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To some extent, this recording of all Tchaikovsky's string quartets (including the sextet "Souvenir de Florence") gives an overall picture of the composer: they cover almost the entire span of his career and are of very different character. The musicians of the Klenke Quartet prove themselves to be the ideal conduit of his personal, almost confessional messages, combining clarity and precision with bright colors and intensity. Their performance benefits from their eschewing any sense of false pathos as well as false caution: the quartet succeeds in pulling at the audience's heart strings without sentimentality--in the funeral march of Quartet No. 3, for instance. Listeners will be astounded how close Tchaikovsky allows them to come to him through his chamber music.