Search - Chausson, Faure, Gaggini Quartet :: Unfinished Quartet Op.35

French Fine Art...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 07/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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A nice compilation on the small Belgian label Cypres features three fine rare French string Quartets.



The difficult-to-find Tournemire--(pupil of Franck)--embeds his seven-section Quartet with modal tonalities (1933). One may consider it parallel to Berg's second string Quartet--the "Lyric Suite." Look for the extremely rare Tournemire disc Tournemire: Musique de chambre .



The Quartet of Franck's pupil Chausson--which was once so rare--has by now become virtually "popular," and with good reason: its an extremely well wrought piece in three large movements which engender a comfortably cerebral aesthetic experience of la Belle Époque (1899). In this regard, one may also consider the works of Reynaldo Hahn: Reynaldo Hahn: Piano Quartet, Violin Sonata & Other Chamber Music .



After all his years of activity, France's greatest musician--G.-U. Fauré--finally (literally!) produced a sublime string Quartet in the last year of his life (1924). In many ways it is a quintessential example of the French ethos on the Latinate-Mediterranean side: transparent, light, finely-chiselled, Parnassian. (We musn't forget just how far north Paris is, obtaining a more northern European influence.) Those wanting an easily obtainable Fauré Quartet my find it on Naxos coupled with Ravel's delightfully ubiquitous Quartet of 1903: Ravel / Fauré: String Quartets .



Cypres disc out of print: get it while you can.

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