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Borodin Quartet

Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky by top quartet
Masters of Chamber Music
Wed 10 Jan ’24 20:15 uur


Programme:
Shostakovich - String Quartet Nos. 1 & 9
Tchaikovsky - String quartet no. 2

Wed 10 Jan ’24
20:15 uur

When he found himself lost for words, he would ask them for advice. Sjostakjovitsj regularly consulted the Borodin Quartet when writing his 15 string quartets. A close bond, an artistic friendship since they had met in 1946. The Borodin Quartet would make a name for themselves with their renditions of Shostakhovich's string quartets, indeed almost completely identified with them, during the grand tours that took them around the world. And so The Guardian was able to write about them: 'The Borodins [...] make Shostakovich sound better than almost any other ensemble.'

The Borodin Quartet was founded in 1945 in what then still the Soviet Union. All four members studied at the Moscow Conservatory. Of course, the ensemble's members changed over the course of those 78 years, yet the sound remained the same. Smooth, perfectly balanced, flawless intonation: peerless. You will hear Shostakovich's first and ninth quartets. He wrote the first in 1938, when he was 32, the ninth in 1966. Almost thirty years in between, half a lifetime in fact, and iit's audible. He dedicated the ninth quartet to a loved one: his wife Irina Antonovna.

Part of

On Thursday 11 January, the Borodin Quartet teaches a masterclass open to the public. More information and how to order tickets can be found here.

The Borodins make Shostakovich sound better than almost any other ensemble

The Guardian

Masters of Chamber Music