Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 3 & Piano Quintet 1920s Alpha

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Nominee in Chamber Category

2019 Gramophone Award Nominee

“This is the first recording of music by Shostakovich from the Belcea Quartet, so let us hope that it will be the precursor to many others, since these performances are splendid…”

Terry Barfoot – MusicWeb-International.com – 27 August 2018

"...A tremendous addition to the Shostakovich discography."

Harriet Smith - Gramophone magazine - July 2018

Performance ***** Recording ****

"The Belcea Quartet's first Shostakovich release offers much food for thought. Their insightful performance of the Third Quartet fully encapsulates the work's war-scarred anguish..."

Erik Levi - BBC Music magazine - August 2018

***** (Exceptional Album)

Antoine Mignon – Classica magazine (France) – June 2018

‘Supersonic Pizzicato’

“Shostakovich’s Third String Quartet as well as the Piano Quintet allow the Belcea Quartet and pianist Piotr Anderszewski to show their ability to emphasize the expressive contrasts of the music. Both works are powerfully argued, and the performances have a captivating concentration and intensity throughout.”

Uwe Krusch – Pizziato.lu – 5 June 2018

"Having completed a cycle of the Beethoven quartets, the Belceas are proceeding cautiously with Shostakovich. They begin with No 3, in F major, which seemingly starts as a tribute to Haydn, but rises impressively to one of the Russian’s most brooding adagios. Anderszewski’s gleaming accounts of the fast movements are tempered with a prelude and fugue of hushed intensity. This is playing to rival the classic account by Richter and the Borodin Quartet."

Hugh Canning - The Sunday Times (Culture magazine) - 13 May 2018

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