Amazon.com Shostakovich's orchestral and instrumental works often blend traditional classical with Baroque musical forms. The second quartet has four movements like a traditional symphony or string quartet, but the forms of those movements are all closely related to the Baroque dance suite: there's an impressive overture, followed by an operatic recitative and romance, a lively waltz, and a final theme and variations. Quartet No. 12, by contrast, is in two large movements, a short opening in moderate tempo, and a huge finale nearly 20 minutes long. It's a much darker piece than the Second Quartet, though both are very well played and recorded as part of this fine survey of all the Shostakovich Quartets. Budget price, too. --David Hurwitz