Benjamin Attahir • Debussy • Ravel
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor; Benjamin Attahir: Al Asr; Ravel: String Quartet in F major
Quatuor Arod
Erato 5419775230 78:18 mins
I find it hard to decide which I enjoyed more: the performances of the three works or the DVD providing background information about the players and their attitude to their task. The latter first. For those of us who’ve never been part of a professional quartet, the DVD made by the wonderful Bruno Monsaingeon is an eye-opener to the labour, sensitivity, intelligence, tact, humour, concentration and self-awareness required to keep everything alive and well. Before every gig, they all lie on the floor on their backs and meditate; and from time to time they have sessions with a psychotherapist – not just anyone, but Novak Djokovic’s psychotherapist. Another notable marker of their professionalism is the electrical gizmo invented by the cellist, which is clipped on to their stands and gives them feedback on intonation: the example given was of an E which, as the third in a C major chord, was decided on as needing to be infinitesimally flatter than in the preceding E major chord. The close recording may not be to everyone’s taste, though I’m happy with it. But the variety of colours and the dynamic range from enchanting delicacy to furious abandon offer us both the Impressionist and more modern aspects of the Debussy and the Ravel, the wildness of Ravel’s finale being breathtaking. The five-movement piece Al Asr by Benjamin Attahir, a French composer in his mid-thirties, is a fine work, very exciting and obeying Ravel’s recipe for good form: ‘continuity of interest’. The balance between long ostinatos and freewheeling melodic lines, using patterns from the music of the Middle East, is kept with a masterly hand. Roger Nichols