Quartetto Italiano, Arthur Grumiaux, Maurice Gendron - Debussy: Chamber Music (1994)

Posted By: tirexiss

Date: Feb. 3, 2020

Grumiaux’s elevated intellectual profile is put to exalted use in the Debussy Sonata. He has a quicksilver response to the music’s twists and turns and an alertness to the necessary momentum in the first movement. He is thus forward moving but flexible with a fast vibrato and multi variegated tonal response at once apposite and unostentatious. Listen at 2.15 to about as extravagant a portamento as he ever made on disc. If you want to hear fluent and incisive duo playing listen to Grumiaux and Hajdu in the Intermède where understanding of motivic details and larger structure reigns supreme. So too in the finale; just the right weight of bow pressure from the violinist at 1.40 and the optimum fluidity and fluency from the pianist. A noble account of a masterpiece.

Time is right for a reappraisal of the Gendron-Francaix partnership, in my view every bit as exalted an instrumentalist-composer duo as the better known and more fêted Rostropovich-Britten. I recently reviewed a performance of the Debussy Cello Sonata by a celebrated contemporary duo so narcissistic as to be painful. Here, at a somewhat steadier tempo, but not by much, Gendron and Francaix show how inflection, nuance, tonal variety and cogency bring rewards far outstripping the mere superficialities of the moment. There is such expressive propriety to their playing. In the pizzicato episode of the Serenade’s opening everything is at the service of the music and the gradations of tone in the subsequent development are of sovereign subtlety. And such wit – real wit, not supposed Gallic "wit" – in the slides and phrase endings, such triumphant understanding of the work’s architecture and meaning, such involved nonchalance. In the finale their sense of anticipation and release is second to none. There is never any vulgar overemphasis in tempo relation. Gendron’s tone colours here are infinitely attractive and subtle and the whole performance a triumph of selfless musicality.

arkivmusic

Track List:

01. String Quartet in G minor - I [0:06:26.00]
02. String Quartet in G minor - II [0:03:57.00]
03. String Quartet in G minor - III [0:08:40.00]
04. String Quartet in G minor - IV [0:07:44.00]
05. Sonata in D minor for cello and piano - I [0:05:03.00]
06. Sonata in D minor for cello and piano - II [0:03:51.38]
07. Sonata in D minor for cello and piano - III [0:03:10.37]
08. Sonata in G minor for violin and piano - I [0:04:18.00]
09. Sonata in G minor for violin and piano - II [0:03:59.00]
10. Sonata in G minor for violin and piano - III [0:04:12.00]
11. Sonata for flute, viola, and harp - I [0:07:08.00]
12. Sonata for flute, viola, and harp - II [0:06:05.00]
13. Sonata for flute, viola, and harp - III [0:04:39.00]
14. Syrinx for unaccompanied flute [0:02:59.00]

Performers:
Quartetto Italiano
Maurice Gendron - cello
Jean Françaix - piano
Arthur Grumiaux - violin
István Hajdu piano
Roger Bourdin - flute
Colette Lequien - viola
Annie Challan - harp

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 6. November 2013, 8:33

Various Artists / Debussy - Chamber Music - Quartetto Italiano, Grumiaux, Gendron

Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-222BB Adapter: 2 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
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TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.32 | 6:26.00 | 32 | 28981
2 | 6:26.32 | 3:57.00 | 28982 | 46756
3 | 10:23.32 | 8:40.00 | 46757 | 85756
4 | 19:03.32 | 7:44.00 | 85757 | 120556
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12 | 58:29.32 | 6:05.00 | 263207 | 290581
13 | 64:34.32 | 4:39.00 | 290582 | 311506
14 | 69:13.32 | 2:59.00 | 311507 | 324931

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename G:\Ripped general\[2572] Debussy – Chamber Music – Quartetto Italiano, Grumiaux, Gendron\Debussy - Chamber Music - Quartetto Italiano, Grumiaux, Gendron.wav

Peak level 84.3 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 3AF3ACE9
Copy CRC 3AF3ACE9
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

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All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

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