Ravel, Debussy, Fauré - String Quartets - Erato: 5190452 - CD or download

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Dynamic ranges are wide, with Ravel's crescendos not underplayed in any mistaken attempt at classicism, and rubatos are applied with tactful expressivity. — BBC Music Magazine, November 2008, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 6th Oct 2008
Catalogue No: 5190452
Label: Erato
Length: 80 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

5th October 2009
Building a Library

March 2009

First Choice
Gramophone Magazine

December 2008

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Awards

2009

Recording of the Year
Gramophone Awards

2009

Winner - Chamber
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2009

Newcomer of the Year
Building a Library

January 2019

Also Recommended
Building a Library

March 2020

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Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10

Work length26:10

$5.20

$6.80

Quatuor Ebène (string quartet)
Recorded: 2008-02-09
Recording Venue: 4 & 9 Feb 2008. Ferme de Villefavard en Limousin

I. Animé et très décidé

Track length6:25

$1.30

$1.70

II. Assez vif et bien rythmé

Track length4:01

$1.30

$1.70

III. Andantino (Doucement expressif)

Track length8:18

$1.30

$1.70

IV. Très modéré - Très animé

Track length7:26

$1.30

$1.70

Fauré: String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121

Work length24:24

Album only

Quatuor Ebène (string quartet)
Recorded: 2008-02-09
Recording Venue: 4 & 9 Feb 2008. Ferme de Villefavard en Limousin

I. Allegro moderato

Track length6:32

$1.30

$1.70

II. Andante

Track length10:06

Album only

III. Allegro

Track length7:46

$1.30

$1.70

Ravel: String Quartet in F major

Work length29:46

$5.20

$6.80

Quatuor Ebène (string quartet)
Recorded: 2008-02-09
Recording Venue: 4 & 9 Feb 2008. Ferme de Villefavard en Limousin

I. Allegro moderato - Très doux

Track length8:50

$1.30

$1.70

II. Assez vif - Très rythmé

Track length6:29

$1.30

$1.70

III. Très lent

Track length9:47

$1.30

$1.70

IV. Vif et agité

Track length4:40

$1.30

$1.70

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Favourites, Maurice Ravel

James picks some recordings of the music of French composer, Maurice Ravel.

Awards, The Quatuor Ebène and the Gramophone Awards

5th October 2009

The young French string quartet scoop the Record of the Year prize for their disc of Ravel, Debussy and Fauré on Erato, with Gerald Finley and Julius Drake, Stile Antico, Fretwork and Steven Osborne among the category-winners.

When the Quatuor Ebène was signed to Virgin Classics in early 2008. Alain Lanceron, the label’s President, said: “The Quatuor Ebène is the embodiment of the modern string quartet. The extraordinary way its members craft their sonority, their re-examination of quartet masterpieces, their readiness to engage with music beyond the traditional repertoire, their innovative and creative approach: all these factors have led us to invite them to add their lustre to Virgin Classics' roster of artists. We welcome them with enthusiasm – the same kind of enthusiasm they bring to everything they do."

Formed in France in 1999, the Quatuor Ebène took its name from ebony, the precious and exotic wood used in instrument-making. The award-winning ensemble has since achieved an enviable international reputation for refined, dynamic musicianship, minutely responsive teamwork, an adventurous spirit and even a taste for improvisation. The Quartet’s repertoire ranges from Haydn and Mozart, cornerstones of the Classical repertoire, through the 19th and 20th centuries to contemporary composers and jazz.

The Quatuor Ebène’s debut recording on Virgin Classics brings together the string quartets of the three emblematic French composers of the late 19th and early 20tb centuries: Fauré, Debussy and Ravel. The Debussy and Ravel quartets represent a traditional pairing in the catalogue, but they have rarely been coupled with the Fauré, his final work, composed in his late seventies. As it happens, Ravel dedicated his own quartet to Fauré, who was his teacher.

“Interpreters of rare understanding and communicative flair” The Strad

Reviews

November 2008

Dynamic ranges are wide, with Ravel's crescendos not underplayed in any mistaken attempt at classicism, and rubatos are applied with tactful expressivity.

2010

Among the many breathtaking moments on the Ebène Quartet's CD, there is one in particular that keeps calling one back. It occurs at around 1'14” into the Ravel's slow movement, the second set, which enters like a bittersweet memory before a literal recollection of the Quartet's opening motif. Other subtle details of interpretation include the chord at 2'03” that underpins a transformation of the first subject before the same chord leads directly into the second subject – and when it does, utterly changing in character, turning warmer, more openly inviting. The ebb and flow of the passage at 5'29” where the second subject rides above an arpeggiated accompaniment, music that looks both forwards to Debussy's own La mer and backwards to Rimsky's Sheherazade (or so it seems). There's a fluidity to the Ebène's playing of both works that suits the music's character, a mood of wistfulness too that the Ravel especially benefits from. This improvisatory approach is hardly surprising from an ensemble that is also celebrated for its jazz performances.
It was a brilliant idea to include Fauré's late Quartet which, in a sense, provides the linchpin for all three works, the Ravel having been composed in Fauré's class to mark the 10th anniversary of Debussy's quartet, and which is dedicated to Fauré. An extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards, Fauré's Quartet responds well to the Ebène's sensitised approach.
Anyone requiring this particular trio of works won't be disappointed, which makes the various pairings of the Ravel and Debussy quartets on their own seem somewhat less enticing.

December 2008

There's a fluidity to the Ebène's playing… that suits the music's character, a mood of wistfulness too that the Ravel especially benefits from.

August 2014

A commanding performance from Quatuor Ebène in Ravel's String Quartet. The range of colours they bring to this music is always extraordinary, and in my opinion the balance between all four voices is just right.

31st October 2008

it is the performance of the Fauré that makes this disc so rewarding. Late Fauré...is notoriously elusive, both melodically and harmonically. But the Ébène manage to make everything in the three-movement quartet seem perfectly logical, utterly natural and close in sensibility to the works by Debussy and Ravel that flank it.

Ravel, Debussy, Fauré - String Quartets

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Contents

Favourites, Maurice Ravel

Awards, The Quatuor Ebène and the Gramophone Awards

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