Shostakovich / Stravinsky - The Borodin Quartet & Lyubov Edlina - Quintet For Piano & Strings / Three Pieces For String Quartet (1914) FLAC

Shostakovich piano quintet is a classic, and this recording has a lot of competition, starting from the Borodin themselves paired to Richter or Leonskaja. Here they play with Luba Edlina-Dubinsky who is the wife of Rostislav, the founder of Borodin Quartet. Later the two would emigrate to Europe and create the Borodin Trio of Chandos fame. She currently teaches piano at IU. All these details, because this is Edlina recording. Her playing is wonderfully nuanced. Listen for example to the tender dialogue with the violin (her husband?) in the opening bars of the Intermezzo (track B1) and compare it with the cheeky staccato of the following Allegretto. The recording engineer did right to put her piano front and center. In general, the recording is of good quality, perhaps a touch too close-miked.
The Stravinsky "filler" is a miniature that strongly reminds the later Bartok quartets. Pity Stravinsky did not do more with this material!