Aleksandr Borodin was a late Romantic Russian
nationalist composer involved with the so-called
"Mighty Handful" and who spent many years laboring on
his compositions.
Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major differs from
many of the composer's other works in two ways: it was
completed quickly, during August 1881, and it lacks a
published program. These two factors may be related;
Borodin dedicated the quartet to his wife Ekaterina,
and it was written as an evocation of when they met an...(+)
Aleksandr Borodin was a late Romantic Russian
nationalist composer involved with the so-called
"Mighty Handful" and who spent many years laboring on
his compositions.
Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major differs from
many of the composer's other works in two ways: it was
completed quickly, during August 1881, and it lacks a
published program. These two factors may be related;
Borodin dedicated the quartet to his wife Ekaterina,
and it was written as an evocation of when they met and
fell in love in Heidelberg 20 years earlier. The
composer seems to have represented himself in this
quartet with the cello (he was an amateur player),
while Ekaterina is portrayed by the first violin. Each
of the movements is warm and blissful, the whole
suggesting the depiction of a growing, deepening love.
The first movement opens with a sweet, sighing melody,
traded between first violin and cello in an almost
conversational manner. Borodin and Ekaterina dominate
the rest of the movement with a beguiling discourse;
even the development brings effortless, serene
reshapings of the exposition's melodies, and the
luminous coda rounds out the movement nicely. A
Scherzo, written in a free sonata form, follows. The
light first subject skips along gracefully, while the
second subject is reminiscent of a waltz; both are
gentle dances, gently handled. The development is in
more decisive duple rhythm, but the recapitulation soon
brings back the triple rhythm and its attendant
character. Borodin and Ekaterina reappear in the famous
Nocturne which follows. Over a luminous gauze of
accompaniment from the second violin and viola, the
cello introduces a long, tender, ardent melody marked
cantabile ed espressivo. This melody soon passes to the
first violin, which plays it over commentary from the
cello. A more decisive second theme enters on both
instruments, which develop it before playing the first
theme in an intimate canon. The first theme lingers
until the end of the movement, when in a long coda it
ascends until the violin and cello play it together in
a silvery thread of tone. The finale begins with an
Andante introduction, as if unwilling to come down from
the emotional heights of the previous movement, soon
leading into a quicksilver, energetic Vivace, whose
long coda provides a fittingly joyous conclusion to the
entire work. As love letters go, Borodin's String
Quartet No. 2 is unsurpassed; as string quartets go, it
is deservedly loved.
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