Violin Concerto / String Quartets Nos. 7 and 8

Acclaimed violinist James Ehnes is featured in two roles on this release. He is the soloist in Khachaturian's Violin Concerto and leads the Ehnes Quartet, making its Onyx debut, in two works by Shostakovich. The Khachaturian is an instantly accessible work, infused with the music of the composer's native Armenia. Shostakovich's fifteen String Quartets form the most important body of music in the genre after those of Beethoven. The eighth is one of the most impressive and popular in the canon. The terse, highly emotional seventh is dedicated to the composer's wife Nina, who had died in 1954.