'The recorded sound has all the freshness needed for this music' (Pianist) 'Seta Tanyel plays her well-contrasted selection with obvious affection and persuasive charm … playing of outstanding drive and verve' (International Record Review)
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, spiralling variations, resisting orthodox ‘development’ of ideas, is described as reminiscent of Monet’s in recording the variations of light on the façade 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 hommage to Debussy, but, typically, also a work of startling originality. Also included is Ravel’s Violin Sonata No 2 in G major, an intriguing, jazz-influenced work, energetic but with a dark undertow of pain; written, as Ravel said, with the aim of ‘exploring the basic incompatibility of violin and piano’. Praise for FAURÉ / FRANCK String Quartets CDA67664 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE AWARD WINNER 2009 ‘This is a fascinating juxtaposition … sublime, yet undervalued masterpieces. The Dante Quartet are superb advocates, especially in the Franck, where they are without peer among modern accounts’ (BBC Music Magazine) ‘This is a wonderfully played pairing of perhaps the two greatest of all French string quartets … it is a measure of the outstanding quality of the Dante Quartet that both works are projected as vividly and immediately as they are. There’s such a passionate involvement about their playing, such belief in the music’s outstanding qualities … it’s an outstanding disc’ (The Guardian) ‘This latest disc of Franck and Fauré marks the beginning of a new relationship with Hyperion, which could not have begun on a better note’.
‘A glowing culmination to another outstanding Hyperion project’ (The Independent) ‘New standards of excellence … stunning’ (Gramophone) ‘Highest honours must go to the outstanding 140-voice chorus who sing with earth-shattering conviction, utmost clarity of diction and enviable precision of ensemble and intonation … the combined strengths of this Hyperion version guarantee prime recommendation’ (BBC Music Magazine)