This is the final volume in the Pacifica Quartet's superb series of the Shostakovich quartets entitled The Soviet Experience. I've commented before on the added value of the concept: each album includes two CDs, with 3 or 4 Shostakovitch quartets, an additional quartet by a great Soviet composer (Miaskovsky, Prokofiev, Weinberg, and here Schnittke), a long and illuminating essay about the music, and evocative Soviet-era graphics. Volume 4 has all of this, but when I consider the whole series, I'm struck by how impressive it would have been even without this framing device. These are first-class recordings of the 15 quartets Shostakovich wrote from 1938 until 1974, and I would place the Pacifica Quartet in the top group of complete Shostakovich recordings, along with the Fitzwilliam and Borodin Quartets. With this impressive accomplishment under their belts, I wonder what interesting recording projects these talented young musicians are contemplating now.
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