This is the first recording of these Beethoven string quartets the Borodin Quartet made, from 1964. It is made in the old line-up, with Dubinsky on first violin. Dubinsky defected in 1976, first to the Netherlands and from there to the US (although he would keep a long standing connection with my country). Spotify has a later version of this work from the same ensemble, but in a later line-up. I think this one is better, both in performance and in recording.
Beethoven wrote these two around 1801, 30 years old. Number one wasn’t actually the first he wrote, but they were published in a set of two books of three each, and numbered that way. The second part of the nr 1 is said to be inspired by the scene where both lovers in Romeo and Juliet die (oops, spoilers).