Russian Chamber Music

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.

Content:

CD 1 TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartet No. 1 · String Quartet in B-flat major · Souvenir de Florence

CD 2 TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3

CD 3 SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets Nos. 1 & 15

CD 4 SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets Nos. 2 & 12

CD 5 SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet Nos. 3, 7 & 8

CD 6 SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet · Piano Trio No. 2

CD 7 BORODIN String Quartet No. 2 (excerpt) · Serenata alla spagnola · SHEBALIN String Quartet No. 5 (excerpt) · RACHMANINOV String Quartet No. 1 (excerpt) · PROKOFIEV Visions fugitives Nos. 10, 14, 16 & 17 · VAYNBERG String Quartet No. 7 (excerpt) TCHAIKOVSKY Children's Album Nos. 15-20 · String Quartet No. 1 (excerpt) SCHNITTKE Canon in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky · GLAZUNOV Novelette No. 5 STRAVINSKY 3 Pieces for String Quartet · SHOSTAKOVICH 2 Pieces for String Quartet

CD 8 SCHNITTKE String Quartet No. 3 · Piano Quintet MAHLER/SCHNITTKE Piano Quartet in A minor

Borodin Quartet

Mikhail Kopelman violin I - Andrei Abramenkov violin II - Dmitri Shebalin viola - Valentin Berlinsky cello

With Yuri Yurov viola · Mikhail Milman cello

Elisabeth Leonskaja · Ludmilla Berlinsky piano