In all three quartets the Borodin play with an easy authority and what seems to be perfect style. There are no obvious interpretative quirks, there's nothing showy to get between the music and the listener, and it is evident that these musicians are thoroughly immersed in the authentic Russian tradition of playing Tchaikovsky's music. Technically and tonally they are first rate, and they combine well with the two excellent extra players in Souvenir de Florence.

The Franck Piano Quintet is a performance of immense ardour and vigour, in which the players luxuriate in the lushness and melodic wealth of the composer’s writing. It’s a reading of emotional urgency that certainly packs a punch. Rarely have I heard such heartfelt passion and drama. The wistful calm and autumnal glow of the slow movement is spellbinding, and provides a contrast to the more heated and intense outer movements. Ideal balance between piano and strings adds to the overwhelming success of the performance.

Richter on the road in Tours France, with no studio in sight, and with a great Russian string quartet in a live performance. This enterprise in thoroughly inspired. Good tempi throughout and nothing drags. There is great interplay between Richter and the Borodins. They milk the lyrical content of the first movement and build the finale to its electrifying finale.

Whenever the Borodin Quartet notches up an anniversary, so too does its cellist (and so in 2005, while the ensemble marks 60 years as what the Russians call the Quartet named Borodin , we also toast Valentin Berlinsky on his 80th birthday). This is very much as it should be: Valentin Berlinsky is both patriarch and soul of the quartet. As anchorman throughout of the group which turned to the Soviet authorities for its present name in 1955, Berlinsky has lived through many changes of personnel in the early years, guided the quartet through difficult times at home and on countless tours, and still imparts his ineffably cultured tones to its latest incarnation.

The Borodin Quartet plays the music of its namesake as to the manner born. Theirs is a beautiful, lush realization of this lyrical work, polished and full of nuance, and well-served by the 1980 analog recording. The coupling with Borodin's First Quartet is especially attractive.