"Borodin Quartet" plays Borodin Quartet #1, in A Major (1/5)

[Vanguarde12]

Oh, my God. This is absolutely profound. Thank you much for all of the uploads.

[VelikyUstyug1]

This piece and the performance of this piece are so unspeakably dreadfully beautiful... that it ceases to be beautiful at all. Rather: it seems like the meaning of life... before we get distracted.

[violaviolino]

che bella esecuzione calda! la musica che ti accarezza.

[teh5o]

my favorite quartet. The goodness just fills my heart.

I wish my quartet would give this a shot. :(

[5610winston]

@teh5o Why not? Go ahead, tape it, and post it for all of us to enjoy!

[5610winston]

@alanstillair It has to be a quartet. There's too much music there for a bigger ensemble to do it justice!

[profoundlysecret1]

Can you recommand something really really cold...so this won't be as cold.

[profoundlysecret1]

This is lovely...people here are sweet too...music brings people together...thank you Truecrypt for this post

[NOSEhow2LIV]

I can hardly describe my joy at hearing this again after some years absence.I always thunk it to be THE concentrated masterwork of Russian chamberNoises,not an empty phrase,no note wasted. This recording brung out the best,with passionately vibrant string sound & resonant acoustic. One of the great documents of quartet playing.

[nomisssss]

best quartet ever

[winston5610]

Total agreement from me. An andante reminiscent of a Haydn introduction, a theme developed by expansion of a ten-note fragment of a bridge from Beethoven's first piano concerto, hints of Mendelssohn and a fugato episode worthy of Bach on a good day at 6:07, all with Borodin's own unique style and temperment. Technically demanding and rewarding. And this "composer" was one of the greatest chemists of the 19th century! Too bad this recording runs out before the movement reconciles all the themes.

[winston5610]

Oops, sorry. I was thinking of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto.

[PTCello]

Not "best ever" but a superb piece of music. Better than the more famous one. I like this quartet very much. You're spot-on about comparing to Haydn. Haydn would have adored this quartet. It is a shame Borodin didn't devote more energy to composing. Two quartets, 2.5 symphonies, and a magnificent opera at least, among his greats.

[5610winston]

Borodin felt that "Respectable people don't write music or make love for a living." He was a champion of women's education, a professor of chemistry (one of the greatest scientists of his time), and a family man. His flat in a dormitory at the Academy was split by a public hallway for access to the student quarters. He and his wife were regularly hosts to less-prosperous relatives, and it was often impossible for him to play the piano because someone had fallen asleep on it.

[birdmetal90]

any idea what balakirev was like? i've always pictured a mad scientist type

[5610winston]

@birdmetal90 I would recommend the biographical sketch of Balakirev in WIKIPEDIA. He appears to have been a prodigious musician from an early age. A few years younger than Borodin, he championed the works of Glinka and wanted to establish a uniquely Russian style of music distinct from the western European traditions.

His (Balakirev's) colleagues and friends remarks quoted in the WIKI entry suggest that, though functional, he was (how to put this delicately?) emotionally volatile.

[suzettegm]

This will surely melt the heart of even bigger nerds than yours truly.

[smithsherman]

Will you stop calling yourself a nerd already?!! You're a Pink Panther with a Peacock tail!

[suzettegm]

I'm on to you...You don't want to be seen in public with a nerd!

[smithsherman]

You have Alessandro-itus...you have to be in the right (99+)% of the time!

[suzettegm]

No, really, I love to be a 99+ Pink Panther

[smithsherman]

In my case,you're always a 101+ Pink Panther...in my book.

[smithsherman]

Thank you so much for this.Probably I never heard performers so vividly match the express

ion before.If I were leaving the earth grateful for another life lived I'd clutch a rose & have this in my mind's eye.

[huhas1]

Beautiful music, great performance..