Page 29 - The Strad (February 2020)
P. 29
ÉBÈNE QUARTET
ou never know quite how it’s going to go
when interviewing a string quartet: not
because string quartets are inherently the
natural habitat of tricky personalities, but
simply because the ratio of one to four isn’t
always ideal for establishing a genuine human
Y connection. It’s especially true when this
particular brand of foursome can represent such a mighty single
unit if all is working well. And all is certainly working well for
the Ébène Quartet. For starters, there’s its sheer longevity: near
enough to 20 years together for its three long-term members,
violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, and cellist
Raphaël Merlin; and although violist Marie Chilemme joined
as recently as 2017, she seems to be spun from exactly the same
musical DNA. en there’s the scale of the group’s
international success since its 2004 victory at the ARD Music
Competition: the string of award-winning albums, the
relationships established with the world’s greatest concert halls
and festivals, the fact that the players are as acclaimed as jazz
musicians as they are as classical ones – and now there are the
quartet’s projects to mark Beethoven’s 250th birthday.
e Ébène’s enormous Beethoven around the World tour,
from April last year to the end of
The Ébène Quartet on its 2019–20 Beethoven around the World January this year, has encompassed
tour ($¡3$0>-9' (831 ;36 ¡'đ) Shanghai Symphony Hall, China; New
Zealand’s Wellington coast; Tongyeong Concert Hall, South Korea; countries from Kenya to New
8-2$';32 2-='89-;@T U !<1!ধ '!$,T '> '!£!2& Zealand. Portions have been
recorded live for their long-standing
label Erato, with each of seven discs
set down in a dierent country and
the entire box set due for release in
March. In addition, this year they
are presenting entire Beethoven
quartet cycles at Carnegie Hall, New
York, and at several European venues
including the Konzerthaus in Vienna
and the Verbier Festival, where the
ensemble has played almost every
year since 2008, and where the cycle
will also be ¢lmed. ere will, in
addition, be a separate documentary
of Beethoven around the World, due
for release at a later date.
When I join the Ébène musicians
on a sunny hotel terrace at the 2019
Verbier Festival I am all prepared for
the role of privileged outside
observer, not least because it is one
of those ¢xed-parameter arrangements that shout ‘superstar
artist’, slotted as it is e¥ciently into the hour between lunch
and their afternoon rehearsal, with me carefully chaperoned
into their presence by a member of festival sta. So, to ¢nd
ALL PHOTOS PILVAX & OBERYN FILMS them so completely relaxed, then to be quickly welcomed into
their con¢dence, and next to be set o laughing at Colombet’s
answer to my opening question, ‘Why now for the Beethoven
cycle?’ is a glorious surprise.
His reply, ‘Because we are old,’ comes in deadpan, mock-
careworn tones as the others smile on. ‘It’s been 20 years, so it’s
time, and we have to choose the moment when we still have a
lot of energy.’ Le Magadure continues, ‘Although Beethoven
FEBRUARY 2020 THE STRAD 29
