Borodin Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartets, Vol. 5 (2005)

Maybe this 2005 recording of Beethoven's A minor String Quartet by the Borodin Quartet isn't quite in the same league as its 1989 recording. Maybe the attacks and releases aren't quite as tight. Maybe the tempos are a bit too impetuous. Maybe the emotions are too overt. Maybe the depths are not quite so deep. The question is: are there any later recordings of Beethoven's A minor Quartet in the same league as the 2005 Borodin? The overly polished Emerson? No. The overly tasteful Takács? Not really. Compared with the competition, the 2005 Borodin is strong, sensitive, deeply affecting, and altogether compelling. Of course, the 1989 Borodin wasn't quite in the same league as contemporary recordings by the intellectual Alban Berg Quartet, much less the classic recordings of the robust Amadeus Quartet, the beautiful Quartetto Italiano, and, best of all, the immensely profound Quatuor Végh. Along with the Borodin's elegiac performance of Beethoven's final F major String Quartet, these are fine performances and, as recorded in Chandos' vivid but slightly too close recording, they sound marvelous if a bit too immediate. If you're looking for the best of recent recordings of the A minor and F major quartets, these 2005 Borodin's will do. But if you're looking for the best performances of the works ever recorded, try the Quatuor Végh.