Valentin Berlinsky has been a member of the Borodin String Quartet since its first concert. “It is rare for a quartet to have an unbroken history of 60 years, unique for the same artist to have been a member throughout. While there have been changes of occupancy in the other three seats over the years, Berlinsky, now a nimble 80-year-old, took part in the quartet’s first public concerts in 1945 (when it was known as the Moscow Conservatoire Quartet) and has been its common thread ever since.”