Borodin Quartet - Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Borodin - String Quartet

Borodin Quartet

What binds all members of the Borodin Quartet is that they all graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. Music critics praise the almost orchestral sound of the Borodin Quartet. "Blistering" and "Robust in sound", wrote NRC Handelsblad. Cellist Valentin Berlinski left the quartet in 2007 as the last original member, but the musical legacy of the first generation of players is still very much alive among the current four strings.

"When I auditioned for the Borodin Quartet, they had me in their sights for a long time."
Viola player Igor Naidin seemed more or less destined to join the Borodin Quartet, as did cellist Vladimir Balshin. "As a student at the Moscow Conservatory I had the opportunity to take master classes with the then legendary Borodin Quartet. When I auditioned for the quartet as a 26-year-old, it turned out that they had me in their sights for a long time," laughs Igor with his sonorous bass voice.
(Read the interview with Igor Naidin.)

The mysterious 'Quartettsatz' by Schubert

Schubert's famous 'Eighth Symphony' went down in history as his 'Unfinished', the same goes for his mysterious 'Twelfth String Quartet' of which Schubert received only the first movement on paper. This 'Quartettsatz' belongs to Schubert's most played string quartet music. And, coincidence or not, the beginning even reminds a bit of that 'Unfinished' symphony

Tchaikovsky's piano music for string quartet

A special piece on the programme is Tchaikovsky's 'Kinderalbum'. Piano music that makes you wonder at first sight if it is suitable for a serious string quartet. Viola player Igor Naidin talks about it: "Because there is so little chamber music by Tchaikovsky, our former first violinist, Rostislav Dubinsky, decided to make a version for string quartet This arrangement is anything but a copy of the piano version, because Dubinsky did not have to take into account the limitation of the pianist's ten fingers

Borodin's Second String Quartet

What does the Borodin Quartet have to do with Borodin's music that they named their ensemble after it? Igor Naidin says: "Borodin is our 'patron saint', so to speak, and in a broader sense the founder of Russian chamber music. What was special about Borodin was that he was not a musician, but a chemist. He worked at the medical military academy and wrote music in his spare time. That's why his oeuvre remained small, but what he wrote were his masterpieces. You hear that Borodin is mainly looking for beauty of sound and harmony. You notice that especially in the 'Notturno' of his Second String Quartet, which has become most famous"

The Borodin Quartet consists of:

• Ruben Aharonian, violin
• Sergei Lomovsky, violin
• Igor Naidin, viola
• Vladimir Balshin, cello

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In-depth

Schubert - Quartettsatz

The enigmatic Quartettsatz D 703 (1820) forms an island in Schubert's fifteen string quartets. Eight years passed between his Eleventh String Quartet (1816) and the famous Thirteenth String Quartet 'Rosamunde'. Not only is this compositional 'silence' intriguing to the polywriter Schubert, the piece itself also sounds mysterious. The tremolos (fast strings) with which the piece starts create a mysterious atmosphere. It looks a bit like the way Schubert's Eighth Symphony begins, which the composer started two years later. These are not the only similarities, because both the Quartettsatz and the Eighth Symphony remained unfinished. And just as in that symphony the proverbial sun breaks through at some point, so in this loose quartet movement Schubert composed one of his most beautiful melodies. For this reason alone it is an intriguing question what the rest of this string quartet would have sounded like if Schubert had had the inspiration to finish it. Luckily we have at least the first part

Tchaikovsky - Kinderalbum

In contrast to Schubert's fifteen string quartets, Tchaikovsky's contribution to the genre, with only three string quartets, is somewhat pale. So did Rostislav Dubinsky, the former primarius of the Borodin Quartet. He made a beautiful version of Tchaikovsky's Kinderalbum for string quartet, which is anything but an exact copy of the original. The chosen tempi are different and also the four strings are not tied to the pianist's ten fingers. With his Kinderalbum, Tchaikovsky wrote music that is by no means childish. His goal with these colorful miniatures was that they could be played by children. Perhaps the Russian composer had in mind his seven-year-old nephew Vladimir Davydov, to whom Kinderalbum is also dedicated. Kiddingly, Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother-in-law: "Bobik is a wonderful boy when he plays the piano. When he sees the notes, he'll no doubt think there's an entire symphony dedicated to him." To make the music even more attractive, Tchaikovsky incorporated a few folk songs in it. For instance, the 'Neapolitan Song' is based on an Italian folk song that he had previously included in the ballet Swan Lake.

Borodin - String quartet no. 2

Like Tchaikovsky with his Kinderalbum, Borodin dedicated his Second String Quartet to a dear person: his wife Ekaterina. With this string quartet he sealed their twentieth anniversary together. It is said that the composer expressed himself in the cello part (Borodin played the cello himself), while he portrayed Ekaterina in the violin part. Both instruments play a prominent role in this string quartet. In the first movement, violin and cello have a lovely dialogue with each other. The 'Scherzo' gave Borodin the shape of a light-footed dance. In the following 'Notturno' Borodin and Ekaterina are again clearly in the foreground. The warm-blooded cello melody that this movement begins with returns later as a profound canon between violin and cello. Anyone familiar with this melody will be familiar with the song 'And this is my beloved' from the Broadway musical Kismet (1953), for which Borodin's 'Notturno' was a model. Also in the finals, violin and cello will perform together in a pair of passionate unisonos for both instruments. Music that sounds like a loving embrace