DEBUSSY; RAVEL String Quartets

‘Period’ strings of the Eroicas for a classic quartet pairing

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy

Genre:

Chamber

Label: Resonus Classics

Media Format: Download

Media Runtime: 54

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: RES10107

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
String Quartet Maurice Ravel, Composer
Eroica Quartet
Maurice Ravel, Composer
The Eroica Quartet have won plenty of plaudits for their previous recordings on Harmonia Mundi. Their latest release, of the quartets of Ravel and birthday-boy Debussy, is a download-only issue from Resonus. It’s available in three different formats (I reviewed it in its standard MP3 format) and a full booklet is provided as a PDF, with excellent notes from Nigel Simeone. The group’s selling point is its use of gut strings and adoption of elements of period practice, something of a rarity in this repertoire. They’re warmer-toned than the recent Dante disc, though hardly generous in their programming, adding nothing to the classic Debussy/Ravel quartet coupling beloved in the LP era. All of the other discs listed for comparison below offer something additional to this, from Fauré to Webern.

If the Dante are the most straightforwardly genial among my comparisons and the Hagen the most stringently neo-classical, for the Eroica tonal colour is a particular priority. Their Debussy Andantino, taken daringly slow, is intensified by muted colours and expressive portamentos, while the finale of the Ravel is shot through with a feverishness more pronounced than in the Dante’s reading. Their pizzicato, such a vital component in the second movements of both quartets, is lithe and telling too.

But turn to the Ebène and suddenly you’re thrown into a different world, a blast of Hockney vibrancy that makes you re-evaluate the musical landscape before you. No one compares with them when it comes to disclosing the revolutionary qualities in this music. And after that, anything less out of the ordinary, or merely tasteful, can seem rather inadequate.

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