Thursday, October 17, 2002 20:00
Macao Tower Auditorium
250
| Programme: | |
| Borodin: | String Quartet No. 1 in A Major |
| Schubert: | String Quartet No. 10 in E Flat Major, D 87 |
| Wolf: | String Quartet in G Major “Italian Serenade” |
Ruben Aharonian and Andrei Abramenkov: Violins
Igor Naidin: Viola
Valentin Berlinsky: Cello
Undoubtedly one of the major quartets of today, the Borodin String Quartet was formed in 1945 by students from the Moscow Conservatory, changing its name from the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet to the Borodin Quartet in 1955. Cellist Valentin Berlinsky has been with the Quartet since its earliest days and violinist Andrei Abramenkov joined over 25 years ago. Igor Naidin learnt the art of playing in a quartet from several past members of the Borodin Quartet including violist Dmitri Shebalin, whom he eventually replaced. Ruben Aharonian has won prizes at several international competitions, including the Enescu, Montreal and Tchaikovsky Competitions.
January 2000 saw Valentin Berlinsky’s 75th birthday and the 55th anniversary of the Borodin Quartet, marked by celebratory concerts in Moscow and London’s Wigmore Hall.
The Borodin Quartet’s appearances this season include concert cycles at London’s Barbican Centre, Hamburg and Brussels, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Chatelet in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich and the Salzburg Festival. The Borodin Quartet’s recordings for Teldec Classics International, including Tchaikovsky’s Quartets and Souvenir de Florence, Schubert’s String Quintet and a CD of Russian Miniatures, have all received great critical acclaim and, in the case of the Tchaikovsky CD, a Gramophone Award (1994).
With its many personnel changes, the Borodin Quartet not only survived the Soviet regime, it managed to hold on to its musical integrity and is today as impressive as it has ever been
BBC Music Magazine, June 2001
What an enchanting, lovely ensemble! What perfect balance! Although it sounds like a rather used cliché, you can actually say that this is the Russian soul speaking longingly out of the instruments...
Flensburger Tageblatt, August 2000, on the Schleswig Holstein Festival 2000
Running time: approx. 1 hour 35 mins, inc. interval