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"Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" "Preludes for Holy Christmastide" SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 3 in F, Op. 73. String Quartet No.
6 in G, Op. 101. String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 Audite continues to issue fine SACDs in exceptionally rich sound. The first two listed above are unusual collections of Christmas music. The collection "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" features choral works, mostly unfamiliar, recorded in the resonant acoustics of Ev. Emmanuel-Kirsche in Köln, alternated with organ interludes recorded in the Evangelischen Kreuzkirsche, Bonn. Texts are, for the most part, about "small, tender and fragile things..." The second SACD consists entirely of rarely heard organ music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries written by rather obscure composers, played by Johannes Strobl on the Great Organ of the Abbey Church of Muri. The youthful Mandelring Quartet concludes their Shostakovich quartet series with this issue of Nos. 2, 6 and the powerful Quartet No. 8 in which the composer quotes from many of his earlier works including a revolutionary song (Tortured to death in prison). Audio quality is totally natural on all three of these releases. R.E.B. (December 2009) |