Shostakovich / Goldmund Quartet - String Quartets 3 & 9 [CD]

Following on from their highly acclaimed first album featuring three quartets by Haydn, the Munich-based Goldmund Quartet now celebrates it's debut on the Berlin Classics label. Florian Schötz, Pinchas Adt, Christoph Vandory and Raphael Paratore take a leap - not just in time, but from a musical point of view. Their programme here features Shostakovich's String Quartets Nos 3 and 9. Since making it's debut at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, this young and ambitious quartet, described by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as possessing "decidedly appealing musicality with a truly individual signature", has become popular on the music stages of Europe and further afield. The four musicians, who have known each other since their school days, gained significant musical impetus from members of the Alban Berg Quartet, as well as from the likes of Günter Pichler in Madrid and the Artemis Quartet in Berlin. Winning second prize and the Special Prize at the 2018 International Wigmore Hall String Competition for the best interpretation of a 20th-century quartet is proof that these four musicians know what they are doing when it comes to performing Shostakovich: "The greatest challenge is that this music is so extreme. Elation, incredible downs, unbelievable sadness. You need to immerse yourself in these different emotional moods."