Quatuor Ardeo*

Quartet n°1 op. 51 in D

I. Allegro moderato
II. Scherzo (Allegro scherzando non troppo vivace)
III. Andante quasi adagio
IV. Finale (Allegro con moto)

Quartet n°2 op. 57

I. Adagio
II. Scherzo (Allegro con fuoco)
III. Quasi adagio
IV. Finale (Allegro moderato)

Art Director and Sound Engineer:
Jean-Marc Laisné.
Recorded at the Saint-Marcel Lutheran Church, Paris
on 2, 3, 4 and 5 October 2006.

Commentary: Ludovic Florin.

AR RE-SE 2006-3

Charles Koechlin
Quartet n°1 op. 51 in D
Quartet n°2 op. 57

This is definitely a disc of discovery, both of the extraordinary quartets of the composer and polymath Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) and of the recently formed Ardeo Quartet. These four young musicians met in string-quartet class at the Paris Conservatoire and named themselves after the Latin word for “passion”. Koechlin's remarkable music defies easy description. In these quartets, it is often poly tonal and modal, but with an engaging sense of melody that the composer uses as the basis for extensive manipulation, often into fugal structural arcs which resonate back to Bach.
The First Quartet abounds with brilliant theatrical strokes. The monumental Second, ending with an astonishing 17-minute last movement, is rich in counterpoint and vast, purified harmonic vistas. That a young French quartet has chosen to record Koechlin is less surprising than the mastery of ensemble the musicians bring to the task. They rejoice knowingly in the exhilaration of the Haydnesque last movement of Opus 51; they deconstruct with sensuous supplication the still-water aesthetics of the first movement of Opus 57.
The recording has the combination of clarity and warmth it needs to seduce the listener. Ludovic Florin's liner notes explore Koechlin's work with compelling philosophical precision and musical detail.

The Guardian
23 November 2007
Andrew Clements

Navigating a way through Charles Koechlin's huge output (250 works plus) can be daunting. Even Grove's Dictionary baulks at a complete listing, though it does include the three string quartets. The first two date from 1913 and 1916, and make a valuable addition to the composer's stealthily expanding discography. Koechlin's natural musical habitat was the orchestra and he later orchestrated his Second Quartet and labelled it his First Symphony. But in its original form, along with its predecessor, it reveals the French roots of his music, with distant echoes of César Franck as well as the Beethoven tradition sustained in French music by Vincent D'Indy. There's a lot more in both works that is utterly distinctive to one of the most original and underrated composers of the first half of the 20th century, and these performances by the Ardeo Quartet, wonderfully supple and beautifully nuanced, deserve the widest currency.

Fnac’s review
As a world premiere, the AR RE-SE label is releasing a recording of two of the string quartets by Koechlin, one of the greatest French composers of the 20th century. The Ardeo Quartet was made up by young French musicians who met at the Paris Conservatoire, in the string-quartet class of M. Hentz and D. Hovora.

The Ardeo Quartet was trained, in a one-time or a regular fashion, by members of the Fine Arts Quartet, the Hagen and the Talich Quartets (among others), and then went on to win several prizes, such as the Fondation Polignac’s and those awarded by the cities of Moscow (2004) and Bordeaux (2005). We therefore were very much looking forward to listening to these four Frenchwomen, especially in a program of French music: Koechlin’s First and Second Quartets.
Koechlin was a trained scientist who authored several dialectic works – A Treatise in Harmony (1924-25), A Treatise in Orchestration (1954-59), A Treatise in modal polyphony (1931). It then comes as no surprise that the composer of the Persian Hours devoted three works to a formation that is connected with isumcal quintessence. These works were reviewed up until 1921, in the enthusiastic mood brought about by the premiere of the First Quartet (May 19) and the completion of the last one (August 15).
The drafts of the First Quartet, opus 51, bear the dates of May 22 to June 6, 1902, but composition itself spans from 1911 to 1913. Besides this long conception, Koechlin also created variants (in keeping with the edition) as late as February 28, 1921. This work, which is dedicated to Massenet’s former student and counterpoint and fugue professor at the Paris Conservatoire André Gédalge, is truly the gateway to the composer’s chamber music production. This first try already features a remarkable balance between musical qualities and technical command, rural and sacred atmospheres (Allegro moderato), knowledge and innocence (Scherzo), innovation and parody (Finale).
The Second Quartet, opus 57, which became the First Symphony, opus 57 bis after being orchestrated in 1927, was never officially premiered and remained discarded as an experimental work. Certain research paths may be recognized in it: study in harmonies without a real theme (Adagio), atypical time-frame for an early 20th-century piece (Scherzo), unbalanced movement duration (seventeen minutes for the Finale), etc. A perfect osmosis is created between the interpreters and Koechlin’s music, which is both developed and interior, as he put it himself in 1932. The Quartet’s skill in setting up languid atmospheres rests on a remarkably delicate and nuanced mastery which produces some purely chiselled sections. The more rhythmic places contain a cheerfulness devoid of wildness, even though they are more of a gambolling than of a dancing quality. This recording really deserves a special mention.

MUST-HEAR CD
The Ardeo Quartet’s magnificent interpretation of Koechlin
This young quartet is already earning a reputation. Their new recording of Koechlin’s first two quartets has been unanimously hailed by the critics, and rightly so. However, the Ardeo Quartet, which was formed at the Paris Conservatoire and enjoys the support of the Mécénat Musical Société Générale, had already drawn some attention in the past, particularly by winning in 2005 the 1st Prize of the French Federation of music school parent teacher association, Fnapec, and the Press Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Contest. The Ardeo Quartet performs at major festivals and will be playing, on September 29, at the Septembre musical de l’Orne.

It comes as no surprise that a master of the counterpoint, such as Koechlin, immediately found the balance between the voices that is so essential for a harmonious dialogue between the partners in a genre that is known for its difficulty (the string quartet). Be that as it may, the composer’s first try in this genre is a masterstroke : the dedication to his master Andre Gedalge (a genuine "French Tanaiev" who is shamefully forgotten nowadays) sets this magnificent score under the sign of counterpoint and especially that imitation practiced by Bach, always the star in Koechlin’s musical firmament. A pastoral feeling with a tinge of modality alternates with clear melodies which possess all the innocence of nursery rhymes sung by children in a spacious garden under the summer sun, and Daddy Haydn himself seems to have fathered the malicious finale (a witty parody of the first school of Vienna). The Second Quartet goes even further. Aside from Florent Schmitt’s amazing quartet, it is probably the most monumental French quartet of its day. Its content exceeds by far the bounds of a quartet, which explains why the composer orchestrated it into his first symphony. Its sturdy tonal foundation does not prevent Koechlin from practicing experiments that were still bold around 1915: "abstract" themes presented as arpeggi (in the first movement, which is far from having no theme, despite what the liner notes suggest), gradual slowdown towards a static immobility that is typical of the composer’s work, complex rhythmic study (Scherzo) and a highly personal solution to the eternal problem of the synthesis between the fugue and the sonata allegro. Polytonality and modality only expand the expressive possibilities, which bring us to a calm, luminous ending.
The interpreters, supported by the Ar Re-Se label, bring great conviction into their interpretation of these masterly pages, which have their place next to the masterpieces of the genre, such as the contemporary quartets by Malipiero or Honegger. Their perfect synchronisation and the precision of their entries allow us to enjoy the elegant contours of the dense modal polyphony that is Koechlin’s signature. A few fleeting inaccuracies will be quickly forgotten when compared to the fervor and attention to detail with which the Ardeo quartet build the dynamic progressions, as in the middle part of the last movement of the Second Quartet. Such a thoughtful work will no doubt contribute to anchor in the usual repertoire these essential pages of French music.

For Charles Koechlin, the years ranging from 1911 to 1921 were years in which chamber music was predominant.
From the First String Quartet, finished in 1913, to the First Quintet for piano and strings from 1921, the composer imposed the mark of his radically independent personality on a well-established genre. The study “Koechlin by Koechlin”, published in 1981 by the Revue musicale, describes the process by which the composer approached chamber music and especially string quartet: “To sing, to sing freely! Which does not mean without order, nor that there are not, sometimes, well-defined motifs. But each of his works really is a unique piece whose plan is determined by the living evolution of the themes and the feelings, by their life itself”.
It is necessary to remember the musician’s glance on himself in order to understand better what could be disconcerting for the listener in these two string quartets, composed respectively between 1911 and 1913 and between 1915 and 1916 – those dated being the ones given by the catalogue published in 1975; they are rectified by the liner notes for this CD in which we find out that the first drafts of the Opus 51 bear the dates of May 22 to June 6, 1902 (Ludovic Florin’s very thorough liner notes are an important contribution to the knowledge of Koechlin’s works).
As for the performance by the Ardeo Quartet, formed in 2004 by Carole Petitdemange and Olivia Hughes (violin), Caroline Donin (viola) and Joëlle Martinez (cello), it is completely satisfying thanks to the cohesiveness of the four instruments and the spirit of the young interpreters. Finally, the time has come for Charles Koechlin’s work to occupy the place that it deserves!