Skampa Quartet - Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich: String Quartets (2007)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 63:14 | 431 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: The Wigmore Hall Trust | Catalog: WHLive0019
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 63:14 | 431 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: The Wigmore Hall Trust | Catalog: WHLive0019
Like so many upstart ensembles to come out of Eastern Europe, the Skampa Quartet found its beginnings while the members were students – in this case, at the Prague Academy in 1989. Only four short years later, the group gave its debut performance at London's Wigmore Hall and became the hall's artists-in-residence for the following five years. Its captivating energy and rapport with audience is frequently cited among its strengths. Whether this particular performance represents an off night for the quartet, or whether the performance really loses something when not viewed live is anyone's guess, but this live 2006 recording does not live up to its Wigmore Hall accolades. Opening with the Mozart K. 575 Quartet – one of the quartets Mozart composed for the cello-playing King of Prussia – the recorded sound quality of the ensemble is at once an issue. Throughout the Mozart, and indeed most of the album, the quartet sounds distant and hazy, like trying to listen to a performance through a door. The extensive cello solos in the second and third movements are thin and veiled; intonation among the violins is inconsistent, particularly when playing in unison or octaves. A complete change in character occurs with Smetana's Second String Quartet, a work far less familiar to most listeners than the First Quartet. Aggression and ferocity can be found in all four movements, and while Skampa's energy certainly delivers on this agitated character, the sound quality remains somewhat superficial with an insufficient core to the sound. The program closes with Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet; here again, as the quartet's volume increases, the focus and tone diminish. The energy gets the better of the group and each of the work's three Largo movements is unpleasantly fast and hurried. Apart from true fans of this ensemble or collectors of the Wigmore Hall series, most listeners would be better off passing on this particular offering.
Track List:
[01] - [04] Mozart - String Quartet in D Major, K.575 ––- 22:48
[05] - [08] Smetana - String Quartet No.2 in D minor ––- 18:45
[09] - [13] Shostakovich - String Quartet No.8 in C minor, Op.110 ––- 20:49
[14] Applause
Performers:
Skampa Quartet :
Pavel Fischer, vn
Jana Lukasova, vn
Radim Sedmidubsky, va
Lukas Polak, vc
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 21. January 2020, 7:44
Skampa Quartet / Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich - Strong Quartets
Used drive : HL-DT-STBD-RE BH16NS55 Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (Portable)\Exact_Audio_Copy_Portable\App\EAC\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 7:17.32 | 0 | 32806
2 | 7:17.32 | 4:12.00 | 32807 | 51706
3 | 11:29.32 | 5:19.37 | 51707 | 75668
4 | 16:48.69 | 5:57.73 | 75669 | 102516
5 | 22:46.67 | 5:18.44 | 102517 | 126410
6 | 28:05.36 | 5:32.59 | 126411 | 151369
7 | 33:38.20 | 4:33.03 | 151370 | 171847
8 | 38:11.23 | 3:20.10 | 171848 | 186857
9 | 41:31.33 | 4:43.64 | 186858 | 208146
10 | 46:15.22 | 2:53.65 | 208147 | 221186
11 | 49:09.12 | 4:28.34 | 221187 | 241320
12 | 53:37.46 | 5:01.67 | 241321 | 263962
13 | 58:39.38 | 3:40.52 | 263963 | 280514
14 | 62:20.15 | 0:51.73 | 280515 | 284412
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\MY_RIPPING\Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich - String Quartets (Skampa Quartet)\CDImage.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 7.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 280D1B3A
Copy CRC 280D1B3A
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3
[CTDB TOCID: nhKld2Sp662fUZv9AzE2TYdQtN4-] found, Submit result: nhKld2Sp662fUZv9AzE2TYdQtN4- has been confirmed
[626e4ed8] (3/3) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 162810CDAD381D2E1837E218951A7C8438AA66331814AAFD8BB047196F580C4E ====
EAC extraction logfile from 21. January 2020, 7:44
Skampa Quartet / Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich - Strong Quartets
Used drive : HL-DT-STBD-RE BH16NS55 Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (Portable)\Exact_Audio_Copy_Portable\App\EAC\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 7:17.32 | 0 | 32806
2 | 7:17.32 | 4:12.00 | 32807 | 51706
3 | 11:29.32 | 5:19.37 | 51707 | 75668
4 | 16:48.69 | 5:57.73 | 75669 | 102516
5 | 22:46.67 | 5:18.44 | 102517 | 126410
6 | 28:05.36 | 5:32.59 | 126411 | 151369
7 | 33:38.20 | 4:33.03 | 151370 | 171847
8 | 38:11.23 | 3:20.10 | 171848 | 186857
9 | 41:31.33 | 4:43.64 | 186858 | 208146
10 | 46:15.22 | 2:53.65 | 208147 | 221186
11 | 49:09.12 | 4:28.34 | 221187 | 241320
12 | 53:37.46 | 5:01.67 | 241321 | 263962
13 | 58:39.38 | 3:40.52 | 263963 | 280514
14 | 62:20.15 | 0:51.73 | 280515 | 284412
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\MY_RIPPING\Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich - String Quartets (Skampa Quartet)\CDImage.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 7.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 280D1B3A
Copy CRC 280D1B3A
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3
[CTDB TOCID: nhKld2Sp662fUZv9AzE2TYdQtN4-] found, Submit result: nhKld2Sp662fUZv9AzE2TYdQtN4- has been confirmed
[626e4ed8] (3/3) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 162810CDAD381D2E1837E218951A7C8438AA66331814AAFD8BB047196F580C4E ====