A sequence of high-profile concert events in Paris marked the centenary of the celebrated and distinguished Russian-born cellist, Valentin Berlinsky, founder and cellist of the Borodin String Quartet.

Schubert: Trout Quintet – Mikhail Kopelman, Loïc Rio, Laurent Marfaing, François Kieffer, Grigory Kovalevsky, Elisabeth Leonskaja (Picture © Nathanael Charpentier / © Affiliation La Clé des Portes)

First live performance (introduced by Clément Rochefort)
JS Bach: Cello Suite No.3 in C main, Schubert: String Quartet in C
minor (Quartettsatz’) D.703, Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras, No.5
(first aria), Alexander Raskatov: Ode for St Valentine’s Day for eight
violoncellos and a bottle of champagne, Dvořák: Piano Quintet No.2 in A
main, Op.81.
Boris Andrianov (cello), Quatuor Van Kuijk, Serafima Liberman (soprano), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano)
Thursday 16 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Second live performance (introduced by Arthur Ancelle and Maria Matalaev)
Beethoven: String Quartet No.1 in F main, Op.18, Shostakovich: Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op.67, String Quartet No.9 in E flat main, Op.117, Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, Op.11
Quatuor Danel, Kazakh State String Quartet, Mikhail Kopelman (violin), Boris Andrianov (cello), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano)
Friday 17 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Third live performance (introduced by Maria Matalaev and Arthur Ancelle)
Haydn: String Quartet No.29 in G main, Op.33, Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114, Gaziza Zhubanova: String Quartet No.1, Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op.34
Kazakh State String Quartet, Anastasia Ushakova (cello), Nicolas Baldeyrou (clarinet), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano).
Saturday 18 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Fourth live performance (introduced by Clément Rochefort and Maria Matalaev)
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A serious, D.667 (The Trout), Rodion Shchedrin: Diptych for Violin Solo; Glinka: Grand Sextet for Piano and Strings in E flat main – Gran Sestetto originale
Mikhail Kopelman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Loïc Rio (violins), Laurent Marfaing (viola), François Kieffer (cello), Grigory Kovalevsky (double-bass), Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano)
Sunday 19 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Reviewed by Tony Cooper

An initiative of Valentin Berlinsky’s daughter, Ludmila Berlinskaia, collectively together with her French-born husband, Arthur Ancelle, a few outstanding worldwide pianists based mostly in Paris, they curated a superb and becoming programme through which to honour the reminiscence of Valentin Berlinsky (identified to many as ‘Mr Berlinsky’) within the 12 months of his centenary.

Valentin Berlinsky in live performance along with his daughter Ludmila Berlinskaia

100 years after his beginning, the musical world rightly celebrates the centenary of Valentin Berlinsky (1925-2008), an distinctive and gifted cellist, influential pedagogue, based the Moscow Conservatoire Quartet while a pupil there in 1944. A decade later it was renamed the Borodin String Quartet in honour of Alexander Borodin, one of many founders of Russian chamber music. 

The Borodin Quartet’s cohesion and imaginative and prescient has survived many personnel modifications through the years primarily as a result of widespread floor shared by its gamers from their coaching on the Moscow Conservatoire whereas their fashion is characterised by an nearly symphonic quantity and a extremely developed capacity of phrasing thereby making a unified, linked and constant sound of tonal magnificence and technical excellence largely as a result of efforts, knowledge and stewardship, I really feel, of Valentin Berlinsky, their cellist for six wonderful, adventurous and thrilling a long time. 

His father, a violinist and pupil of Leopold Auer, was his first instructor: Berlinsky started on the violin earlier than turning to the cello, a transition that got here to him with outstanding ease and pure affinity. He then entered the Central Music Faculty in Moscow, learning with E. M. Gendli and went on to the Moscow Conservatoire, from which he graduated in 1947 after learning with S. M. Kozolupov. 

Alongside his performing profession, Berlinsky taught chamber music first on the Ippolitov-Ivanov Institute (from 1947) and later on the Gnessin Faculty of Music (from 1970) the place he skilled a number of generations of musicians and ensembles. He additionally based main establishments such because the Dmitri Shostakovich Worldwide String Quartet Competitors (1987-2004) and the Sakharov Competition in Nizhny Novgorod, a pioneering occasion combining classical music and human-rights advocacy. He contributed as nicely to the creation of ProQuartet in France alongside Georges Zeisel.

Changing into one of many Soviet Union’s best-known and revered ensembles within the West in the course of the Communist period (they carried out on the funerals of each Stalin and Prokofiev who died on the identical day – 5 March 1953) by a number of recordings in addition to live performance performances within the USA and continental Europe, members of the Borodin Quartet loved a detailed and flourishing relationship with Shostakovich who personally consulted them on every of his 15 string quartets which they recorded in addition to all of Beethoven’s quartets thus turning into extensively identified all through the world for the standard and interpretations of each composers’ quartets.  

Borodin Quartet with Sviatoslav Richter & Grigory Kovalevsky

Repeatedly performing with the likes of violinist Yuri Bashmet and such luminous pianists as Sviatoslav Richter, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Elisso Virssaladze and Maria Yudina, the Borodins initially featured Mstislav Rostropovich on cello however resulting from strain of labor he stepped apart after a two weeks in favour of Valentin Berlinsky whereas Rostislav Dubinsky and Vladimir Rabei (first/second violins) and Yuri Nikolaevsky (viola) – all college students of Professor Mikhail Terian on the Moscow Conservatoire – comprised members of the Quartet. Curiously, Rabei and Nikolaevsky have been quickly succeeded by Rudolf and Nina Barshai.

After a few a long time with the identical line-up, turbulent occasions came across the Quartet within the Seventies. Dubinsky defected to the West and second violinist Yaroslav Alexandrov retired resulting from unwell well being. Having recruited replacements, Berlinsky insisted that the ensemble spend three months out of public consideration till the Borodin sound had been absolutely restored.

In his 1989 guide, Stormy Applause, Dubinsky chronicled disharmony, energy struggles and betrayal to the authorities by Berlinsky, who admitted being a Communist Get together member, however dismissed the guide as being ‘stuffed with half-truths’. Dubinsky went on to kind the Borodin String Trio in 1976.

Deservedly so, honours got here flooding Mr Berlinsky’s manner. As an illustration, he was made an Officer of the French Legion of Honour in 2006 and was additionally named a Folks’s Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in 1974 receiving the USSR State Prize in 1986. Publish-Soviet Russia honoured him, too, for meritorious service to the state with the Order for Service to the Fatherland (IV class) in 2000 whereas all the Borodin Quartet acquired the Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR in 1968.

Throughout the Borodin Quartet’s first tour past the Iron Curtain – Venice 1958

I’m happy to say that the Borodins – one of many only a few current established chamber-music ensembles harbouring an uninterrupted longevity – have made 5 visits to Norwich (my dwelling metropolis in East Anglia) showing in a few vital concert events promoted by the Norfolk & Norwich Music Membership now renamed Norwich Chamber Music and, fortunately, nonetheless going robust.

They carried out the whole Beethoven cycle in six concert events over eight days in March 2004 on the John Innes Centre returning in March 2006 to play the Shostakovich cycle in celebration of the composer’s centenary. Actually, Norwich was the one place exterior of Moscow the place they undertook the Shostakovich cycle.

Returning to Norwich for a Tchaikowsky/Brahms cycle in January 2010, the cellist’s chair was duly occupied by Vladimir Balshin. And for his or her twenty fifth anniversary go to in April 2015, Mr Berlinsky’s daughter, Ludmila Berlinskaya, joined the Quartet to play Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.57.

For his or her final go to to Norwich (June 2017) the Borodins provided a live performance to Roger Rowe to mark his eightieth 12 months which happened on his precise birthday – sixth June. The programme comprised Borodin’s Quartet No.2 and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A serious, Okay.581, that includes Michael Collins.

A serious participant in selling chamber music in Norwich, Roger acted as inventive director of Norwich Chamber Music from 1997 to 2017. A great innings, for certain. However unstoppable and stuffed with power, Roger then went on to discovered and programme a Thursday lunchtime chamber-music sequence at Norwich’s Meeting Home, an exquisite Georgian-built constructing through which Franz Liszt carried out at in 1840.

Retiring from the Meeting Home in 2022, after 5 years on the helm, Roger’s now extremely energetic selling chamber music at The Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich, a small intimate venue however one that pulls such outstanding musicians as pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, violinist Alina Ibragimova and soprano Elizabeth Watts. The record is limitless – identical to Ko-Ko’s in The Mikado.

Nonetheless, to honour Valentin Berlinsky in his centenary 12 months, a four-day celebratory competition (Wednesday 16 to Sunday 19 October) was held within the stunning setting of the artwork deco-designed Salle Cortot at 78 rue Cardinet, Île-de-France, named after the French-Swiss pianist, instructor and conductor, Alfred Cortot, who based the École Normale de Musique de Paris (housing Salle Cortot) with pianist and music critic, Auguste Mangoe, in 1919. Ludmila Berlinskaya has been educating on the faculty since 2006.

Shostakovich: Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet – Quatuor Danel, Kazakh State String Quartet – (Picture © Nathanael Charpentier / © Affiliation La Clé des Portes)

The opening occasion marking the Valentin Berlinsky Centennial (Wednesday 15 October) – held on the worldwide headquarters of the Dmitri Shostakovich Affiliation at 19bis, rue des Saints-Pères, Paris – was an exhibition devoted to Mr Berlinsky along with a screening of the 40-minute movie, Valentin Berlinsky: the soul of the string quartet. There was additionally a displaying of the 40-minute documentary, Dialog à quatre, made in 1982, dedicated to the Borodin Quartet, screened within the presence of violinist, Mikhail Kopelman, a valued member of the Quartet for 20 years from 1976.

An extra non-musical occasion happened on Thursday 16 October with a presentation of a revised and expanded version of Maria Matalaev’s guide, The Quartet of a Life (Muses Prize, 2016) launched at Salle Munch (École Normale de Musique de Paris) whereas the opening live performance on the identical day (introduced by Clément Rochefort) featured the cellist, Boris Andrianov, who delivered a powerful and masterful account of JS Bach’s Cello Suite No.3 in C main adopted by Quatuor Van Kuijk (Nicolas Van Kuijk [replaced by Da-Min Kim, as he was joyfully detained by the impending birth of his child], Sylvain Favre-Bulle, Emmanuel François, Anthony Kondo) performing a simple and charming rendition of Schubert’s String Quartet in C minor (Quartettsatz) D.703.

The live performance then turned to a number of forces inasmuch as eight alert, proficient and ‘rearing-to-go’ younger cellists from La Fondation Gautier Capuçon – Miriam Bensaid, Elise Compte, Christina Coppola, Noé Drdak, Léo Ispir, Thomas Rech, Lisa Strauss, Robin de Talhouët – accompanied the younger and highly-talented soprano, Serafima Liberman, within the first aria of Villa-Lobos’ well-loved work, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5. An evocative and exquisite piece, it was warmly sung by Ms Liberman who actually captured the sensitivities and nuances of the composer’s wealthy and compelling rating.

The battalion of cellists remained onstage to play Alexander Raskatov’s Ode for St Valentine’s Day for eight violoncellos and a bottle of champagne within the presence of the composer. He wrote the piece for Mr Berlinsky’s eightieth birthday celebrations in a live performance held at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Corridor in January 2005 attended by the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich and Yuri Bashmet.

I used to be glad to be a member of the viewers and so, too, was my excellent good friend, Roger Rowe. I nicely keep in mind the ending of the live performance witnessing 14 string quartets made up by former college students of Mr Berlinsky enjoying renderings of Completely happy Birthday in various composers’ fashion. As an illustration, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky and even Johann Strauss and Scott Joplin however the ultimate ‘musical birthday greeting’ was left to Shostakovich who loved a particular relationship with Mr Berlinsky from his pupil days when he studied with him his first quartet.

However ending a moderately beautiful and entertaining live performance fell to Mr Berlinsky’s loving and devoted daughter, Ludmila Berlinskaya, who joined forces with Quatuor Van Kuijk to play a delicate and rewarding efficiency of Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No.2 in A serious Op.81 whose essential topic, uncovered by the cello in opposition to a uniform rhythmical accompaniment by the piano, offered a really applicable mixture and work for such an auspicious event.

And as for the bottle of bubbly, Clément Rochefort pranced about on stage with bottle in hand (courtesy of Le Brun Servenay) though the ‘explosion’ of the cork occurred offstage to the amusement of a full and appreciative home. Fortunately, although, l loved a few well-filled glasses on the post-concert gathering gracefully hosted by Ludmila Berlinskaya.

Introduced by Arthur Ancelle and Maria Matalaev, Mr Berlinsky’s granddaughter, the second live performance (Friday 17 October) opened in fashion with Quatuor Danel (Marc Danel, Gilles Milet, Vlad Bogdanas, Yovan Markovitch) performing an exhilarating account of Beethoven’s String Quartet No.1 in F main, Op.18, whereas Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op.67, adopted with Ludmila Berlinskaia seemingly on hearth, particularly within the work’s cracking and spirited second motion, which lives as much as its ‘con brio’ standing with its vibrant dance-like patterns and punchy rhythms crackling with immense power. And enjoying with the likes of such luminous and gifted musicians as Mikhail Kopelman and Boris Andrianov, Ludmila Berlinskaia delivered a powerful and uplifting efficiency of this well-loved piano trio identified for its attraction, wit and lyrical magnificence.

Returning to the stage, Quatuor Danel then performed Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.9 in E flat main, Op.117, whereas concluding the programme by becoming a member of forces with the Kazakh State String Quartet (Aidar Toktaliyev, Alexey Lebedev, Bekzat Sailaubaiuly, Yernar Myntayev) in a surprising efficiency of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, Op.11, an early work that discovered favour with a full and admiring home.

The Kazakh State String Quartet returned to the stage the following day (Saturday 18 October) for the third live performance within the sequence introduced by Maria Matalaev and Arthur Ancelle opening the programme with an clever studying of Haydn’s String Quartet No.29 in G main, Op.33, earlier than clarinettist, Nicolas Baldeyrou, teamed up with Ludmila Berlinskaia and cellist Anastasia Ushakova providing a wealthy and tender rendition of Brahms’ Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114.

Finishing an adventurous, spectacular and completely participating programme, although, fell to Gaziza Zhubanova’s String Quartet No.1 and Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op.34, commissioned by a gaggle of Russian-Jewish immigrants written by Prokofiev when residing in America. Primarily based on themes from a pocket book of Jewish folksongs, the work, scored for clarinet, string quartet and piano, provided beneficiant area for the clarinettist, Nicolas Baldeyrou, to indicate his prowess of his chosen instrument conjuring up and displaying the affect of these rich-sounding, deep-sonorous sounds so carefully related to Klezmer music. As an apart, Gaziza Zhubanova, daughter of composer, Akhmet Zhubanova, studied on the Moscow Conservatoire beneath Yuri Shaporin and taught on the Kazakh Nationwide Conservatory from 1957 whereas performing as its rector from 1975 to 1987.

Glinka: Grand Sextet – Mikhail Kopelman, Loïc Rio, Laurent Marfaing, François Kieffer, Grigory Kovalevsky, Ludmila Berlinskaia  (Picture © Nathanael Charpentier / © Affiliation La Clé des Portes)

Nonetheless, bringing the curtain down on an exquisite, inspiring and eclectic chamber-music sequence to mark and honour the centenary of Valentin Berlinsky, the fourth live performance (Sunday 19 October – introduced by Clément Rochefort and Maria Matalaev) acquired off to a romantic and thrilling begin with a fantastic rendering of Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A serious, D.667 (The Trout) that includes the famend and legendary pianist, Elisabeth Leonskaja, performing a piece clearly demonstrating the genius that this well-loved Nineteenth-century composer possessed for melody and lyricism.

The live performance continued with Rodion Shchedrin’s Symphonic Diptych, a damaged track based mostly on the opera The Enchanted Wanderer, a solo piece performed with depth and feeling by Dmitry Sitkovetsky and devoted to him and remembering, too, the composer who handed away earlier this 12 months.

A favorite of the Borodins, Glinka’s Grand Sextet for Piano and Strings in E flat main (Gran Sestetto originale) which they’ve performed so many occasions with so many prestigious pianists together with Berlinsky’s daughter Ludmila, provided an applicable and becoming finish to the Valentin Berlinsky Centennial sequence of concert events and occasions. The featured musicians have been violinists Mikhail Kopelman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Loïc Rio, violist Laurent Marfaing, cellist François Kieffer and double-bassist Grigory Kovalevsky and, in fact, pianist Ludmila Berlinskaya.

Nonetheless, as a curtain-raiser to the ultimate live performance, a clip from a documentary filmed in 1982 in varied locations in Russia however principally in Moscow confirmed Valentin Berlinsky and Mikhail Kopelman with Dmitri Shebaline (viola) and Andrei Abramenkov (second violin) enjoying the ‘Nocturne’ from Borodin’s Quartet No.2 in D main.

With no shadow of doubt, the Valentin Berlinsky Centennial occasion proved a spirited and wonderful event and including a pleasant contact to the proceedings total was a big portrait of Mr Berlinsky positioned along side the stage adorned by a myriad of flowers that provided respect and admiration from the coterie of gamers who knew him nicely. Bravo!

Borodin Quartet (inc violinist Mikhail Kopelman)

BERLINSKY EXTRA

The rationale behind Ludmila Berlinskaia’s programming was rigorously deliberate and chosen round works that her father tremendously favoured and dearly cherished.

As an illustration, the primary live performance mirrored Mr Berlinsky’s admiration for Bach, as he usually used the cello sonatas as warm-up workouts, whereas Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras mirrored his love for the human voice. His mom was a contralto, and Berlinsky usually stated that if he had possessed a ok voice, he would have change into a singer moderately than a cellist. The Borodin Quartet often carried out Schubert’s Quartettsatz in addition to Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, most notably with Sviatoslav Richter — with Ludmila performing as page-turner. The reference to Quatuor Van Kuijk stems from the truth that the ensemble benefited from Berlinsky’s masterclasses of their early years, whereas Alexander Raskatov’s Ode for St Valentine’s Day was written to commemorate Berlinsky’s eightieth birthday celebrations in Moscow.

Within the second live performance, the programme paired Beethoven and Shostakovich — two composers with profound and indelible ties to the Borodin Quartet. The ensemble carried out full cycles of each composers’ quartets all over the world (together with Norwich, UK), with their first full Shostakovich cycle introduced in Kazakhstan and later in Moscow. The participation of Quatuor Danel and the Kazakh State String Quartet within the centennial celebrations displays their significantly shut relationship with Berlinsky, who served as their mentor and coach for a few years. Just like the Borodin Quartet earlier than them, the Kazakh State Quartet locations a particular emphasis on performing the works of latest and nationwide composers, carrying ahead Berlinsky’s legacy of championing new music and sharing it past the borders of their homeland.

As Haydn was one in every of Berlinsky’s favorite composers, the third live performance opened with a efficiency of his String Quartet No. 29 in G main. Berlinsky additionally usually carried out Brahms’ Trio with Yuri Bashmet and Mikhail Muntian. The inclusion of a quartet by Kazakhstan-born composer Gaziza Zhubanova, based mostly on conventional people tunes, underscored Berlinsky’s and the Borodin Quartet’s dedication to introducing new or lesser-known works to audiences as a part of their broader inventive philosophy — a spirit that continues at the moment by the Kazakh State Quartet’s dedication to selling their nation’s musical heritage on worldwide levels. One other piece cherished by Berlinsky, Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, was likewise a daily a part of the Borodins’ repertoire.

The ultimate live performance introduced collectively musicians who shared shut inventive or private ties with Berlinsky and the Borodin Quartet — amongst them Mikhail Kopelman and Elisabeth Leonskaja, a long-standing good friend and collaborator of the ensemble, in addition to François Kieffer and members of Quatuor Modigliani, who, just like the Quatuor Van Kuijk, as soon as took masterclasses with Berlinsky. One in every of Berlinsky’s devoted pupils, Grigory Kovalevsky, later turned a double bassist and carried out with the Borodin Quartet in quite a few appearances, notably in Glinka’s Grand Sextet and Schubert’s Trout Quintet, each works Berlinsky held particularly pricey. Dmitry Sitkovetsky — the son of violinist Julia Sitkovetsky and pianist Bella Davidovich, each pals of Berlinsky — additionally took half within the celebration. Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, which Berlinsky carried out with numerous companions all through his life, fashioned a pure spotlight, whereas Rodion Shchedrin’s Diptych for solo violin — performed by Sitkovetsky and devoted to him — paid tribute to the composer, who handed away earlier this 12 months. Lastly, Glinka’s Grand Sextet offered an eloquent and becoming conclusion to the Valentin Berlinsky Centennial sequence.