These are three of the most important chamber works of the twentieth century; yet it is surprisingly difficult to come up with confident recommendations for recordings. This new BIS issue, actually recorded in the mid-1970s and barely acceptable in terms of sound-quality, does nothing to help.
At first the performance of the trio seems to be on the right lines. The first movement is as eloquent and as finely paced as any, until the grip slackens towards the end. But then the scherzo hangs fire, the slow movement is a little too detached (granted, it should not be too obviously lachrymose) and the finale throws everything away by being daintily musical at the most inappropriate point (track 4, 6'33'', from fig. 89 to 91 in the score). The Trio Zingara on Collins Classics, despite a poor slow movement, are the nearest I can get to a current recommendation.
Like the trio, the recording of the quartet sounds curiously biased towards the left channel, and it is dull in the treble, too. But in any case much of the playing here is simply too loud or too protracted to get under the skin of the music. I suggest the 1962 mid-price Borodin Quartet recording on Decca.
If you could combine Nadia Pelle from the Chandos issue with Ashkenazy and members of the Fitzwilliam Quartet from the Decca you would have something like a serviceable performance of the Blok Romances. On BIS neither the singer nor the instrumentalists are of a technical standard to be able to do justice to the music. Can EMI be prevailed upon to reissue their version with Vishnevskaya, Hoelscher, Rostropovich and Vasso Devetzi, I wonder?'