The string quartets by Debussy and Dutilleux are classics of the genre and, in this concert, the Quatuor Psophos’s instinct for the ravishing soundworlds of their French compatriots made for a rewarding experience.
From its opening bars, Dutilleux’s quartet, Ainsi la Nuit, takes the listener into another world: less a dreamlike state than a heightened sensory awareness; apparently the dark of night, but transparent of texture; mysterious without ever being menacing; evocative and ecstatic. Yet the Psophos were quite matter-of-fact in their delivery. There was nothing in the way of showiness: it was the tone-colours they produced and the aura they created that held the attention, and sometimes one’s breath.
The Psophos have a characteristically French sound, misty and slightly throaty. In Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor, the ability of each individual to respond and match the other in the quality of utterance and in turn to realise an intense unanimity of sound was again impressive. After the playfulness of the second movement, the expressivity they brought to the central Andantino reinforced the work’s deep emotional focus and the affinity of Dutilleux for the older master.
It was the Ysaÿe quartet who premiered Debussy’s quartet in December 1893, and it is primarily thanks to Eugène Ysaÿe’s commission of a violin sonata from him that Guillaume Lekeu is known. The Belgian-born Lekeu died of typhus at just 24 in 1894. Including Lekeu in such hallowed company should have highlighted both his acknowledged genius and the tragedy of this early demise. However, the single movement Molto Adagio Sempre Cantente Doloroso, though lovingly played by the Psophos, was not the best example of his work. Their encore, the first movement of Ravel’s String Quartet in F major, was generous compensation.
