BARTÓK; BEETHOVEN; DEBUSSY String Quartets
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Ludwig van Beethoven, Béla Bartók, Claude Debussy
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Champs Hill
Magazine Review Date: 05/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 71
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHRCD147
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
String Quartet No. 2 |
Béla Bartók, Composer
Béla Bartók, Composer Benyounes Quartet |
String Quartet No. 11, 'Serioso' |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Benyounes Quartet Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer |
String Quartet |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Benyounes Quartet Claude Debussy, Composer |
Author: Richard Bratby
And if you begin in the middle, with the Beethoven, you’ll hear it right away – the breathless verve and the terrific bite (listen to the black-toothed rasp of Kim Vaughan’s cello) with which they launch into this super-concentrated masterpiece. From the explosive opening to the needlepoint hilarity of that astonishing, scurrying F major final coda, the Benyounes never let up: dynamic contrasts are bold and characterisation is larger than life. That spirit seems to filter out across the whole disc into the Bartók and Debussy quartets that surround it. Even in the tenderest moments (and they handle Debussy’s slow movement with exquisite control) there’s no loss in tension. Everything here feels alert and vibrantly alive.
And yet there’s nothing raw or undercooked in these interpretations. From the rapturous way Zara Benyounes’s violin crests the first climax of the Bartók to the almost improvisatory ebb and flow of the first movement of the Beethoven, these are readings which – however fresh – are born of deep familiarity with the score and a corresponding trust between the four players. A couple of tiny smudges to passagework or intonation are a small price to pay for such life-affirming playing: if this was a live performance I suspect I’d be raving about it for days afterwards.
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