Debussy • Ravel • Tailleferre

String Quartets Stenhammar Quartet

Alba ABCD 431 (hybrid CD/SACD) 61:10 mins

Tailleferre’s String Quartet may not measure up to its companions here in quality, but even so it’s interesting to hear how, at the end of World War I, she was absorbing

Satie’s influence, balancing simple melodic phrases against curious harmonies. This ten-minute work also follows the maître in not only enjoying repetition but knowing when to stop. Its breezy good spirits are, deliberately, a world away from the more sophisticated concerns of Debussy and Ravel, but overall the Stenhammar Quartet make a good showing in both domains.

It’s only in one or two of the details of the earlier works that they don’t quite match the best performances in this crowded field. In the first movement of the Ravel, the high violin line is briefly inaudible at one point, while in the scherzo the second note of triplets is often a touch hurried, turning them into two semiquavers plus quaver; and extending the pause in the movement’s penultimate bar merely overeggs the pudding.

In the Debussy, the lead-in to the first movement reprise needs more space to register the pleasure of recognition, and there are points where accompaniments risk overpowering a melodic line. My worst moment came at the very end of the work, the first violin’s hectic 19-note scale being here separated by a pause from the final chord. The scale simply must lead straight into the chord, as marked. Still, whatever you do, the chord’s almost bound to be late – Debussy was not a string player! Roger Nichols PERFORMANCE ★★★★

RECORDING ★★★★