Page 32 - The Strad (February 2020)

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the Ysaÿe Quartet. ‘He is a genius,’ states Colombet. ‘He’s an
architect and a humanist, and he’s still the guy we can call if we
have a problem. With a few words from him we can improve
‘I HAD NO IDEA THAT within ten minutes.’
THE JAPAN TOUR WAS
n fact, it was Feltz who brought them to the ARD
A TRIAL TO BE IN THE Competition in 2004, preparing them beforehand over
QUARTET FOR REAL’ – I three weeks in Schwarzenburg, Switzerland, where they
practised for six hours a day. ‘is was one of the most intense
VIOLIST MARIE CHILEMME periods of our career,’ remembers Colombet. ‘As intense as
what we’re experiencing now with Beethoven. We lost a lot of
weight! Before the competition we had 10 concerts a year, but
suddenly, after we won, we had 130. ere were a few moments
when we thought it was going to stop because we couldn’t keep
up, which can be the danger after a competition win – to have
so many people asking you to play, and to be having to build
He pointed out what a privilege it is for a string player to have a your repertoire while not having enough time to rehearse it.’
bow, because unlike pianists we have the ability to transform ‘Of course, this is what we wanted,’ points out Le Magadure.
the length of just one note, and to orientate the music at each of ‘e ARD was a goal and we achieved it, and it was an incredible
its points, and also between them. He made us aware that when moment. But there was so much attention.’ Colombet adds:
we sing we link the notes, and we can also do that with a bow.’ ‘Actually, after all these years it feels as though we were kept
He sings to demonstrate. ‘So “to Brendelise” is now actually a together by destiny, because the schedule was suddenly so
verb for us!’ intense, we might easily have given up. Sometimes I look around
e group’s long-standing Verbier relationship began with an and think what a drama it would be to realise when I’m too old
invitation to attend its 2006 Chamber Music Programme led by that I could have enjoyed myself more, had I not been so serious.
violinist Gábor Takács-Nagy, with whom they studied in It’s a thought that often comes to me.’ ‘at thought is part of
Geneva between 2003 and 2005. ‘He is the most inspiring the job,’ muses Le Magadure. ‘Sonia Simmenauer describes this
person because he is always so natural, honest and naked,’ says paradox in her 2008 book Muss es sein? Leben im Quartett (‘Must
Le Magadure with warmth. ‘ere was one lesson in which he It Be? Life in the Quartet’): how you can only handle being in a
said, “I’m going to close my eyes, you will play the slow quartet if the illusion remains that you can leave at any moment.
movement of the Mozart ‘Dissonance’ Quartet, and I will stop If you feel it’s stable then it feels like jail, whereas if you feel it’s
you when I hear you not being honest and in the here and a lively process with constant new conœicts to solve, you always
now.” He really was able to notice when we fell o” a bit.’ have a reason to continue. We all believe in that.’ Colombet
When the players talk about Takács-Nagy introducing them concludes, ‘So let’s have the illusion that we can leave today,
to another important –gure, György Kurtág, Beethoven pops knowing that we are in the middle of a Beethoven recording
up again. ‘We spent an entire week in Budapest with him and cycle, knowing we’ll play the whole cycle around the world until
his wife, Márta, in 2005, practising just one Beethoven quartet December 2020, and knowing also that the year 2022 is fully
for six days,’ explains Colombet. ‘We worked until we were booked!’ (ankfully, they say a nine-month sabbatical is
dead! At the beginning he wasn’t very happy, then at the end he planned for 2021.)
said, “I want you to play Cavatina at my funeral.” It was Further fruit of that ARD success was the quartet’s signing in
incredible. Another dimension!’ 2005 with French label Mirare, on which they made Haydn and
e –nal major –gure of inœuence – dating right from the Bartók recordings before joining Erato in 2008 and scooping a
early years to the present day – is violin and chamber pedagogue Gramophone Award the following year for their recording of
Eberhard Feltz, to whom the quartet was introduced in 2002 by Ravel, Debussy and Fauré string quartets. Erato has also allowed
32 THE STRAD
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