Quatuor Zaïde

Twins, rivals, complementary, the string quartets of Debussy and Ravel shine like two stars in the firmament of French music. In this constellation, the musicians of the Zaïde Quartet introduce a new star: the delicate piece dedicated by Cécile Buchet to the four elements.

Debussy's Quatuor (1893), an early work, is the composer's tribute to the 'classical' training to which he would never return. Although the influence of César Franck is clearly perceptible, the score's four movements already bear witness to the freedom of form and harmonic poetry, as well as to the care given to sound textures, that were characteristic of the future master. The 'Andalusian' colour of the second movement had amazed Ravel, who remembered it when he began work on his own quartet in 1903. Dedicated to Fauré, the work bears witness to Ravel's clear lines, and while Debussy's shadow is clearly present, the intensive use of pizzicati, the obsessive elements and the high-precision rhythmic mechanics are typical of the inventor of the Bolero. Framed by these two pillars of the repertoire, Cécile Buchet's piece entrusts the quartet's alchemy with the task of evoking, in so many magnetic strands, the poetry of the four elements, both physical and spiritual.