CCMusic.com

This is the final installment in the Pacifica Quartet's highly anticipated, and already highly acclaimed four-volume CD survey of the complete Shostakovich string quartets: The Soviet Experience: String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries. The Soviet Experience Volume IV features Shostakovich's String Quartets Nos. 13-15 from the 1970s. These three quartets are paired with Schnittke's allusive homage, String Quartet No. 3, written in 1983. It's a work full of quotation including a 12-tone row transposed from a theme by Shostakovich, whose influence was felt throughout Schnittke's career. This superbly performed series of audiophile recordings, produced and engineered by multiple Grammy Award winner Judith Sherman, will appeal to everyone interested in great Russian music of the 20th century.