Borodin String Quartet

Click pics to enlarge. In the back is the Library.

Concert Review: Borodin String Quartet

December 17, 2023, Guangming Culture and Art Center Concert Hall

Borodin String Quartet

Shostakovich - Borodin-Tchaikovsky

Shenzhen is a huge city. It's incredible how over the last 10 years Shenzhen has built many Cultural Centers in many districts. These Cultural Centers are huge, way larger than Hong Kong's Cultural Center, usually near the local Government Headquarters, and comprise at least 2 Concert Halls (or Opera House), with a big Library and, sometimes, Museum and Book City. The scale of each rivals HK's West Kowloon development, but there are multiple sites here! For an idea, see my report on the Bay Opera (here and here).

The rapidly enhanced capacity means a lot more of local and visiting art events can be accommodated. In terms of classical music, this is great for people like me, but it poses problems as the local classical crowd is likely quite small, though equally likely steadily growing. Witness the world-class sensation Alexander Malofeev concert that I attended -30% attendance, when it would sell out in a couple of hours were it to take place in the Musikverein (or Japan). There was a Leonidas Kavakos recital recently that had to resort to last minute discount tickets (I didn't attend). Another problem may have to do with last-minute management (perhaps there is red tape here) - concerts here sometimes are announced only a couple of weeks  in advance. You can't blame the Chinese concertgoers for favoring their own - concerts of Bruce Liu (like the one I attended), Yuja Wang and Chen Sa are very well attended!

The Guangming Culture and Art Center 光明文化艺术中心 is very far from me! One hour and forty minutes by MTR! As far as I'm concerned, it's in the middle of nowhere. The area is totally new urban development. Massive estates of high-rise apartments have a huge Shopping Center that connects via a footbridge to the Center. The site was partly developed by 华侨城, who are behind most of these Cultural Center projects (as in Bay Opera cited above).  

I just had to go to this concert. As a die-hard fan of the Borodin Quartet, I have attended their concerts for decades. The first ones (in HK) were not recorded in this blog. When I first heard them, they already had Ruben Aharonian on first, but they still had the great founding member Valentin Berlinsky as cellist and veteran Andrei Abramenkov on second. This blog recorded 2008 in HK, 2010 in NYC. Frightening! Has it been that long? Wow, this year is the 75th of the Ensemble, which formed in 1945 (end of WWII in the West)! Founding violinist was Rotislav Dubinsky, who wrote a marvelous book Stormy Applause: Making Music in a Worker's State: Dubinsky, Rostislav: 9780809088959: Amazon.com: Books. He went on to form the Borodin Trio, whose recordings on Chandos are precious too. Now, before his death, Valentin Berlinsky had published a book too (here), which I have on reserve at the HK Public Library. Looking forward to reading it!

This iteration had Nicolai Sachenko on first, and Segei Lomovsky on second. Violist Igor Naidin and Cellist Vladimir Balshin had remained from the last formation I heard.

The sound of the venue was excellent, but I judge it just shy of the very best. The sound of the ensemble had changed too. Sachenko is an excellent player, but his style is much more ardent, even fiery at times with a slightly pressing tonal quality. In contrast, second violin Lomovsky is very steady and not that often prominent. Aharonian/Abramenkov was more tonally matched and refined, but the new duo are perhaps more exciting. In this hall, the lower strings were effortlessly heard and quite lovely.

So, the Shostakovich Quartets 1 and 9 were perfectly delineated, every mood caught. Second half opened with  the Notturno from Borodin's Quartet No.2. It was too literal for me, a little more caressing would have been welcome. Finally it was Tchaikovsky's Quartet No.2, which heaved and sighed but I perhaps prefer the more ethereal version I heard before in 2010.

The quartet has maintained its perfect ensemble and I still look forward to our next rendez-vous.

VERY VERY comfortable seats and great leg room!