Ravel - String Quartet [Quatuor Ysaye]This Quartet, especially the first movement, really hit me hard early last year, while walking down a country lane with my portable, since then i've listened to it more, and also i've anticipated the joy and love that i'm about to get from listening to it once again, this is a wonderful feeling.
Also i've acquired more versions of these works, and this is one of them, each String Quartet has a slightly different interpretation, and it adds to the comprehension and understanding of the work to hear someone different, it's like visiting another Doctor and getting a second [or third or...] opinion [of the work].
Certainly this time i was impressed with the opening movement, but again i find myself drawn to the second movement Assez vif - Tres rythme, if there's one feature of this movement, it would be 'pizzicato', it seems the whole idea is to create a movement to showcase this device, and Ravel has pulled it off with aplomb, the movement starts out with the tune in forte pizzicato [0:00-0:16], and the first violin is the one to come in with some sweet bowing [0:16-0:36], however all the strings take it in turns doing some pizzicato, especially the cello, and there's some very fast bowing [0:36-0:48], before the whole episode returns again, with slight variations [0:48-1:47], and of course this very episode returns right at the end [5:14-6:18], the first violin has a lyrical yet sour new theme [3:25+ & 4:08+], but agitations abound, with the cello and viola threatening with soft pizzicato to return to the opening theme [3:45+ & 4:30+], of which the cello eventually achieves exactly that [4:51+], with the viola, then the violins joining in, until it explodes into the opening pizzicato reprise [5:14], right at the end there's a powerful pizzicato chord to end on, nicely staggered, a great finish, and an exhilarating String Quartet showpiece.
Here's the Hagen Quartet playing the second movement on YouTube.
