Quatuor Ysaye & Pascal Rogé

The Quatuor Ysaÿe was named after the legendary Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, who also named his quartet after himself. Ysaÿe's quartet played an important role in Parisian musical life at the end of the nineteenth century. A whole series of milestones from quartet literature were dedicated to them and first performed by them, including the string quartet by Debussy in 1893. The powerful influence of Franck filters through in the cyclical structure of this work, and the same motif in each of the four parts returns -- a process that Franck applied for the first time in his 1878 piano quintet. Debussy however went one step further in exploring the textures of the four instruments. The atmospheric transitions between the instrumental tints and nuances of light and shadow earned him a reputation as an 'impressionist'. Fauré composed his only string quartet at the end of his life. His tendency towards severity and clarity, which paralleled his increasing deafness, here reaches a climax.