Borodin: String Quartet No. 2

Introduction

The String Quartet No. 2 is a string quartet in D major written by Alexander Borodin in 1881. It was dedicated to his wife Ekaterina Protopova. Some scholars, such as Borodin’s biographer Serge Dianin, suggest that the quartet was a 20th anniversary gift and that it has a program evoking the couple’s first meeting in Heidelberg. Of its four movements, the third movement “Notturno” is the most famous, and part of it was adapted into the song “And This Is My Beloved” from the 1953 Broadway musical Kismet.

History

Borodin wrote the string quartet quickly in 1881 while staying at the estate of his friend, the minor composer Nikolai Lodyzhensky, which was located in Zhitovo, southeast of Moscow.^[2] Borodin also composed the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia the same year; the quartet premiered in that year or the next. (The external links give a more complete tale but conflict on the date.)

Music

The string quartet has four movements:

1. Allegro moderato in D major and 2/2 time, with 304 bars;
2. Scherzo. Allegro in F major and 3/4 time, with 299 bars;
3. Notturno (Nocturne): Andante in A major and 3/4 time, with 180 bars;
4. Finale: Andante — Vivace in D major and 2/4 time, with 671 bars.