Private investigations

Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets. Borodin Quartet. BMG Melodiya (six mid-price discs, available separately or as a cased set) Not long after the premiere of Shostakovich's Quartet No. 8, written in Dresden and dedicated to the memory of "the victims of Fascism and war", the Borodin Quartet went to the composer's home to play the work to him, in the hope of hearing constructive criticism. When they finished their performance they saw Shostakovich, head buried in his hands, weeping. They put away their instruments and left as quietly as they could.

Shostakovich didn't embark on the first of his 15 string quartets until after the scarring of his public censure over the opera Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk in 1936. It has often been argued that thereafter he channelled into his symphonies statements of a public nature that would be deemed suitable by the authorities, reserving chamber music as an outlet for expressions of an altogether more private nature. As a cycle, the quartets are much more even in achievement than the symphonies. Happily, too, they lack the bombast which can be so hard to take from Shostakovich the symphonist, even if you choose to read his intent as ironic. Using melodic material that's disarmingly straightforward, even naive, the quartets display a sophisticated ear for the niceties of string writing, and reflect the composer in moods from easy-going to desolate, following a path of increasing compositional adventure - and increasing bleakness - that culminates in the seven slow movements of the final quartet. The Borodin's performances are the finest I've heard. The new set collects their second (1978-83) cycle with the Piano Quintet (live, with Richter), and the Two Pieces for String Octet (recorded with the Prokofiev Quartet in 1964).