Composed between 1871 and 1875 were Tchaikovsky's String Quartets. The quartets still belong to his early period but are considered among the most significant of the second half of hte nineteenth century, a period that, despite a significant production for this chamber ensemble, does not include masterpieces comparable to those of Beethoven and Schubert. There are many versions of the quartets and the one presented here is one of the few truly historical versions that exists - they are the recording of the late fifties made by the first formation of the legendary Borodin Quartet, which relies on the presence of Mstislav Rostropovich and Heinrich Talalyan for the recording of the famous "Souvenir de Florance", one of the major Sextets of the Nineteenth Century, writtein in 1890.