Shostakovich String Quartets 14–15

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, the Asasello Quartet completes its full recording of the most significant string quartet cycle of the twentieth century for GENUIN. The great Russian composer left behind fifteen quartets – works by a complex, despairing, tender, distant, and enigmatic figure whose music continues to move and compel with its timeless power, even half a century after his passing. This is especially the case in these masterful interpretations by the Asasello Quartet, which are technically flawless and infused with the shared experience of 25 years, as well as with an extraordinarily profound engagement with the composer’s life and oeuvre.

Fono Forum
“It is music of farewell, which the four young musicians of the Asasello Quartet perform convincingly and sensitively.” Review by Martin Demmler, September 2025 issue

Deutschlandfunk
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death, Ingo Dorfmüller reviewed the complete recording by the Asasello Quartet and presented it in the Musik-Panorama program on August 11, 2025.

Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Rainer Pöllmann spoke with Justyna Sliwa and Rostislav Kozhevnikov about the complete recording of all of Shostakovich's string quartets. The interview can be heard on the program “Tonart” from 05 August 2025.

nmz
"With this edition, the Asasello Quartet delivers an impressive testimony to its skills. All extremes of the music are played out with relentless tension: with resignation and exuberance, desperate defiance and powerless forlornness, tender lyricism and brutal harshness, vulnerability and rugged ferocity." Review by Rainer Nonnenmann, 01.07.2025

Pizzicato
"The musicians perform a supporting interpretation, in which the melancholy aspects and aspects tinged with sadness are presented with care. [...] The Asasellos master the 14th quartet just as discreetly as they do atmospherically." Review by Uwe Krusch, July 9, 2025