Page 30 - The Strad (February 2020)

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‘BEETHOVEN IS THE 'đ Violist Marie Chilemme performing
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was German, he could have been FOR STRING QUARTETS ‘We had played with Mathieu Herzog
so many other nationalities and SO HE MERITS TAKING the year before, and he had this aura
living at another time. With the of energy about him,’ Colombet
idea of universalism irrigating his ON GREAT CHALLENGES’ remembers. ‘But he was also the son
music so much, we wanted to test – VIOLINIST GABRIEL of the director of the conservatoire and
it with di erent cultures in our a little bit untouchable – the guy always
time. Maybe he isn’t able to speak 200 LE MAGADURE with the sunglasses, you know? A di erent
years later to Maoris or Kenyans or world.’ Herzog did indeed decline when
Brazilians, but perhaps we can serve his they eventually asked. However, they persisted,
will. is probably brings additional pressure, he relented to one rehearsal where they read
but Beethoven is the greatest composer for string through the Ravel String Quartet and Schubert’s ‘Death
quartets so he merits taking on great challenges; and actually, and the Maiden’, and ‘from that day onwards we practised
I don’t have a desire to record these works without an audience. together six hours a day every day, even on Sundays.’
When you hear the Grosse Fuge or the late opuses or the Antonini soon left for Lyon, but Herzog had spotted
“Rasumovsky” quartets, they feel like live music.’ Le Magadure at the conservatoire, and the connection was
So the group’s take on Beethoven is live and global, and all instant. ‘We were like brothers without knowing each other,’
or nothing – which feels right when there’s a sense that the remembers Colombet. ‘We had the same conception of timings
composer’s cycle, and even ‡lming it live, has been in the and contrasts.’ Soon afterwards, Fontana also left, so Merlin was
musicians’ heads since the very beginning. ‘During our ‡rst year approached. ‘We knew that he was not only a good cellist but
as a quartet, we went to our conservatoire library and watched also a jazz man,’ explains Colombet – important, because
a video of the Alban Berg Quartet playing the Grosse Fuge live already they were playing jazz to o set the e ects of now
during their own Vienna cycle in 1989,’ recounts Le Magadure. practising for up to eleven hours a day. Far from being put o
‘is video was probably the beginning of everything for us. by all this intensity, Le Magadure and Merlin were attracted to
e piece sounds like a rock song and demands the energy of it. ‘From the outside it was looking like a strange, very powerful
a rock band, while also being so orchestral. Hearing it was a alliance,’ remembers Merlin. ‘A very strong devotion both to the
shock, and moments like these remain in the mind. So now music in general, and to this group.’
we are making our own live video recording, and Verbier is the Between January 2002 and December 2003 they had lessons
logical place to do it – it’s a very dependable place for us, the with the Ysaÿe Quartet at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement
church is beautiful and a great size for chamber music, and we Régional de Paris. Merlin recalls: ‘An interesting thing we learnt
can also have good air and rest.’ from the Ysaÿe players is that a string quartet can at once be
uni‡ed, as observed when they’re playing together, and yet not
he Ébène’s ‡rst seeds were sown during the summer of be absolutely in agreement about musical interpretation when
1999 by Colombet and his violinist friend Guillaume they try to put it into words. And indeed, a string quartet
T Antonini (now of the Leonis Quartet) as they holidayed should be a place of contradiction. It’s disagreement between
after their ‡rst year at the suburban-Paris conservatoire of the four of us that drives us to make improvements. If you listen
Boulogne-Billancourt. ‘We had spent our childhoods dreaming to a quartet where everyone agrees, it can be very weak in terms
of being soloists,’ recounts Colombet. ‘But now it was getting of musical intensity.’
real, and we understood that that can’t happen for everyone. Pianists have also played their part in the quartet’s
So we concluded that a string quartet was the perfect formation development: Hortense Cartier-Bresson in Boulogne-
in which to play with other people, but still to be able to express Billancourt, Pierre-Laurent Aimard in 2003 at the Paris
yourself and decide what you want to play.’ Conservatoire, then Alfred Brendel in 2010. ‘Brendel was here
Upon their return to Paris, the pair enlisted their cellist in Verbier,’ says Le Magadure, ‘and although he gave us just
friend Matthieu Fontana then looked around for a violist. one lesson, it was one of the most inªuential lessons ever.

30 THE STRAD
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