Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovski (1840-1893)
Quatuor à cordes n° 1 en ré majeur, op. 11
Quatuor à cordes n° 2 en fa majeur, op. 22
Quatuor à cordes n° 3 en mi bémol majeur, op. 30
"Souvenir de Florence", sextuor en ré mineur, op. 70

Mstislav Rostropovich, violoncelle
Heinrich Talalyan, alto
Quatuor Borodin

Rostislav Dubinsky, violon
Yaroslav Alexandrov, violon
Dmitri Shebalin, alto
Valentin Berlinsky, violoncelle

Composed between 1871 and 1875 , the Quartets for Strings by Tchaikovsky still belong to the author's early period, but are considered among the most significant of the Second half of the nineteenth century, a period that, despite a significant production for this chamber ensemble, does not include masterpieces comparable to those of Beethoven and Schubert. There are many versions of these works, and that we are presenting now is one of the few truly historical existing: they are the recording of the late fifties made by the first formation of the legendary Borodin Quartet , which relies on the presence of Mstislav Rostropovich and Heinrich Talalyan for the recording of the famous "Souvenir de Florence", one of the major Sextets of the Nineteenth Century, written in 1890.