the Quatuor Ebène matches and in some respects exceeds [its] rivals in the commitment and physical impact of its playing...[and] employs the widest possible range of timbres and articulations in their use of non-vibrato particularly effective in the slow material that frames the entire work [Op. 13].

This disc abounds in the kid of full-on playing and lively engagement with the music that we've come to expect from Quatuor Ébène, caught up close and personal by the microphone...With every disc that the Ébène record, there's the unmistakable sense that they have something to say and an urgent need to say it. Not everyone will respond to their approach, but to my mind they're one of the most thrilling quartets around today.

The Quatuor Ebène play with the commitment and passion which they have become renowned for. Technical mastery is a given, whilst the spontaneity and homogeny of things like articulation and phrasing are remarkably consistent. The balance is excellent with solos in the inner parts just as characterised as those in the first violin.

[Fanny's] quartet, played with great conviction, is worth hearing — and even, formally and harmonically, more daring than Felix’s. These are nonetheless, superb works, his finest quartets. This passionate account of the A minor is touched, as though in anticipation, by the F minor’s darkness.

The Ebènes probe all three works with unflinching honesty and immediacy that don't make for easy listening, but are unforgettable.

Quatuor Ebène's subtle performance seems designed to frame the darker soundworld of Fanny Mendelssohn's E-flat major Quartet in the best light.