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Borodin Quartet
Russian Legacy

Borodin Quartet Review

Jennifer Gall, The Canberra Times

18 February 2010

Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, Thursday 18 February 2010

This concert brought us nothing less than the soul of Russian music. In an extraordinary blend of technical mastery and musical enlightenment, the Borodin Quartet performed three compositional masterpieces that linked the audience directly to the minds of the two very different composers.

Every note represented the lineage of the Borodin Quartet musicians who have been members of this ensemble throughout the 65 years it has existed. This is an indescribable sound and unique to the Russian music tradition.

The pure strength of sonority produced by the players was consistently arresting. I felt that if it were possible to conduct a scientific calibration of the bow movement of the instrumentalists playing the accompanying parts, at any given moment the comparable hair follicle on each bow would align exactly, creating the vivid unity of tonal quality.

The musicians maintained an austere stage presence sending a clear message that the quartet is the instrument of the composers they serve - their playing is the mechanism by which the musical ideas of these masters is given continuous rebirth.

The Shostakovich Quartet No 4 in D major is a perfect example of the composer's belief that music should be layered in meaning, and the Jewish melodies he drew on provided him with the effect of "laughter through tears". In the third movement, with perfectly balanced playing, the quartet animated the complex interplay of Jewish intonations and compelling dance rhythms used by Shostakovich to express the tensions caused by repression of Jewish culture and intellectual musical experimentation under the Stalinist regime. Ruben Aharonian's violin tone cannot be described other than to say he makes the instrument's voice sound exactly the way Shostakovich intended; other superlatives are inadequate.

I was particularly moved by the playing of violist Igor Naidin in the Shostakovich String Quartet No 13 in B flat major, as the work moved from lyrical, sorrowful beginnings through wild pizzicato and reaching brooding resolution.

Naidin produced an astonishing array of tonal textures and dynamic variations to hold the heart of the work securely from beginning to end as thematic ideas exploded and reformed.

Through the exceptional sonority produced by the musicians, the opening theme sounded like a discordant church harmonium, desperately seeking an old spiritual melody which can never be restored.

This quickly transformed into cries of despair in the high pitched string voices. We heard the core dance rhythms and fragmentary Jewish melodies fractured – flying and sliding about in pieces, reconstructing themselves into new patterns constructed and reconstructed by the composer's use of 12 tone rows.

Borodin's String Quartet No 2 flowed from the ensemble like liquid joy, the rich vibrato of the cello and perfectly matched timing of the group making the Notturno a transcendent experience for the audience.

It is difficult to describe an ensemble that lives and breathes its art with such reverence. Igor Naidin explains the magic: As each newcomer joins he hears the existing members playing in a very recognisable style, so he is automatically soaking up the tradition. It's as natural a process as could exist, learning while performing with your elder colleagues.

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