Tchaikovsky Borodin

A slightly curious compilation (two Russian performances dating from 1962, one English from 1976) but an attractive one, and very good value. I had not heard the Gabrieli's Tchaikovsky before, and liked it a great deal: properly chamber-scale, in colour as well as tone of voice, and nice underlining of the lyricism in even Tchaikovsky's most exuberant pages.

Hidden behind the late 19th century’s great symphonies, sumptuous ballets and concertos with moving climaxes is something much more thoughtful and contemplative. A delicate sonic world, where silence is as important as sound, marked by pianissimi and a veiled, almost restrained feeling of melancholy. This secret landscape comes courtesy of a few precious pieces for string orchestra by three Russian composers, all active at approximately the same time.

The String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Opus 11, was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's first completed string quartet of three string quartets, published during his lifetime. (An earlier attempt had been abandoned after the first movement had been completed.) Composed in February 1871, it was premiered in Moscow on 16/28 March 1871 by four members of the Russian Musical Society: Ferdinand Laub and Ludvig Minkus, violins; Pryanishnikov, viola; and Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, cello.

„Many Russian instrumental works of the 19th century were based on a programme, and the same holds true of Alexander Borodin’s Second String Quartet. Here the underlying subject was the great love he felt for his wife Ekaterina. In 1877, the composer (who was also a doctor and a chemist) travelled to Heidelberg, where he had met her 16 years earlier. In letters he described to her how he was returning to the spots they had visited together, and added: “I would give anything to have you here at my side.” Borodin finished writing the D Major Quartet on a date that was likewise symbolic: on 10 August 1881, their twentieth anniversary…“ (from the liner notes by Mathias Corvin)

Whenever the Borodin Quartet notches up an anniversary, so too does its cellist (and so in 2005, while the ensemble marks 60 years as what the Russians call the Quartet named Borodin , we also toast Valentin Berlinsky on his 80th birthday). This is very much as it should be: Valentin Berlinsky is both patriarch and soul of the quartet. As anchorman throughout of the group which turned to the Soviet authorities for its present name in 1955, Berlinsky has lived through many changes of personnel in the early years, guided the quartet through difficult times at home and on countless tours, and still imparts his ineffably cultured tones to its latest incarnation.

Established in Moscow in 1945, and still performing today, the Borodin Quartet sustains a distinctive tradition in the interpretation of Russian chamber music. Over the decades its members – all trained at the Moscow Conservatory – have inevitably changed, but the ensemble’s identity has remained cohesive, its philosophy and aesthetic embodying an entire musical culture. The quartet’s close association with Dmitri Shostakovich has gone down in history, and his chamber works are central to this 8CD collection which, offering music by a succession of Russian composers from Borodin himself to Schnittke, spans the 19th and 20th centuries.

Shostakovich - Complete String Quartets (CDs + Scores!) - Borodin Quartet
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 6 Cds, Covers; 15 PDF | 2.21 Gb (CDs) + 39.8 Mb (Scores)
Label: Melodiya/BMG - Date: 1997

Rarely do we come across as intimate and wide-angled a set as this collection of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets, all of them played by the Russian Borodin Quartet. Recorded in Moscow between 1978 and 1983, the quartets are excellently reproduced in digital sound by Sviatoslav Richter, who maintains just enough shadow from the old Melodiya vinyl's audio vérité to make the music breathe passionately…