Debussy: String Quartet

Album review

This is a tale of the Quartetto Italiano’s love affair with Debussy’s Quatuor. They included it in their first concert programme and recorded it three times, with the final recording being made with the Philips label in Vevey in August 1965—right at the peak of their glory days. It was an incredible testimony to their bright and generous sound and is a much-loved favourite amongst record collectors, who have even gone so far as to name it the original recording (Les Indispensables du disque compact, 1995). A little more than ten years earlier, they had recorded this Quartet for His Master’s Voice, which was published in an LP whose B-side (XBX114) featured a work by Milhaud, Twelfth Quartet.

Thanks to the complete reissue of the Italian ensemble’s HMV sessions (Warner Classics), an even earlier shellac record has been rediscovered, one that was released under the Durium label in 1946. This was their very first recording. The clear, bright polyphonic textures that are the hallmark of the quartet (founded in 1945 in Reggio Emilia by Paolo Borciani), even in their versions of Beethoven and Schubert, are easy to hear on this record. The technically challenging second movement (Assez vif et bien rythmé) testifies to the Italians' early search for perfection and instrumental fullness. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz