Search - Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky :: Alexander Borodin: Grand Trio; Mikhail Glinka: Grand Sextet; Tchaikovsky: String Sextet

First Class Chamber Music Performances

Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 05/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Multisonic CD is part of that label's "Russian Treasures" series, and everything here is, well, a real gem. Glinka's Sextet for piano & strings is an utterly charming work of considerable melodic invention, with a rather virtuoso part for piano. Written in 1832 when the composer was 28, it owes a lot to Mendelssohn (whom Glinka met in Italy during his three-year stay there). I can't imagine a better performance than the one here by pianist Alexei Nasedkin and the Shostakovich Quartet.



Listening to Borodin's delightful Grand Trio for two violins & cello, it's hard to believe that music was just a hobby for this renowned scientist, chemist and physician (reportedly he only composed on Sundays). The list of Borodin's treatises and other scientific works is probably longer than that of his total musical oeuvre. And he was self-taught in music! This Trio is a lovely work, and the performance by violinists Dmitry Tsyvanov and Vasily Shrinsky with cellist Sergey Shrinsky is surely definitive. These three string players were members of the famous Beethoven String Quartet, which premiered most of Shostakovich's string quartets.



Finally, there's the String Sextet "Souvenir of Florence" (1890) by Tchaikovsky - one of his greatest works (listen for the "pre-echoes" of Janacek in the last two mvts.). This reading is far and away the finest account I have ever heard (including the augmented Borodin Quartet's). The lineup here is extraordinary: Leonid Kogan and Elizaveta Gilels (sister of Emil & wife of Kogan), violins; Rudolf Barshai and Genrikh Talalyan, violas; and cellists Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and Mstislav Rostropovich!



Highest recommendation - one of the all-time GREAT Russian chamber music CDs!"