I already wrote about the impressive 8th string quartet from Shostakovich in this post, but I didn’t write about Borodin’s second string quartet. Borodin wrote his second string quartet in 1881, at age 48. It is dedicated to his wife, and it might have been a 20th anniversary present. Borodin didn’t like music with a program though: he was an advocate of so called absolute music. Music that is not about something.
Both Borodin quartets are amazing examples of lyricism and late romantic classical music, but the second shines even brighter. The Spotify link is the third movement, the Notturno. It is well known, and you’ll probably recognise the melody. Many parts of the whole quartet were used in the 50s Broadway musical Kismet.