Debussy- String Quartet- Ravel- String Quartet

The Dante Quartet continue their award-winning exploration of the French string quartet with this disc which includes two of the greatest works of this genre. Both quartets dazzled and disturbed at their first performances. Debussy's fantastic, spiraling variations, resisting orthodox 'development' of ideas, is described as reminiscent of Monet in recording the variations of light on the facade of Rouen Cathedral. Traditionalist commentators were shocked, but the exotic beauty of the writing excited many, including the young Ravel. Ravel's quartet is to some extent an homage to Debussy, but, typically, also a work of startling originality. Also included is Ravel's second violin sonata, an intriguing, jazz-influenced work, energetic but with a dark undertow of pain. It was written, as Ravel said, with the aim of ' exploring the basic incompatibility of violin and piano.'