String Quartet no 2 in D major – Alexander Borodin
by richibi
“Russian Music“ (1881)
_______
Alexander Borodin’s ravishing String
Quartet no 2 in D major, from 1881,
was written only a few years after
Smetana’s 1876 “From My Life“, and
sounds surprisingly similar, the same
number of movements all in the same
order, fast, a dance step, polka or
waltz, then slow, then fast
their second movements are notably
united by their common use of long
bowing of paired notes from the
violins, to establish, irresistibly,
the rhythm of their individual dances
their eccentric, even strident notes,
stretching towards atonality but
remaining this side of the divide,
thus surprisingly welcome, even
captivating
the change of tempo right in the
middle of every movement to
separate and sharpen contrast
between the exposition and the
development, then the whole
thing all over again, all quirks
of the evolution of the
nevertheless stalwart string
quartet structure, as unassailable,
it would appear, as that of the,
also inveterate, sonnet
I could go on
the difference is in the intention,
the appropriation of the Viennese
model to express more culturally
expanded varietals of the original
mode, in these two cases, Czech
and Russian, it’s all in each their
homegrown cadence
and that’s how music speaks if
you lend an ear
think of the European Pinot Noir,
for instance, taking root in other,
foreign soil not being necessarily
any longer inferior, sometimes
even superior, downright even
celebrated, you’ll get, essentially,
the big picture
Alexander Borodin’s ravishing
String Quartet no 2 in D major,
note, is such a prize, an utterly
intoxicating wine you wouldn’t
want to eschew, miss
Gesundheit
Richard
Richibi's Weblog 
Thanks. http://youtu.be/GreUeqYWB4M
since I grew up with music coming out of a radio or a record player, Kurt, I, and my generation, never got the physicality of music playing, we were not able to distinguish the violin from the viola, it all came out of one box
I’m now nearly religiously bound to live performance for its understanding that music is carnal, sensual, not ethereal, as I’d, we’d, been conditioned to believe
though I will admit your Joachim version is superior, as are the Three Canova Graces
thanks for stopping by
Richard
Great aesthetic. Where do you live that you can see live music, especially pieces like this string quartet. By the way, I am 60 so my first exposure to classical music was television cartoons.
the “live” world I live in, Kurt, is virtual, in other words, the Internet, where you can watch concerts from Beijing to Beirut to Berlin, from Vladivostok to Vienna to Vancouver, my town, from New York to Nunavut to Newcastle, all from front row seats, and for free
surprises abound, the best “Dialogues des Carmélites” I’ve ever seen was from Manaus, Brazil, right there at the tip of the Amazon, or an “otherworldly”, as I described it in a blog (March 31, 2012), String Quintet in C major, D 956, of Schubert from Novosibirsk, Russia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7z2wVquLTQ), despite its unruly audience, for instance
cheers
Richard