David McGown wrote:
Ray,
I am a sucker for Shostakovich, and the 8th is my one of my favorite quartets (certaintly his darkest and most angst-ridden). I heard good things about the Pavel Haas quartet, this was my first real listening.
Although I am very much a HIPtser (i.e. Historically Informed Performance), I really like Alexandre Tharaud playing French baroque on piano, he really gets the essence and makes the music come through with clarity, feeling, and style. Just listened to his latest album "Versailles" and loved it. I won't tell my harpsichord friends, however!
Thanks for the offer of the Gramophone magazines, I used to subscribe a couple of decades ago, and probably need to look into a digital subscription rather than print. My shelf space is pretty full with records, CDs, music and books, although it would be great to pour through the reviews, not sure I have the space to keep them. But let me sleep on that...I would be fun to read a review and immediately listen to the piece.
David
I like that Tharaud album a lot. His Chabrier is wonderful.
Jim and I like to check out Musicweb-International for new things to listen to. It's free and they post new reviews daily. Their pretty reliable, but it doesn't matter if you're streaming, you can just check out new releases.