“From the first, restlessly searching bars of the opening Allegro of Brahms’s String Quartet in A minor, the Borodins demonstrated their technical precision and subtle interpretative skills. Remarkably, without sharing so much as a nod or glance towards each other, they played with complete cohesion.

Buried cryptically in the work’s opening motif are the notes – F-A-E – standing for ‘frei aber einsam’ (‘free, but alone’), an allusion by Brahms to the personal motto of his friend, the great violinist Joseph Joachim The phrase encapsulated Joachim’s belief that true artistic freedom requires independence, even at the cost of solitude. In some performances…

We are delighted to announce that the legendary Borodin Quartet have appointed Nikolai Sachenko as their new first violinist following the retirement of Ruben Aharonian.

Nikolai Sachenko commented: “The uncompromising pursuit of excellence in musical interpretations has been an unchanging tradition of the Borodin Quartet throughout its glorious long history. I am happy to join my friends and colleagues of the Quartet and, together in our shared passion for the quartet world, I hope to continue this remarkable tradition of musical eminence!”

Winner of the violin gold medal of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, Sachenko has performed with many acclaimed conductors