Capet String Quartet – Ravel: String Quartet (entire)

Recorded in 1928. 1st violin: Lucien Capet, 2nd violin: Maurice Hewitt, Viola: Henri Benoît, Violoncello: Camille Delobelle

1. Allegro moderato – très doux
2. Assez vif – très rythmé 7:58
3. Très lent 13:49
4. Vif et agit 22:13

Capet String Quartet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice...

Ravel String Quartet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_...)

I'm convinced this is the best recording of this work. Ditto for the Debussy.

From a review by James Leonard, All Music Guide: ...these recordings were as good as it got, and just because we hear and perform music differently, doesn't necessarily mean that we hear and perform it better. (No kidding!) The Capet Quartet's performances of the quartets of Ravel and Debussy are, after all, informed by the fact that the performers and the composers were more or less Parisian contemporaries. And although performance styles have changed completely since 1928 and the lean, supple but almost vibrato-less sound they strove for has been supplanted by a richer, weightier sound (huh?), the Capet's flawless ensemble with its ideally weighed attacks, its perfectly balanced sonorities and its complete command of tonal color is still a model for quartet playing at its finest. Perhaps best of all, the Capet Quartet understood the combination of ardent emotions and powerful intellectual control that characterized French music of their generation, and they articulated their understanding in thoroughly compelling performance that will convince even those who came to musical maturity after 1928.