Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 ^a. String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2. Borodin Quartet (Mikhail Kopelman, Andrei Abramenkov, vns; Dimitri Shebalin, va; Valentin Berlinsky, vc); ^a Elizo Virzaladze (pf).

Teldec (Full price) (CD) 4509-97461-2 (77 minutes: DDD).

Happily we now have all three of Brahms's string quartets from the Borodin Quartet. Whereas the first and last (reviewed in November 1994) were recorded at the Teldec studios in Berlin, for the more elusive No. 2 in A minor choice fell on The Maltings at Snape—as also for its coupling, the F minor Piano Quintet. Again, we get warm, reverberant reproduction very much in keeping with these players' vision of the well-nourished composer in middle age, a Brahms aglow yet at the same time more traditionally Germanic than the acutely susceptible, highly charged Viennese Brahms encountered not so very long ago from the translucently textured Alban Berg Quartet. Always the Borodins prefer the longer line (as in the opening of the slow movement), the broader view, to the Bergs' spontaneous response to detail. Choice is very much a matter of taste since it goes without saying that in all matters of intonation, balance and interplay, both world-renowned teams are exemplary.

With the incisive Elizo Virzaladze at the keyboard, the Piano Quintet emerges with magisterial strength and breadth. I had the impression that not even an earthquake could disrupt the rhythmic stability underpinning each movement (and not least the Scherzo), or shake the absolute certainty of each player's conviction. If the Brahms as guardian of classical tradition looms larger than the romanticist, there are still memorable reminders of the vulnerable heart behind it all—as notably in the stabbing intensity they bring to the finale's poco sostenuto introduction and temperamental coda.

JOC