I'm sure I must have asked this before, IGI, but I think it was in the days of the official BBC boards when we all knew each other less well: which MDC did you use to go to? I was assistant manager of the South Kensington branch until it closed, and after that of the Strand branch until, erm, that one closed too. (That all somehow makes me sound bad in a way I wasn't intending. )

tinners, since you mention MDC in South Ken, does the name Ron Bezubka mean anything to you?

I sometimes visited the Strand shop, especially to pore over the sale items, which could well be where I bought the Shostakovich set. I was sorry to see it close. I also go to the St Martin's shop to search for operatic bargains. I only really visit the South Bank shop when I'm at the RFH.

Is that the one next to Coutts?  I think I may have stumbled across that closing down sale too.

To think we all met tinners before he was, er, tinners.

Tommers

Yes, and to think I met all of you before you were, well, you!

That trick step tricked a few people, George. I hope you weren't one of the ones who came away bloodied from the encounter.

Never bloodied, t-i-n, just a bit bowed occasionally. I think it was the handwritten "Look out for the Trick Step" notice that always distracted me for just long enough to fall over it.

The staff were always knowledgeable and helpful, I must say, particularly with questions like "Who was Shostakovich?" (just to keep on topic).   

I was very chuffed to see in the South Bank MDC the other day that no less than three R3OK contributers had their very own named sections. "I know them" I thought to myself proudly .

Both the Melodya Borodin and the Brilliant Rubio sets of the Shostakovich Quartets arrived today. I have cassettes of a QEH survey of the quartets, et. played by the Borodins (ex Radio 3 FM), but apart from that and a 'live' CD with the 8th quartet, this is the first set recorded by them to come my way. I probably know the Fitzwilliam recordings the best, then those by the Emersons and the Shostakovich Quartet. I have the Brodskys but have hardly dipped into that set as yet.

What is it with Melodya? Why the ridiculously thin card for the box, as with the Kondrashin symphonies set, yet heavy weight card for the individual sleeves?

I am currently listening to th 4th (Borodins), and am already glad to have invested in the set. Perhaps unusually, the 4th was the first I remember getting to know, via a recording by the Beethoven Quartet which occupied the final side of a 2 LP set of the 8th Symphony (Gauk conducting, IIRC).

The Borodins' 4th having now finished, I have put the Rubios' on. The recorded sound is not as good, but as I adjust to it, their performance sounds well considered, if not quite as searching as that of the Borodins.

After a period of some time without purchasing CDs (see New Year Resolutions thread!) I splashed out all of £3.50 on an Amazon marketplace purchase of The Limpid Stream:



I had only heard a few numbers from this before and it's attractive music; one or two pieces were also used in his Jazz Suites. Rozhdestvensky brings the whole thing off with his usual charm. Have other members heard this or seen the ballet performed? I think the Bolshoi brought it to London last summer. Any opinions on Shostakovich ballet music? I think I shall look out The Bolt now!