Maurice Ravel; Fernand de La Tombelle - String Quartets (Mandelring Quartet)

Information

Composer: Maurice Ravel; Fernand de La Tombelle

• Ravel - String Quartet in F Major
• La Tombelle - String Quartet in E Major, Op. 36

Mandelring Quartet

Sebastian Schmidt & Nanette Schmidt, violins

Andreas Willwohl, viola

Bernhard Schmidt, cello

Date: 2021

Label: audite Musikproduktion

https://audite.de/de/product/CD/97709-ravel_la_tombelle_string_quartets.html

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Review

Fernand de La Tombelle (1854-1928) was something of an unknown quantity until recently, when a number of important recordings of his work indicated the start of a major reappraisal. Tassis Christoyannis and Jeff Cohen’s rediscovery of the songs (Aparté, 7/17) was followed by Bru Zane’s three-disc set (3/20) presenting a cross section of his output, and now the Mandelring Quartet have given us his E major String Quartet – dating from 1895 and his only work in the genre – coupled with the Ravel Quartet, written less than a decade later. As on previous occasions, La Tombelle proves to be uneven: strongly influenced by Franck, the Quartet is very much an exercise in cyclic form, though we’re also aware on occasion of an engagement with Beethoven, not so much with the latter’s quartets as with the Ninth Symphony, which at times informs the melodic contours of the Scherzo.

A certain grandness of gesture throughout indicates that La Tombelle was thinking in terms of a major statement. The slow introduction to the big opening Allegro, laying out the work’s harmonic and thematic parameters, is long and imposing enough to effectively constitute a separate movement. The Scherzo and Trio swivel between 6/8 and 3/4, in ways both clever and disorientating, before Beethovenian flourishes indicate a peremptory call to order. The closely, intensely woven Adagio has an almost Tristan-esque chromatic density but the finale is less successful than the rest of it, thematically foursquare, the cyclic deployment of material from previous movements more a matter of quotation than of developmental reworking.

You can’t fault the performance. The Mandelring Quartet play with understated virtuosity, consistent warmth of tone and a wonderful sense of ensemble throughout. They can’t disguise the weaknesses in the finale; but elsewhere La Tombelle’s counterpoint emerges with great clarity, form and structure are carefully laid bare and emotional depth is conveyed with great refinement of expression. The same qualities of understatement and clarity inform their interpretation of the Ravel Quartet, a performance of often fastidious detail, though one in which we’re also keenly aware of the work’s deeper resonances. A sudden, almost dislocating surge of emotion at the first movement’s climax prepares us for the pressures of the finale, which is very urgent and agité here. The Scherzo’s Trio sounds melancholy amid the surrounding swagger, its bittersweet mood colouring the quietly intense slow movement that follows. I prefer the fractionally greater emotional range and expressive directness of the Stenhammar Quartet’s recent recording of the work (Alba, 8/19), but the Mandelring’s performance is a fine achievement that repays repeated hearings.

-- Tim Ashley, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Apr/Ravel-quartet-97709.htm

https://www.audaud.com/mandelring-quartett-ravel-and-la-tombelle-quartets-audite/

https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/mandelring-quartet-ravel-la-tombelle/13036.article

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles. His best known works include Boléro (1928), Gaspard de la nuit (1908), Daphnis et Chloé (1912). Ravel was also an exceptionally skilled orchestrator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel

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Fernand de La Tombelle (3 August 1854 – 13 August 1928) was a French organist and composer. Born in Paris, he was a pupil of Sigismund Thalberg and Franz Liszt. He also took private lessons with Alexandre Guilmant, as well as studied with Théodore Dubois at the Conservatoire de Paris. For his compositions he was twice awarded the gold medal at the Grand Prix Pleyel. From 1896 to 1904, he was the first harmony teacher at the Schola Cantorum; among his students was Déodat de Séverac. In addition to music, La Tombelle was also active as a writer, sculptor, painter, photographer, music ethnologist and astronomer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_de_La_Tombelle

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The Mandelring Quartet was founded in 1983 in Neustadt (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), and currently consists of Sebastian, Nanette and Bernhard Schmidt siblings, as well as their friend Andreas Willwohl. They won major competitions such as the Premio Paolo Borciani and the Munich ARD competition, and  since then have performed in many well-known concert halls all over the world. The ensemble has recorded numerous CDs that have won the German Record Critics' Award and nominated for Cannes Classical Award. The Quartet Quartet is also the founder and artistic director of the Hambacher Musikfest festival.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelring_Quartet

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