The Alexandra Quartet plays beautifully and that’s perhaps why I have a couple of reservations about their well-received Shostakovich cycle, being re-released on two 3CD sets on the Foghorn Classics label. For me the overall temperature is a little too warm, lacking the icy edge that so much of this composer’s work demands. Shostakovich should never be comfortable, but this ensemble – violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarborough and cellist Sandy Wilson – makes him sound almost friendly on occasions.