In a recently published interview regarding Shostakovich (Tempo, April 1997), Solomon Volkov expressed the opinion that American string quartets “perform Shostakovich with much greater understanding than the quartets, especially the young ones, from Russia”. Volkov maintains that present-day Russians respond less acutely to this music than do people in the West, and certainly some of the more recent non-Russian recordings of the quartets – I’m thinking in particular of the much underrated Manhattan Quartet Shostakovich cycle on Koch (nla) – attest to a deep understanding of this profound and often elusive music.
Carlton’s programme from the young Kreutzer Quartet works best where a feeling of elegy predominates, as in the stunned, deathly-pale Lento of the Seventh Quartet and the equivocal half-lights near the close of the Eighth. Occasional off-colour intonation is a mild distraction (for example, 2'03'' into the Fourth Quartet’s touching Andantino), but elsewhere there is enough perception, thoughtfulness and musical empathy to back Volkov’s claim. But is there enough of a ‘cutting edge’ to oust the ubiquitous though still-unrivalled Borodin Quartet (their second recordings – originally on EMI, but newly reissued on Melodiya) from ‘first position’? Not in my view. Compare the two in, say, the last movement of the Seventh Quartet or the second movement of the Eighth and the Borodins’ greater authority is instantly apparent. So is their technical superiority, but those wanting to sample three Shostakovich quartets (including two of his greatest) should be satisfied with this nicely recorded CD. Just don’t expect the earth to move.'