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Classical Notes: Best of 2006 (excerpt)

Source: The New Yorker

by Russell Platt

Shostakovich, "String Quartets Nos. 3, 7, and 8" (Deutsche Grammophon; EMI)

Two magnificent recordings of the same works cap the Russian composer's centenary year. The first, by the Hagen Quartet, offers readings of cool precision and blistering objectivity; the second, by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, features impassioned performances full of operatic lyricism and structural insight.