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“Arresting performance from superb quartet”~ Stephen Fisher ~ read full review
“Russian joke to start the year off right”~ William Dart ~ read full review
“The hall was absolutely chocka”~ Murray Khouri talking to Eva Radich ~ read full review
“Musical masters set benchmark for quartet string playing”~ John Button ~ read full review
“Shostakovich well served by Russian quartet”~ Rosalind Appleby ~ read full review
“Finding tears behind the straight face”~ Peter McCallum ~ read full review
“Great technique and musicianship”~ Jennifer Gall ~ read full review
“Nuance, intimacy and good vibratos”~ Eamonn Kelly ~ read full review
“Hearing the Borodins live in concert connects us to the source of Russia’s musical legacy with all its attendant complexities and triumphs.”~ Euan Murdoch ~ read full review
“I know of no other quartet in which the players efface themselves as selflessly as in the Borodin”read full review
1 March 2010
City Recital Hall, Sydney
TWENTY-ODD years separated the two Shostakovich quartets that made up the first half of this program, during which Stalin terrorised, died and was discredited. Yet arguably he remained in the Russian composer's music like a removed cancer that is never quite forgotten.
The fourth quartet, written in 1948, has the slightly straight-faced, outwardly peaceful, neo-classical mould of many of Shostakovich's early works. And as always with those pieces, a good deal of the interest is guessing what might be hidden behind that straight face. The work starts with a drone and hurdy-gurdy tune and later imitates klezmer dance, with apparent good humour.
Yet as the revealing comment by Shostakovich about Jewish music in the program showed - he described it as "laughter through tears" – such popular references usually have a double meaning in his works.
The Borodin Quartet's inscrutable intonation and balance captured this comic-tragic quality to perfection. Each phrase is shaped to bring out its musical essence, yet nothing is ever exaggerated and Shostakovich’s double-sided message emerges with beauty and unvarnished clarity.
The 13th quartet brings despair much more into the open. Written in a single movement with intriguing rhythmic modulation, the ending gives the impression that the unifying pulse that has remained present during both fast and slow music throughout is gradually ceasing, and time starts standing still.
At one point Shostakovich's rhythmic games require some of the players to tap the body of their instrument with the bow tip. The sporadic recurrence of this at the end from second violinist Andrei Abramenkov might make you want to check your pacemaker as Igor Naidin unravels the final viola melody.
By contrast, Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 might be seen to have just a single meaning and is touching for its unalloyed sunniness. Again, what one values about a masterly group like the Borodin Quartet is its focus on pure musical virtues - excellent phrasing, balance, careful listening and impeccable intonation.
In the much-loved Notturno, cellist Vladimir Balshin played the opening melody with beautiful simplicity, allowing the tone to swell enough to glow but not to distort, while violinist Ruben Aharonian answered with disciplined reserve that accentuated the work's sweetness.
