Thursday 17 April 2008

A superb large fresh plaice this evening; undoubtedly the best and cheapest de luxe dish that can be bought. Eaten with great pleasure.

Then I renewed my acquaintance with Shostakovich's piano quintet, an impressive work often reminiscent of late Beethoven. The 1949 performance by Shostakovich with the Beethoven Quartet sounds entirely authentic. Somewhere there must exist a better transfer than the Doremi disc I have, typically over-filtered and with a thin, shiny sheen to the violins. If only someone, somewhere would re-incarnate this performance coupled with the Gilels, Kogan, Rostropovich recording just a few years later of the Tchaikovsky piano trio! I would buy ten copies.

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