Search - Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky :: Strg Quartet in G Min / Strg in F / 3 Pieces

Exciting interpretations

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 04/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is wonderfully exciting performances of these tried and tested pieces,actually the one and only Quartets of Debussy and Ravel,strings seem to scare away composers, the same is true of the modern concerto, there is seldom a second one,or none at all,even Stravinsky his string literature brilliant though it is, is marginal to his other more spectacular works, well the ballets are no comparison;

usually the Debussy and Ravel are paired together,and they couldn't be more conceptually far apart,written by really two creators of different temperments and intellectual interests. Debussy at the beginning of his creativity with still pathways to follow,and Ravel well orchestration was his lifeworld,or let us say mining the depths of timbre and reflection on timeless objects as the "melos",the Renaissance like gestures.

The usual emotive traps in this music is to sentimentalize moments,(too-much vibrato,or impassioned phrasings) over-romanticize then their classical,finely woven gestures,turning a mere quartet into some mirror of symphonic sound, or even a short,a trace of the nostalgic,the melancholic turns, transforms this music into odious sap oozzing down the front of a flower,no there must be a foot,a conceptual balance in both worlds,this is music inhabiting the transitions to the modern,yet traditional melodic content,reflection,time inhabiting a symbolic order is still the focus here for both aesthetics.There is no modernist manifestoes yet proclaimed( as with the Surrealists,that Ravel knew) There is exciting texture and colour and the Alban Berg Quartet here are fully aware of these dimensions new departures, this new language of discreet colours as the plucked pizz string as in Ravel's "Assez Vif" breathtaking resonace from a little plucked string, if you heard it alone it would have a short sound piercing yet never sustained unless your ear is right on the string. The Ravel has more treacherous places for "warmth" to reside as in the exposed dark brooding lines for the viola in the third movement of "Tres Lent, here we have simple chords to give the "screens" for melos to occur. The opening itself,"Allegro moderato, Tres Doux" cannot be too too tres "Doux" otherwise again the dignity of the music is lost, here this means at times, the quiet reflection, like gazing out at nature,intropsection; the metaphor is not exhausted, this is music that encourages one to contemplate the fine shapes,and lines ,the complexity of nature, here through the ruff excursis of timbre.

The Debussy Quartet is another matter again the tempi the gestures need to be right on and they are here,many times the powerful opening is too heavy which then trails off into nothing a shimmer of sul ponticello threadbare background materials,while the Violin continues the melos. So balance of sound and gesture is important, and as commonplace as this seems there are many quartets who simple abandon this and go away in hiding for the melodramatic. That has no place in this music.

The Stravinsky string music sounds indeed refreshing after the ponderous Ravel and Debussy,here again we think we've heard all there is of string texture, and timbre,Stravinsky's string music has an open directed sense about it almost always brutal in the strings treatments lots of downbows,and double stops(two tones simultaneously) he (well as a true modernist)prefered the rougher,strident folksy aspects of the strings,this helped to render new content to his own still "diatonic" timbres yet with balanced classic shapes with rhythm being the asymetrical component to subvert the motions forward,the spaces. The "Three Pieces" here are incredible,drifting into the higher registers, plucked mixed with bowed timbres almost continuously,the resonance is exciting,makes the ear listen and you always are aware of the three,four layers occuring.You may know the materials here from other places that I simply forgot,Stravinsky lifted his own music again lifted from somewheres else, twice removed actually, but he did it with a real sense of transforming improving the original,not unlike the use of assemblage,collage of Picasso, who used newspapers for backdrops to his paintings or shrds fragments from hotel registry,matchbooks,pipe tobacco;for Stravinsky he worked at his music similarly cutting out strips of manuscript of single lines to be assembled later,or stuck on the wall with a pin through it for contemplation;many of the original melody lifted was languishing someplace anyways, never to see the light of day.

The "Concertino" seems more gratuitous in its gestures, lots of "noises" going nowheres,yet still exciting to listen. Raoul Dufy was a Fauvist painter who died in 1953,Stravinsky captures the finely gentle light lyricism of his paintings and illustrations.Yet there is a somber sense here not abandoned for his lost. This Quartet does good work.Wonderfully balanced disk."

I bought this CD for the Ravel.

M. Wu | Santa Barbara, CA USA | 01/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Before deciding to buy this version of the Ravel string quartet, I listened to the samples of tracks #5~8 for comparison against other CDs carrying the same string quartet. In particular, #6(II: Assez Vif - Tres Rythme) was much mellower, unlike the other interpretations which were rather rushed or harsh-sounding. In my opinion this version was done with better poise, and therefore more pleasant to the ear.

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