You’ll be Russian into chamber

RUSSIA’S world-renowned Borodin Quartet will perform works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Hugo Wolf in Hobart on Saturday night.

Originally formed in Moscow back in 1945, the Borodin Quartet are one of the world’s most acclaimed and longest-running chamber ensembles, celebrated for their insight and authority on the chamber music repertoire for more than 70 years.

Like the Quartet’s founding members, the four current musicians — violinists Ruben Aharonian and Sergei Lomovsky, violist Igor Naidin and cellist Vladimir Balshin — were all students at the Moscow Conservatorium.

The Quartet have earned a reputation for their performances of pieces by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, with their Shostakovich cycles performed all over the world and widely regarded as the definitive interpretations.

Shostakovich personally worked with the Quartet’s original members, and the benefits of that experience have been passed directly on to new members joining the ensemble over the years.

“[Shostakovich] was a man of great humour and sarcasm, he was able to be joyful and funny,” Naidin said. “I think nobody has played his music more in the world than the Borodin Quartet.”

The group will conclude their Hobart performance with Shostakovich’s final and longest string quartet, the No.15, which was composed while he was in hospital in Moscow.

“The composer entrusted his most personal feelings and thoughts to this intimate genre, where he could ‘speak out’ about everything he was thinking of,” Naidin said.

Saturday’s program will begin with Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet

No.1, which remains one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works, and will also include Italian

Serenade by Hugo Wolf. Musica Viva Tasmania presents the Borodin Quartet in concert at Hobart Town Hall from 8pm on Saturday. Tickets are $72-$90. For bookings phone 6233 2299 or go to www.theatreroyal.com.au