Alexander Borodin finished his first, of two, quartets in 1879. A great
success so he wrote another...and the second far overshadowed the first in enduring popularity. The second was was completed in 1881, FP in March 1882 in St Petersburg at the Imperial Russian Music Society. (Work is in four movements).
(Additional from Wikipedia summary)
It was written in Zhitovo, while staying with his friend, the minor composer Nikolai Lodyzhensky. 1881, the year of its composition, also saw the composition of the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia; the quartet premiered in that year or the next. (The external links give a more complete tale but conflict on the date.) It is unusual in a sonata form exposition, as happens in this allegro moderato, that the second theme section of the first movement begins in F♯ minor, the so-called mediant minor instead of the dominant A major — though it does get there.) The scherzo second movement is also in sonata form rather than the i-ii-i form more usual for minuet-style movements like most scherzos, so it can be divided i-ii-iii-i'-ii':
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin
(12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887) was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five (or "The Mighty Handful"), who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music. He is best known for his symphonies, his two string quartets, and his opera Prince Igor. Music from Prince Igor and his string quartets was later adapted for the musical Kismet
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