String Quartet No. 2 in D Major

A research chemist by profession, Borodin pursued music purely as a hobby. He largely picked up his compositional craft from playing cello (self-taught) with musical friends, with whom he enjoyed playing string quartets and other chamber works by composers such as Haydn, Spohr and especially Mendelssohn. Borodin developed Mendelssohn’s grace and melodic charm into something uniquely his own, as the beguiling melodies of his String Quartet No. 2 well demonstrate. Unlike so many of his works, his Second Quartet was composed without interruption, in a space of two months in 1881. Borodin dedicated it to his wife—possibly as a 20th anniversary gift, its warm-hearted music perhaps recalling their first meeting and courtship in Heidelberg. Its first and third movements each have a songful melody introduced by Borodin’s own instrument, the cello. These movements are complemented by a feather-light scherzo (the second movement), and a finale which, after a mysterious start, quickly shows its playful side.