Debussy Ravel String Qt/NZSQ - Classics Today - Compares to Emerson SQ Review By: David Vernier - Artistic Quality: 9 Sound Quality: 9

Debussy & Ravel SQs - Emerson Quartet. DG 445 509 - Ted Libbey, NPR

The Emersons emphasize refinement and continuity in their account of the Debussy quartet, suggesting not so much a sensuous wash of color as the subtle fusion of light and shade. Impeccably played, with a subdued intensity that hints at passion without yielding to paroxysms, the reading shows just how well crafted this music really is. The treatment of Ravel’s suave, delightful work is wonderfully energetic and full of panache; the unapologetically hedonistic writing elicits an appropriately warm, sensuous sound from the ensemble, and sparks fly in the finale. Recorded in 1984, this is as fine a coupling of these works as any that can be found in the catalog. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.

Debussy Ravel string qt/NZSQ - Classics Today - Compares to Emerson SQ Review by: David Vernier - Artistic Quality: 9 Sound Quality: 9

The quartets by Debussy and Ravel are as much about color as they are about style, technical precision, and the awesomely intricate details of phrasing. The catalog is full of every important (and not-so-important) ensemble’s attempt to realize these elements in the most musically sensible and satisfying way they know. The New Zealand Quartet proves here that it knows a lot–a lot more in fact than most quartets about how to make these oft-played and oft-underestimated repertoire standards sound fresh and original. For one thing, these players manage to penetrate popular notions of impressionist “style” and just pay attention to the music. This means that they take seriously performance indications such as “Animé et très décidé” and “Assez vif et bien rythmé”; it also means that they don’t impose any artificial interpretive “effects” in the phrasing or dynamics. The result is some of the most intense and emotionally involving Debussy and Ravel on disc, highlighted by beautiful slow, lyrical sections (the “Andantino” ending of the Debussy; the “Très lent” of the Ravel), and some hair-raising, electrifying moments, especially during the last movement and final bars of the Debussy.

Rolf Gjelsten’s confident and lovely, earth-toned cello firmly anchors the ensemble, which also benefits from Helene Pohl’s fearless, facile, and accurate first violin, and inner voices (violinist Douglas Bielman and violist Gillian Ansell) that are technically equal and completely compatible musically. In music this difficult and with textures so exposed, imperfections are easier to notice than in some more densely scored or less challenging quartets–especially with such a transparent recording as this one. Happily, there isn’t much to comment on in this regard, except for one tentative, or at least unconvincing, moment near the end of the Ravel first movement–a peak violin note against a low, shifting cello harmony.

A comparison of this recording with the Emerson Quartet’s fine reading on Deutsche Grammophon shows tempos for the New Zealand in both quartets are generally slower than the Emerson’s, and the Emerson takes a less assertive approach that dwells slightly more on coloristic effects. But I have to say that the New Zealanders’ performances are more alive and immediate and just as well–in some cases better–played. I’m convinced that this result has much to do with the NZSQ’s unique performing style: they play standing with the cellist seated on a special platform, giving a tremendous freedom and energy to the music’s natural movement. All is enhanced by engineering that offers a close, intimate, but never intimidating sound. We hear everything in the music and yet the balance holds true throughout, and so does the naturalness of the string timbres, even at high volume. This is an excellent first choice or worthy alternate to your current favorite version. (This disc, from New Zealand-based Atoll, currently is distributed in the U.S. by JEM Music Corp., New York.)

DEBUSSY String Quartet in g. RAVEL String Quartet in F. DUTILLEUX Ainsi la nuit • Arcanto Qrt • HARMONIA MUNDI 902067 (71:19)

Following its exceptionally impressive Brahms and Bartók releases, the Arcanto Quartet has struck gold again with its third disc. This foray into French repertoire is another tour de force of stellar musicianship and technique, both collective and individual. The Debussy receives a dream performance, of silken refinement and great subtlety of expression—a very French kind of animation and inflection of line, minutely attentive to nuances of dynamics, articulation, and tempo modification. Fortes are always luminous, airy; ensemble precisely weighted, and flawless in intonation (try the opening chordal passage—you’ll be hooked). Solo contributions are incredibly characterful where called for, as in the second movement, which explodes from the speakers with a dazzling vibrancy, color, and verve that really take the breath away. The Ravel is every bit as good, a textural and coloristic feast, catching the score’s worlds of nocturnal enchantment and phantasmagoria to perfection. At the same time the outer movements have splendid momentum, dramatic panache, and volatility. They are equally impressive in the high modernism of Dutilleux, ideally served in this darkly translucent performance. The most obvious competition comes from the Juilliard Quartet (Sony), in an identical coupling of the three works—flexible, spontaneous, stylish, and idiosyncratic in sound with their trademark generous vibrato; in the Dutilleux, edgier, more brittle than the Arcanto. Other classic couplings of the Debussy and Ravel include the Emerson on DG (high polish, rigor, discipline, and burnished sonority); Quartetto Italiano on Philips Eloquence (exceptional color, vibrancy, and a heightened—Italian rather than French—projection of rhetoric and drama); Alban Berg on EMI (sumptuous, immaculate, and slightly impersonal). Another interesting recent addition to the Debussy discography comes from the Kuijken Quartet (Arcana), in an adventurous sojourn into modern-instrument territory: smaller- and tighter-toned, characterful but less flexible, their very sparing vibrato resulting in a rather austere sound, no match for the vibrant yet delicate hues of the Arcanto. It doesn’t happen very often with repertoire as widely recorded as these quartets, but in this instance the newcomer goes straight to the top of the heap. Highest possible recommendation, and a strong contender for this year’s Want List. Boyd Pomeroy

Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel: Quatuors à cordes - The Telegraph Arcanto Quartet. Rating: * * * * *

By Geoffrey Norris 6:24PM BST 20 Aug 2010

Harmonia Mundi HMC 902067

The refinement that goes with the territory in French string-quartet writing is a quality that also graces the playing of the ensemble on this new CD. The Arcanto Quartet has a catholic repertoire across a spectrum of chamber music literature, and has already produced exceptional discs of Brahms and Bartók. Here it combines the classic quartets by Debussy and Ravel from the closing years of the 19th century and the early days of the 20th with Henri Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit, completed in 1976. Right at the start, the performance of the Debussy quartet is a striking example of the Arcanto’s skill and stylistic perception. The playing has muscle, incisiveness and drive, tempered by delicacy of nuance and a shading of colour that animates the music and complements its fluidity of line. The pizzicatos of the second movement are light but precisely pointed, the subdued slow movement eloquently muted. The Arcanto has always been notable for its natural cohesiveness and for the way in which individual timbres emerge so artlessly from the texture, and these attributes are as apparent in the Debussy as they are in Dutilleux’s complex Ainsi la nuit. The miniature scenarios conjured up by the individual components of this seven-movement piece are tellingly characterised with a kaleidoscope of detail, the whole score drawn together by the farsightedness of the Arcanto’s interpretative span. The Ravel, while inhabiting a different expressive realm, equally benefits from the Arcanto’s clarity of articulation, its poise and reactions to niceties of phrasing, with a haunting shimmer to the slow movement and firm propulsion to the finale. It is a riveting disc – a further manifestation of the Arcanto’s blend of finesse, flair and probing intelligence.

AllMusic Review by Stephen Eddins - Arcanto Quartett - 4 1/2*/5*

In addition to the traditional pairing of the Debussy and Ravel string quartets, the Arcanto Quartett performs Henri Dutilleux's Ainsi la Nuit (1971-1976), a grouping that is becoming increasingly popular on recordings. These are absolutely secure, thoughtful, self-effacing readings of the Debussy and the Ravel. While the quartet doesn't bring particular new revelations to the pieces, the members play with nuanced sensitivity and impeccable musicianship. The haunted quiet they achieve in the first part of the third movement of the Debussy is especially impressive, as is the clarity of their sense of direction and unity in the final movement, the most difficult of the four to pull off. Similarly in the Ravel, the contrast between the serenity of the third movement and the raw athleticism of the fourth is attention-grabbing and invigorating.

The affinities Ainsi la nuit shares with the Debussy and Ravel quartets may not be immediately apparent because Dutilleux's harmonic language is not tonal, and its seven moments don't have an easily recognizable structure; this is unabashed "modern music." Placed strategically between the Debussy and the Ravel, though, the quartet can be heard as a relative of those works, which in their time (particularly the Debussy) stretched the boundaries of quartet writing. Like the earlier works, the Dutilleux is concerned with drawing fresh, new, often startlingly beautiful sonorities from the ensemble. The work's title, as well as the titles of many of its movements, suggests a nocturnal scene, and listening to the piece with that in mind can help orient the listener. The nearly pointillist sparseness of the fourth movement conjures up the mysterious vastness of space, and the riot of colors in the fifth movement, "Constellations," evokes a night sky blazing with stars. Harmonia Mundi's sound is clean, present, and nicely ambient. These are performances that would serve well as introductions to the Debussy and Ravel, and the Dutilleux should intrigue listeners with open ears. This article originally appeared in Issue 34:3 (Jan/Feb 2011) of Fanfare Magazine.

AllMusic Review by Stephen Eddins - 5*/5* - Quatuor Ebene Paris-based Quatuor Ebène has released three classics of the French repertoire, the quartets of Debussy, Ravel, and Fauré. Although the works are frequently grouped together on recordings, they inhabit vastly different aesthetic worlds and are more notable for their individuality than their similarity. The last written, the Fauré (1924), is the most conservative, and the first, the Debussy (1893), the most revolutionary. The quartet performs the Debussy with a refreshing muscularity, the kind of dynamism the composer wrote into the score, but that some quartets tend to downplay, perhaps in an effort to make it comfortably conform to the popular image of the composer as an Impressionist. In fact, it has moments of real spikiness and angularity, particularly in the first two movements, that Quatuor Ebène plays with appropriate fierceness. At the same time, the reading is exceptionally fluid rhythmically, and its mercurial shifts emphasize the magic (and the strangeness) of a piece that offers an early glimpse into the imagination of one of music's most original thinkers. The performance of the Fauré is similarly sensitive to the composer's intent, and the group brings care and nuance to the more conventional melodic and contrapuntal writing. The Ravel quartet is formally similar to the Debussy, in whose honor it was written, but Debussy's wildness is replaced by a refined passion, which the ensemble conveys with fiery elegance; the fourth movement is practically electric in its energy. The sensitivity to the individuality of each quartet, and the interpretive strength of each of the Ebène's performances, makes this a release that should be of interest to any fans of the repertoire. Virgin's sound is clean and warm, with a good sense of presence.

Ravel; Debussy; Fauré: String Quartets Quatuor Ébène - The Guardian 4 / 5 stars (Virgin) Andrew Clements First published on Thu 30 Oct 2008 20.12 EDT

In the analogue era, the single string quartets by Debussy and Ravel, composed in 1893 and 1903 respectively, were an obvious and common combination, comfortably filling one LP. These days, however, they make a rather short measure for a full-price CD, and these outstanding performances by the young French group Quatuor Ébène are separated by Fauré's only work in the genre and the very last work he completed, in 1925. Fine as the Ébène's accounts of the Debussy and Ravel quartets are, there is no shortage of equally meticulous performances of both works already available, by groups ranging from the Quartetto Italiano to the Belcea Quartet, so it is the performance of the Fauré that makes this disc so rewarding. Late Fauré, with its seamless weave of constantly mutating ideas and sometimes almost subliminal sense of large-scale form, 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.

2009 Gramophone Award Winner - Best Chamber Recording and Record of the Year!

Their almost palpable sense of wonder means the Ebènes win hands down

What a sensational disc! At a time when there is a multitude of crack new quartets, Quatuor Ebène here stake their claim to join the top rank with riveting playing that encompasses an almost other-worldly sound-range. The Debussy especially left me reeling. With Ebène, the Pavel Haas players, the Belceas, the Pacificas, Jerusalems and more, chamber fans are in good hands for the next few decades at least.

-- Gramophone [12/2008]