Russian quartet to open Chamber Music season

Igor Naidin, violist of the Borodin Quartet, said that because the ensemble is based in Russia, presenters often ask it to play music of Russia.

For the Borodin’s Oct. 15 concert at Albuquerque Academy, three of the four works on the program are by Russian composers.

At the same time, Naidin said in a phone interview from Moscow, “We’d like to present some of the masterpieces in our repertoire. We cannot embrace everything, but for Albuquerque we have quite a variety.”

The lone work on the program not by a Russian is Robert Schumann’s Quartettsatz. Schumann was German.

“This single-movement piece is so absolutely accomplished, and nothing else is needed,” Naidin said.

The Schumann opens the program and is followed by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album, which was written for piano. The Borodin’s original first violinist Rostislav Dubinsky arranged it for string quartet.

Naidin said that Tckaikovsky composed it for a nephew.

“There are 24 short pieces within the work, which is about 30 minutes long,” he said. “It is a great addition to the great Tchaikovsky string quartet repertoire.”

“We will make sure the audience will get all the details of all 24.

Some are European — French, Italian, German songs. Some are Russian.

Many are children’s tales. It starts with the morning prayer and ends with a church prayer,” said Naidin, a Borodin member for 21 years.

After intermission, the ensemble will perform two string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich — No. 6 and No. 13.

Naidin said No. 6 may be Shostakovich’s least dramatic string quartet, with “each movement finishing gently.”

The Borodin is in the midst of recording all of Shostakovich’s string quartets. The final recording in the cycle is expected to be released late next year.

The Borodin was founded in 1945, and is one of Russia’s premier chamber ensembles. It began touring the United States in the late 1960s, but the Oct. 15 concert is its first in the American Southwest.

The Albuquerque Chamber Music concert is one stop on the Borodin’s abbreviated American fall tour, which concludes at New York City’s 92nd Street Y.

The other three concerts in ACM’s 2017-18 season are:

Jan. 21 — Takács Quartet.

April 29 — The duo of violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner.

June 10 — Pacifica Quartet.