recording. On listening, it is abundantly clear that Sviridov was a
Shostakovich student. Though not as filled with anguish as the
Shostakovich, this work still contains many of the features that make the
Shostakovich so enjoyable: edgy, almost harsh fast movements, glass-like stillness in slow movements, and a tendency to have a great deal of separation between voices.