Shostakovich: Piano Quintet & String Quartet No 2 - Takács Quartet, Marc-André Hamelin

String Quartet No 2 in A major Op 68[35'11]
Takács Quartet
1
Overture: Moderato con moto[8'01]
2
Recitative and Romance: Adagio[11'02]
3
Waltz: Allegro[5'27]
4
Theme and Variations: Adagio – Moderato con moto – Allegretto – Allegro non troppo – Allegro – Adagio[10'41]
Piano Quintet in G minor Op 57[35'15]
Marc-André Hamelin (piano), Takács Quartet
5
Prelude: Lento – Poco più mosso – Lento[4'38]
6
Fugue: Adagio[12'08]
7
Scherzo: Allegretto[3'22]
8
Intermezzo: Lento[7'19]
9
Finale: Allegretto[7'48]

It is hard to envisage a more enticing prospect: Shostakovich’s densely woven String Quartet No 2 and his deceptively backward-looking Piano Quintet, performed by the stellar Takács Quartet and Marc-André Hamelin, generously notated by David Fanning, and lovingly recorded by Hyperion’s Simon Eadon and Andrew Keener team. Seventy minutes of post-Revolutionary Russian ecstasy.