Borodin: String Quartet No.2 in D major (1881)
Allegro moderato
Scherzo:- Allegro
Notturno:- Andante
Finale:- Andante – Vivace
19th century Russia generally lacked a strong quartet tradition; her finest nineteenth century examples were undoubtedly by Tchaikovsky and Borodin – a grand total of five and a quarter – but those of the latter were disapproved of by his Nationalist colleagues in “The Five”, while Pyotr Ilyich listed chamber compositions with strings among his most hated instrumental combinations. An amateur enthusiasm proliferated, typified by the Friday quartet meetings at the home of Belaiev and his subsequent publication of various short pieces in two volumes, appropriately entitled Les Vendredis. However, it has to be said that the leading Russian composers were temperamentally more suited to the scale and dramatic scope of opera and symphony. Nevertheless, the example set by these two masters was soon taken up by such successors as Glazunov and Taneyev, both of whom produced substantial bodies of quartets; the mantle eventually passed to Dmitri Shostakovich, who singlehandedly changed one particular course of Russian musical history, in that scores of Soviet composers have since turned out scores of quartets, the majority clearly demonstrating their debt and influence.
It is all too easy for the musician to bemoan the fact that Borodin spent more of his time as a chemistry professor than as a composer. A statue erected to him in Russia actually pays tribute to his services to science rather than to music – and it should not be forgotten that in 1872 he had founded the first medical courses for women in the country. Conversely, the number of his musical works barely reaches fifty, of which two of the most important – the opera Prince Igor and the third symphony – were left unfinished at his death. Borodin himself complained of the “difficulty of being at one and the same time both a Glinka and a Stupishin [a civil servant], scientist, commissioner, artist, government official, philanthropist, father of other people’s children, doctor, and invalid…You end up by becoming only the last”. These words were written at about the time he was at work on the second of his two string quartets; six years later, worn out and exhausted by domestic as well as professional troubles, he dropped dead at a fancy-dress party.
Borodin and Mussorgsky were perhaps the greatest of the aforementioned group of Russian Nationalist composers collectively known as moguchaya kuchka – “The Mighty Handful (or “The Five”), and the writing of chamber music, with its strong Germanic associations, was frowned upon by the others. His first quartet was completed in the summer of 1879, and was initially a great success, but then (from that work’s point of view), Borodin made the mistake of composing another, which left its predecessor far behind in the popularity stakes, to the extent of almost total neglect in the West – indeed, No.2 is probably the most frequently performed of all Russian chamber works, and certainly appears to contain exactly the right combination of ingredients which go towards the making of a celebrated hit.
The quartet was dedicated to Borodin’s wife, and her happy inspiration is clearly reflected in the balmy tenderness and unaffected beauty of the famous Nocturne. The prominence of the composer’s own instrument (the cello) throughout the work adds another personal touch – but however ardent his vision or colourful his imagination, Borodin could surely never have predicted such a response to his Nocturne which, together with the Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s first quartet, has travelled far beyond the bounds of the recital room in various instrumental – and vocal – arrangements. How perfectly correct were the judgments of the two composers when scoring these pieces for string quartet, and how refreshing to hear them in their proper contexts. However, it is important not to let the Nocturne overshadow the rest of the quartet, since the other three movements are no less fine; in fact, the scherzo has become almost as popular on account of its delicious waltz-like second main theme. Borodin had explained that his first quartet was suggested by a theme from the Rondo finale of Beethoven’s B flat quartet, Op.130; yet a more tangible influence would seem to be the corresponding movement of the Op.135 quartet, whose crucial “question and answer” must have been in Borodin’s mind as he planned his own D major finale. However, it is lyrical warmth and high spirits, rather than drama or philosophy, which surely are the essence of this generous music; few works have given us in the Fitzwilliam more pleasure or satisfaction over the years than Borodin’s quartets.
© Alan George
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