These Edinburgh Festival recordings show a great quartet on top form. The BBC mono sound is well balanced‚ with an attractively warm sound‚ and there’s a real sense of occasion‚ particularly strong as the unbroken span of the Shostakovich‚ then a new work‚ unfolds. The powerful emotional tone is set in the opening movement and intensified by superb rhythmic control throughout the ferocious Scherzo. The bleak‚ war­torn landscape of the penultimate movement is enhanced by uncompromising senza vibrato tone‚ while the more personal expression of grief at the end of the quartet sounds touchingly spontaneous. Borodin’s Second Quartet is given the kindof performance that is possible only whenmusic has become completely familiar yet not stale. Each player has discovered what weight and colour every detail needs for maximum effect. It’s very free playing‚ but never sounds affected. The Ravel has similar virtues – an immensely colourful performance‚ taking faster tempos than we often hear‚ particularly in the middle movements‚ and never content justto establish a beautiful‚ dreamy mood‚ but rather seeking to characterise each idea as vividlyas possible. In 1962 the Borodins went on to make studio recordings of the Shostakovich and Borodin. The performances are naturally very similar‚ and though the concert versions have some advantages – a more spontaneous flow in the slower parts of the Shostakovich‚ more natural­sounding accelerandos in the Borodin finale – Decca’s fine stereo sound does allow the playing to make a greater impact. But‚ as a record of the Borodin Quartet in its prime‚ and for the Ravel‚ it’s a most welcome issue.