Various composers: String Quartets by Debussy, Fauré and Ravel

Quatuor Ébène’s recording of string quartets by Ravel, Debussy and Fauré makes for enjoyable and enlightening listening. The quartet has rapidly developed a professional name for itself, internationally recognised as an outstanding group of young musicians. In their first recording for Virgin Classics, the ensemble starts with Debussy’s richly-textured String Quartet. Immediately striking is the closeness of the sound on this disc which, combined with the players’ fullness of tone, creates a sense of intimacy. Fauré’s Quartet in E minor (his final composition) follows. After a spacious and heart-wrenching first and second movement, the finale, filled with lively themes which are passed around the instruments, brings the work to a triumphant close. Ravel’s evocative Quartet in F major ends the disc. Quatuor Ébène’s sensitivity to the music and to each other pays dividends in this challenging work. The way they play the second movement is particularly notable for the spiky opening and jaunty staccato passages. The third movement, Très lent, is truly that. The very slowness of the tempo works in its favour, the quartet seems to ease every ounce of emotion out of the music, all the while savouring each moment. The frantic final movement comes as a shock after the serenity of the previous moments, though I’m in no doubt that this is what Ravel and Quatuor Ébène both intended!

About the ensemble and the programme

Quatuor Ébène formed in 1999 while its four members were still students at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory, studying under the Quatuor Ysaÿe before further work with Gábor Takács, Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág sharpened the group’s approach. International recognition came quickly: first prize at the 2004 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, along with its audience prize and two separate interpretation awards, established the quartet as one of the standout young ensembles of its generation well before this Virgin Classics debut. The programme itself pairs three works that are often heard together for a reason, Debussy’s is his only string quartet, Ravel’s is his only string quartet, and Fauré’s was quite literally his last completed piece, written when he was almost eighty and largely deaf, making this disc a genuine “complete set” of French quartet writing from three composers who each approached the form exactly once.