Quatuor Modigliani – Quatuor Modigliani: Debussy, Saint Saëns, Ravel (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Quatuor Modigliani – Quatuor Modigliani: Debussy, Saint Saëns, Ravel (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:24:45 minutes | 814 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mirare

On the occasion of their tenth anniversary, the String Quartet Modigliani chose to record pieces by French composers. At the dawn of the twentieth century, Paris, more than any other city, experienced the metamorphosis of the arts into modern times. The vibrations of colours and light on the canvases of Monet, Seurat and their contemporaries were transmuted into sounds in the output of Debussy, whose Quartet opened the way to a new aesthetic. Ten years later Ravel was to crystallise its style, as if to follow Debussy’s conception through to its conclusion. Between these two jewels of the French repertoire, the First Quartet of Saint-Saëns is revealed as a tremendously appealing work, brimming with charm, humour, and elegance.

The three works on this release date from the 10-year period 1893-1903. From the LP era through the present, it has been the prevailing practice to couple the Debussy and Ravel quartets on a single disc, sometimes with the addition of short pieces to fill up the remaining space on a CD. For example, the Alban Berg Quartet (EMI) adds three brief Stravinsky pieces, while Testament’s reissue of 1960 recordings by the Juilliard Quartet adds two works by Webern, who can be counted upon to be brief. This release by the Modigliani Quartet takes a different tack, throwing the full-length Saint-Saëns Quartet No. 1 into the mix and placing the Ravel work by itself on a second disc, with a duration of 28: 25. If treated as a full-price two-disc set, this release would be an economically uninviting proposition. As I write this review, ArkivMusic is showing a list price of $49.98 for the set but has it on sale for less than one-third that amount, $15.99. At that price, given the excellence of the performances, it would be a worthwhile acquisition. Still, it’s hard to understand why another French quartet could not have been found to occupy some of the 50-plus minutes of empty space on the second disc. Those of Fauré or Chausson would have been suitable choices, but another by Saint-Saëns or one by Roussel, among others, could also have been used.

The chronically underrated Saint-Saëns was responsible for some fine chamber music. The first of his two string quartets is a fairly late work, completed in 1899, six years after the one and only quartet by the much younger Debussy, and is predictably written in a much more eclectic and cosmopolitan style than Debussy’s and Ravel’s very individual contributions to the genre. It is dedicated to the Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe, and many commentators have noted that the first-violin part appears intended for a player of great virtuosity. The work has received a mixed press in previous Fanfare reviews. According to Robert McColley (21:6), it is “in subtlety and complexity of musical and spiritual depth… perhaps as close to the masterworks of late Beethoven as anything written since.” At the opposite extreme, Jerry Dubins (35:1 and 36:5) declared the piece “much ado about very little, a tornado in a thimble.” In between is Adrian Corleonis (21:4), for whom this quartet is “serious, polished, and engaging without striking very deeply.” Ian Lace (21:5) also offered a mildly positive assessment. I certainly wouldn’t go as far as McColley but disagree completely with Dubins’s harsh assessment. Contrary to Corleonis, I would say that the work has considerable depth of feeling as well as melodic invention, although admittedly there are pages that seem more learned than inspired. I agree with Lace that the first movement is “virile and melodically and harmonically arresting.” The ensuing scherzo, beginning with a seemingly simple motif, builds to impressive textural complexity and emotional intensity. The slow movement is rather chilling and enigmatic, while the rondo finale builds to a fiery conclusion. I have a perfectly capable performance by the Switzerland-based Sarastro Quartet, on the Pan Classics label, but the playing of the Modigliani Quartet is more nuanced, fiery, and spontaneous, generates surging waves of sound, and makes a better case for the work. I haven’t heard any of the recordings previously reviewed in Fanfare , which met with varying degrees of approval, but several are still available.

For the Debussy and Ravel works, of course, the range of alternatives is much more extensive, but the Modigliani performances are very fine ones, with playing that is technically faultless, fluid, flexible, tonally sumptuous, subtly expressive, or brilliantly impassioned as needed, and in the Ravel, filled with mystery. These vivid performances are not surpassed by any others in my collection, which in addition to those already mentioned includes recordings by the Cleveland (Telarc), Petersen (Capriccio), Ysaÿe (Decca and Wigmore Hall Live), Rosamonde (Pierre Verany), and Borodin (BBC) quartets and Quartetto Italiano (EMI). Is the Modigliani players’ approach perhaps a quintessentially French one? The ensembles whose performances theirs most resemble in fluidity, flexibility, and refined sensuousness, the Ysaÿe and Rosamonde, are also French, while the strongest contrast is with the angular and metrical approach of the Alban Berg and especially the Juilliard, in both works, and the Petersen in the Ravel.

Mirare has given this release vivid, spacious, wide-ranging, detailed sound, with well-defined instrumental timbres, surpassing, in these respects, most of the other recordings cited for comparison. A faint tapping noise can be heard briefly in the first movement of the Debussy. This release is strongly recommended, provided one can get it for a reasonable price. –Daniel Morrison, FANFARE

Tracklist:
1-01. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in G Minor:Animated and very resolute (06:48)
1-02. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in G Minor:Fairly lively and strongly rhythmic (03:57)
1-03. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in G Minor:Gently expressive (07:23)
1-04. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in G Minor:Very moderate (07:16)
1-05. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor Opus 112:Allegro più allegro (10:33)
1-06. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor Opus 112:Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto (06:19)
1-07. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor Opus 112:Molto adagio (07:48)
1-08. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor Opus 112:Finale: Allegro non troppo (06:13)
2-01. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in F Major:Allegro moderato (08:28)
2-02. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in F Major:Fairly lively and very rhythmic (06:20)
2-03. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in F Major:Very slow (08:39)
2-04. Quatuor Modigliani – String Quartet in F Major:Lively and agitated (04:58)

Personnel:
Philippe Bernhard, violon
Loïc Rio, violon
Laurent Marfaing, alto
François Kieffer, violoncelle

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