Tchaikovsky's ballets and orchestral music are so well-known, and so wonderful, that it is distressingly easy to overlook how adept he was at composing in other genres. A case in point are his three wonderful string quartets (there's also a fairly early single movement work for string quartet). There are a lot of the hallmarks of Tchaikovsky's style in them, the expansive lines, the lush harmonies, but also some real experimental moments and intimate passages. This month's clip, from the opening of the second quartet's Andante, is beautifully wrought, and almost hints at the type of writing heard as late as the finale to the Pathétique Symphony. The Borodin Quartet do a fine job on these works, and, as a bonus, you also get the popular Souvenir de Florence sextet with a pretty well-known cellist named Rostropovich (!) as a guest.