Debussy • Szymanowski
String Quartets
Belcea Quartet
Alpha ALPHA1074 64:57 mins
The Belceas have been firmly in the vanguard of the international chamber music scene since the millennium, and for this eagerly anticipated new recording, they revisit Debussy’s Quartet (which featured on their debut EMI disc 25 years ago) and include the two string quartets by Karol Syzmanowski.
As his only string quartet neared completion, Debussy remarked that, ‘Music is written to express the inexpressible,’ adding that, ‘I would like it to seem to emerge from the shadows and at times to return to them.’ Such aspirations were fully realised in the fleetingly elusive imagery of his G minor String Quartet, but the work was nevertheless indifferently received at its 1893 premiere.
A long-standing staple for the Belcea Quartet, they’re uncannily alert and attuned to its impressionistic harmonic language, capitalising on its every nuance and playing with a blend of subtlety, understatement and rapturous intensity that’s seldom, if ever, been bettered on disc.
Some collectors will understandably prefer this work alongside Ravel’s Quartet, in which case the classic Philips version by Quartetto Italiano still merits consideration, wearing its longevity well, despite having been recorded as long ago as 1965. There’s also the famous Alban Berg Quartet version, now on Warner Classics, though neither achieves the ecstatic concentration and irresistible allure of the Belcea Quartet’s latest traversal.
Their original recording was coupled with the Ravel and Dutilleux Quartets, though regardless of their unfamiliarity, these freshly-minted new performances of the two string quartets by Poland’s greatest 20th century composer Karel Szymanowski will prove equally revelatory. A stunning release.