Classical: Confessions of a Soul Close to Suicide SHOSTAKOVICH QUARTETS BARBICAN LONDON

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THE LONDON Symphony Orchestra's mighty Shostakovich Festival continues to roll. The wide open space of the Barbican platform is no natural setting for a string quartet but then Tuesday's line-up was no natural string quartet. Three of the world's top soloists - Maxim Vengerov, violin, Yuri Bashmet, viola, and Rostropovich, cello - with Alexander Barantschik, leader of one of the world's top orchestras, our very own London Symphony Orchestra, joined forces to perform string quartets by Shostakovich.

Soloists rarely make good public chamber music players. The temperament required to lead rather than to blend is a different one. Horsing around privately in "house concerts" …