Borodin Quartet Beethoven String Quartets,

Still at it and still pretty good at it even if not as good at it as it used to be, the Borodin Quartet continues to record with only cellist Valentin Berlinsky still on hand from the Borodin Quartet of the '60s. With a powerful attack and an expressive tone, the new Borodin Quartet is a fine ensemble. But although the attack is powerful, it's not the old Borodin's attack. The angle of attack is different, the point is different, the moment is different.

The third volume of the Borodin Quartet's long-awaited digital set of Beethoven's cycle presents one bold work from the end of the middle period, the String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95; the deeply moving late masterpiece, the String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op. 131; and the sui generis Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 133, which is treated here as a quartet in its own right.

The wisdom of experience and the infirmities of age lie perhaps too heavy on the Borodin Quartet's set of Beethoven's early quartets. There is no denying that the Borodin know exactly what to do with the music. Their balances are exemplary, their tempos are ideal, and their phrasing is supremely expressive. And there is no denying that the Borodin love deeply every note of the music.

This set of Beethoven string quartets by the Borodin Quartet reflects a mature perspective on the works. It's not that it lacks energy the Vivaces are vivacious and the Allegros have plenty of brio but it has wisdom and a maturity not generally characteristic of performances by younger quartets. These performances are comparable with the Budapest Quartet's last set of the quartets.

On MDG, the Meccore String Quartet has recorded Edvard Grieg’s three works for string quartet, of which only String Quartet No. 1 in G minor is in complete form. Grieg’s music is often seen as defined by a small body of works: Piano Concerto, Peer Gynt suites, Holberg Suite, Lyric Pieces for solo piano including the notable Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. Nevertheless, there are a number of gems to discover, including the Cello Sonata, the three Violin Sonatas and the G minor String Quartet performed here.

The Tokyo Quartet became one of the most prominent string quartets in the world and continues a reputation for insightful interpretations.

The Mandelring Quartet plays with unflinching resolve, sympathetic expression, incisive attacks, and penetrating tone, which are all necessary in Shostakovich's sardonic and frequently bitter language.

Remembered in the west almost solely for his Soviet-era ballet The Red Poppy – and even then, for one popular selection from it, the energetic "Dance of the Russian Sailors" – Reinhold Glière is long overdue for a revival. If this 2006 recording by the Pulzus String Quartet of two of Glière's four string quartets gives any indication of his music's potential appeal, then it's high time that this neglected oeuvre is reassessed, both by ensembles in search of new repertoire and labels in need of fresh material.

The recordings, made by Bavarian Radio between 2001 and 2005, are, if anything, classier still, with equally classy annotations by Shostakovich scholars Frans Lemaire and David Fanning.
Since fact and speculation are for once carefully defined, you won't see here the incautious revisionism of so much Shostakovich commentary.