Established in Moscow in 1945, and still performing today, the Borodin Quartet sustains a distinctive tradition in the interpretation of Russian chamber music. Over the decades it's members - all trained at the Moscow Conservatory - have inevitably changed, but the ensemble's identity has remained cohesive, it's philosophy and aesthetic embodying an entire musical culture. The quartet's close association with Dmitri Shostakovich has gone down in history, and his chamber works are central to this 7CD collection which, offering music by a succession of Russian composers from Borodin himself to Schnittke, spans the 19th and 20th centuries.