SLS 879   EMI / MELODIYA  UK 1974   recorded in USSR  and pressed in the UK (string quartets 1 - 12 recorded 1967, no. 13 in 1971)    6 LP BOX SET with LEAFLET                  NM / EX+ box and leaflet

HQS 1362  EMI / MELODIYA  UK 1975  recorded in USSR and pressed in the UK            NM / EX+

The last two string quartets, nos. 14 Op. 142 and 15 Op. 144 were composed in 1973 and 1974, too late for inclusion in the 'complete' survey of the Shostakovich String Quartets published as a box set in 1973. The Borodin Quartet having temporarily ceased performing in public pending the assimilation of new members, Russia's youthful Beethoven Quartet were chosen by Melodiya to record the composer's final essays in the form and the recording was published in 1975, the cycle duly completed.