Beethoven / Shostakovich / Bach: Prism I – Danish String Quartet

   in Classical Music (Nov, 2018)
The ECM label is known for its innovative approach. Here is the first in a new series of discs entitled Prism: each album will present a Bach Fugue and a late Beethoven Quartet which is in turn connected to a later quartet.

The Bach Fugue in E-flat BWV876 (from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier) is heard in Mozart’s arrangement, pure and quick. The Beethoven Quartet in E-flat Op 127, heard last, is historically the prism through which the light of Bach passes; and placing Shostakovich’s final Quartet second is daring, music which seems to preclude sound thereafter.

Parts of the Shostakovich are so blanched they hardly live; close recording allows …