Imagine being in the audience for the musical soirée at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1876 when Tchaikovsky met Tolstoy. For years afterwards the composer recalled how Tolstoy was so moved by the slow ...

String Quartet No. 1 in D, Op. 11 Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 30 String Sextet, Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 Tchaikovsky's chamber works account for a relatively small portion of his output and ...

Tchaikovsky might be remembered for his three major ballets or the three last symphonies but not for his three string quartets. Yet although Tchaikovsky is not particularly associated with chamber ...

Tchaikovsky’s Quartet No.2 is typical of its composer without being a masterpiece. Quartet No.3, however, is just that, with its magnificent slow movement including an impressive evocation of Russian ...

The Borodin Quartet has a very special relationship with the music by Shostakovich. The quartet may be made up of different players these days, but they still play off the parts with notes given by ...

I didn’t think they still made discs like this – three of the best-loved Romantic string quartets, grouped together for no other reason, presumably, than that they’re all popular. And, of course, that ...