MUSIC AND DANCE

SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor. TCHAIKOVSKY: String Quartet No. 1. Lafayette String Quartet. Dorian Recordings DOR-90163. A highly refined performance can occasionally take away from a piece of music, especially one dealing with raw emotions. Such is the case with the Lafayette’s reading of Shostakovich’s Eighth, which here seems not grotesque or cruel or stark enough. This ensemble’s rich, singing, somewhat restrained sound serves Tchaikovsky’s less intense First Quartet well, however. The disc is filled out nicely with two of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues in well-crafted arrangements by Rostislav Dubinsky, former first violin of the Borodin Quartet.