Tchaikovsky - String Quartet 1 [Borodin Quartet]The Borodin Quartet was formed in 1945, that's a 65 year history, however, there's only one original member left from this line up when they made this recording, so in a real sense, it would be like Paul McCartney calling himself and three new guys the Beatles!.
Tchaikovsky's String Quartet 1 is by far the best known of his Quartets, it's a masterpiece, it's got some of the loveliest melodies around, especially the famous Andante Cantabile, however on this listen, i was so much taken aback by the first movement.
It starts off with what sounds like chanting to me, like a Barbershop Quartet of old Russian Monks! [0:00-0:49], it's extremely original, and straight away i can see the power of invention and the grasp of the String Quartet medium is very high in Tchaikovsky, in examining this movement, Tchaikovsky has an abundance of ideas, and each new idea fits so expertly into the mix seamlessly, this very opening theme comes back again [2:50-3:37], but this time with an ingenious little chanting intro/link [2:45-2:50], there's a taste of the opening later [5:31-5:54], but the whole thing's transformed into a lovely variation, there's snippets of the theme here and there, a nice section is where the cello/viola play the chant in the background presto [6:53-7:01], and then again [7:13+], but this second time there's a transition between fast and in the background, to slow and in the foreground, as a new variation of the opening chant is played [7:26-8:07], a very expert way to gradually introduce something, woven from one fabric to another without a join!, probably the highlight of this movement, right at the very end there's a high pitched frantic and very short blast of the opening in the upper reaches of the violins [10:30-10:40], very effective.
Here's the first movement Moderato e Semplice being played on YouTube.
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