MIchal Kanka (cello), Jaromir Klepac (piano), Prazak Quartet  Praga Digitals PRD/DSD 250282* * *

Alexander Borodin wrote one of the most popular of late 19th-century string quartets. And within that string quartet (his Second, written in 1881) he created a movement – the Notturno– so popular that it's been borrowed and arranged in any number of ways. Praga Digitals here reissues in SACD format its 1999 and 2000 recordings of that quartet, in conjunction with two works which fill in the picture of what Borodin was doing in the realm of chamber music before he got round to his most successful quartet. The Cello Sonatain B minor (1860) and the Piano Quintetin C minor (1862) are lighter piece, without the full flavour of the tunesmithing skills of the mature Borodin. The performances are rather too earnest, and there are moments where the famous quartet itself sounds a little pressured. See url.ie/aa85