KRONOS QUARTET - BLACK ANGELS (2LP)

"Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed. In short, very much the sort of disc we've come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet. With an overall theme of war and persecution linking the works, the disc opens with George Crumb's Black Angels for electric string quartet; a vividly descriptive work inspired by the Vietnam war. An intense, poignant account of Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet (a work dedicated to the victims of Fascism and war) brings this unusual and thought-provoking recital to a fitting conclusion. I've avoided bringing into play any comparisons with this performance as it strikes me that the interest and value lies primarily in the recital nature of the disc, though let me say that this performance can more than hold its own in the stiffest of competition." Michael Stewart, Gramophone