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Debussy - String Quartet & Sonatas

£13.75

Usually available for despatch within 5-8 working days

Label: Hyperion

Cat No: CDA68463

Barcode: 0034571284637

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 10th January 2025

Works

Debussy, Claude

Cello Sonata in D minor, L135
Prelude a l'Apres-midi d'un faune (arr. David Walter)
Sonata for flute, viola and harp
String Quartet in G minor, op.10
Violin Sonata in G minor, L148

Artists

The Nash Ensemble

Works

Debussy, Claude

Cello Sonata in D minor, L135
Prelude a l'Apres-midi d'un faune (arr. David Walter)
Sonata for flute, viola and harp
String Quartet in G minor, op.10
Violin Sonata in G minor, L148

Artists

The Nash Ensemble

About

The personnel may have changed over the years but the musical standards remain reassuringly high.

Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary season, The Nash Ensemble here delivers perfectly judged accounts of Debussy's String Quartet and Sonatas.

Besides that early quartet and the three sonatas which date from the composer's final years, the programme also includes a rare outing for David Walter's chamber ensemble arrangement of the Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune.

Scored for twelve players (single strings and winds, plus harp and crotales), this is an idiomatic version which loses none of the mastery and languor of the orchestral original.

This album again demonstrates the truth of The Sunday Times's evaluation of the Nash: 'chamber music royalty'.

From two players to twelve: few ensembles could respond with equal authority to the very varied demands made by this wonderful collection of Debussy's chamber music. But then, few ensembles can stand comparison with the Nash, whose members continue to set the standards across a dauntingly wide repertoire.

A realisation of the Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune for chamber ensemble adds to this album's more familiar attractions of the string quartet and three sonatas.

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune, L87 (arr. David Walter)
2

Violin Sonata in G minor, L148: 1. Allegro vivo
3

Violin Sonata in G minor, L148: 2. Intermède. Fantasque et léger
4

Violin Sonata in G minor, L148: 3. Finale. Très animé
5

Sonata for flute, viola and harp, L145: 1. Pastorale. Lento, dolce rubato
6

Sonata for flute, viola and harp, L145: 2. Interlude. Tempo di minuetto
7

Sonata for flute, viola and harp, L145: 3. Finale. Allegro moderato ma risoluto
8

Cello Sonata in D minor, L144: 1. Prologue. Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
9

Cello Sonata in D minor, L144: 2. Sérénade. Modérément animé
10

Cello Sonata in D minor, L144: 3. Finale. Animé, léger et nerveux
11

String Quartet in G minor, L91: 1. Animé et très décidé
12

String Quartet in G minor, L91: 2. Assez vif et bien rythmé
13

String Quartet in G minor, L91: 3. Andantino, doucement espressif
14

String Quartet in G minor, L91: 4. Très modéré

Europadisc Review

Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Nash Ensemble (founded in 1964) is one of Britain’s preeminent chamber ensembles, dedicated both to the classics (and neglected works) of the past and to music of the present day. Still under the artistic direction of co-founder Amelia Freedman, they have an impressive back-catalogue of wide-ranging and acclaimed recordings to their credit, not least on the Hyperion label. And it is with Hyperion that they now mark their jubilee season with an all-Debussy disc, presenting the three late sonatas (the composer didn’t live to write the further three he had intended) bookmarked by two landmark works from over two decades earlier.

The album opens with the epoch-defining Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune (1894) in a chamber arrangement for wind quintet, string quintet, harp and crotales by French oboist and composer David Walter. As Nigel Simeone points out in his excellent booklet notes, the arrangement ‘captures much of the half-lit subtlety of Debussy’s original orchestral score’, and the Nash Ensemble do it handsome justice. While the more sparsely-scored textures are tailor-made for chamber performance, what’s remarkable is just how rich and compelling the tutti passages come across, yet with a transparency that brings rays of gentle sunlight to this scene of the mind. Among the soloists, flautist Philippa Davies, oboist Gareth Hulse, clarinettist Richard Hosford and horn player Richard Watkins are all outstanding.

From Debussy’s breakthrough work, the programme moves to his last major composition, the Violin Sonata in G minor of 1917, completed less than a year before his death at the age of 55. Played by violinist Stephanie Gonley and pianist Alasdair Beatson, this is an engagingly thoughtful reading which combines urgency with a sure grasp of the work’s musical architecture. Gonley’s tone ranges from beguiling sweetness to fearlessly gripping athleticism, and she’s matched by Beatson’s constantly attentive piano playing. There’s no shortage of recordings of this work in the catalogue, but this one deserves to be placed alongside the starriest, with both musicians clearly relishing the most challenging passages in the virtuosic Finale.

The Sonata for flute, viola and harp (1916) is the only one of four projected sonatas for more unorthodox instrumentation. It has about it an elusive air, as if presenting the listener with some scene from ancient classicism, and its fluid shifts of mood, pacing and timbre are wonderfully realised by Philippa Davies, Lawrence Power and Lucy Wakeford. The flute’s evocative combination of the ethereal and the earthy is brilliantly complemented by delicate shading from the harp and viola, and the work emerges here as one of the true musical miracles of Debussy’s final years.

The D minor Cello Sonata of 1915 – the first of the sonatas to be composed – is performed here by cellist Adrian Brendel and pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips. They capture perfectly the contrasting mood of each movement: the Prologue’s alternation between the rhetorical and the pensive, the spectral mystery and macabre pizzicati of the central Sérénade, and the infectiously flowing sweep of the Finale. Neither player need fear comparison with big-name recordings in the catalogue in this beautifully considered and vividly realised performance.

The G minor String Quartet, composed in 1893, was Debussy’s first piece of mature chamber music, and notwithstanding the shadows of Russian influence as well as Franck (particularly in the cyclic design) it has the unmistakable stamp of its composer. From the very opening bars, violinists Benjamin Nabarro and Jonathan Stone, viola player Lars Ander Tomter and Adrian Brendel again on cello plunge the listener into this splendid score. There’s all the unanimity of a regular quartet ensemble, as well as wonderfully transparent inner textural detail. The scherzo-like second movement has a real spring to its spiky pizzicato passages, as well as a Mendelssohnian nimbleness. The ‘trance-like’ (Edward Lockspeiser) Andantino is breathtakingly beautiful, as sweetly expressive as one could wish, its closing bars achingly beautiful. The finale moves from contemplation, through quasi-fugal acerbity and tortuous passions to an exhilarating ending, and the Nash players have all the mercurial skill to navigate a sure path through all the contrasting moods to bring the disc to a thrilling close.

The recordings themselves combine immediacy with warmth: the Quartet was set down in London’s Henry Wood Hall in February 2024, the other works in All Saints’ Church, East Finchley in December 2023. This is quite simply a life-enhancing disc, and a marvellous celebration of the Nash Ensemble’s collective and individual virtuosity and musicianship. The cover reproduces Raoul Dufy’s 1952 Homage to Debussy – a lovely touch. Enthusiastically recommended to all!

Reviews

The Nash Ensemble have recorded all three sonatas before, on a long-deleted Virgin Classics disc (4/91). In all but one case, the personnel has changed during the intervening decades – the exception being long-serving flautist Philippa Davies. ... In every respect, these are stronger readings than the Virgin outing, not least due to the splendid recording in All Saints’ Church, East Finchley, a favoured Hyperion venue, produced by Andrew Keener. The sound is fuller and richer, the microphone placement closer, capturing more detail. ... The Nash’s fleet-footed reading [of the String Quartet] is enormously enjoyable, as is this entire disc. Mark Pullinger

Gramophone February 2025

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Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Debussy - String Quartet & Sonatas

Usually available for despatch within 5-8 working days

Despatch Information

Contents

Works

Artists

Works

Artists

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review

Reviews

Also Available

£22.95

£13.75

£13.75

£13.75

£18.35

Condition Information

Condition Information