Debussy and Ravel | Adelaide Festival 2022 review

The Australian String Quartet’s side-by-side performance of works by Debussy and Ravel made it clear that these are true peers.

Debussy and Ravel – Australian String Quartet. Picture: Agatha Yim

Debussy and Ravel – Resonance: Chamber Landscapes

Classical Music

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

UKARIA Cultural Centre

March 12

In years gone by Debussy and Ravel were often seen as an impressionistic tag-team, belonging together.

Nothing could be further from the reality, of course, and the Australian String Quartet’s side-by-side performances of Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor and Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major certainly made that very obvious.

It also made it quite clear that these are true peers as works of art.

ASQ was in no mood to compromise with the Debussy which they presented with passion, precision and unequivocal full-hearted commitment.

The tempestuous and urgent elements making up the first movement were placed front and centre in a high voltage reading.

The second movement showed great rhythmic drive and an almost gymnastic quality while the Andantino veered almost too far towards the opposite extreme with Debussy’s tender rather sweet motifs almost sentimentally reminiscent of Claire de Lune.

The climactic final movement fused all these elements together with the ASQ’s committed execution of the work proving both homogenous and convincing.

By contrast the Ravel would brook no treatment other than classically cultured grace and elegance.

True there was intensity but nearly always Ravel envelopes this in the higher more delicate registers with a glittering array of harmonies and incredibly precise chordal progressions.

The second movement Assez vif was beautifully balanced and even the edgy last movement had to be kept in check in deference to Ravel’s stylistic nuances.