Quartetto Italiano, Arthur Grumiaux, Maurice Gendron - Debussy: Chamber Music (1994)

I have owned a copy of this record, in its original form, since it appeared 15 years ago and have listened to it countless times. Despite much reviewing of this repertoire both on discs and at concerts during that time, I still find the performances unsurpassed. Both Grumiaux and Gendron, for example, combine acute expression and cool poise in an uncommonly satisfying way. From the other players, too, every nuance is exquisite yet seems inevitable. (One wonders what became of Hajdu, an ideal partner for Grumiaux in the Violin Sonata.) The pizzicatos of the Cello Sonata take us into what is still a strange world of sound. This is explored further in the work for flute, viola and harp, where the atmosphere of Watteauesque melancholy lingers and where, on a more mundane level, the difficult problem of balance is dealt with sensitively. Syrinx is in fact the earliest of these pieces, but when it is heard after the sonatas it sounds as if this music's entire magical realm has been distilled into a single voice.