Poetiques de l’instant II
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
String Quartet 
Suite, Ma mère l’Oye (arranged for septet by Emmanuel Ceysson)
Introduction and Allegro, for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet
Bruno Mantovani (b. 1974)
String Quartet no. 5 (“Création mondiale”)
Quatuor Voce 
Emmanuel Ceysson (harp); Juliette Hurel (flute); Rémi Delangle (clarinet)
rec. 2021, Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers
Alpha 933 [65]

According to the members of the Quatuor Voce, “this is the second part of a long-term project Poétiques de l’instant, combining two pillars of the string quartet literature with other instruments, unpublished transcriptions and first performances of new works”. Quite why such a project is entitled “Poetics of the Moment” is not made clear, but the formula has already been tried and tested on a 2021 disc (Alpha 798), which focuses on Debussy: the latter’s string quartet is coupled with his sonata for flute, viola and harp, his song cycle Proses lyriques, and the new work Fragments soulevés par le vent by the Franco-Swiss composer Yves Balmer. 

The current issue similarly begins with a “pillar of the string quartet literature” in Ravel’s great Quartet of 1903. The Quatuor Voce’s performance of it is thoroughly enjoyable – elegant, polished, handsomely played and well balanced, in style perhaps a tad more forward-looking and less Romantic than some. Personally, I felt that, at least by comparison with established favourite versions such as that of the Quatuor Ebène (review), the overall effect was just a tad lightweight, lacking some of the profound emotional ambiguities and subtleties of the very best Ravel playing; but no-one hearing the Quatuor Voce’s eminently idiomatic version will feel in any significant way disappointed.  

The next two works on the programme are unexpected bedfellows for the Ravel Quartet – inevitably so, in that they are receiving their first recordings. First we have a new arrangement of the suite for piano duet Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) by the harpist Emmanuel Ceysson. He uses the same forces as those employed by Ravel for his Introduction and Allegro of 1905–7: harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet. There is nothing remotely illegitimate about new arrangements of this music being made, least given that most listeners will know it best in a version for full orchestra completed by Ravel himself in 1911 – and certainly Ceysson’s work – as well as his performance of it – succeeds on its own terms; his harp is used in a way that exploits its versatility without its being allowed to dominate the other instruments, and he produces nothing that sounds tasteless or un-Ravelian. He is also fortunate, of course, that the familiar orchestral suite itself contains, not least at its very outset, extensive solo work for both flute and clarinet. Nevertheless, it will be very hard for most listeners today to ‘unhear’, and hence not to miss some of Ravel’s own orchestral effects. To be sure, Ma mère l’Oye is a delicate, subtle work, and it is only in the last movement and a half that one really regrets the absence of a full body of strings, and only at the very end that one feels the need for brass and percussion. What I really miss, though, are the timbres of certain woodwind instruments: Ceysson’s ensemble can’t really compensate me for the loss of those lovely oboe and cor anglais solos in the second and third movements, or of the contrabassoon’s representations of the Beast in the fourth-movement Entretiens de la belle et de la bête. Admittedly, Rémi Delangle’s clarinet plumbs the depths with remarkable success here – but, well, it’s just not grotesque enough. Ultimately one feels that Ceysson’s expert arrangement may well have a future as a more than suitable companion work to the Introduction and Allegro on concert programmes, but that not many listeners will want to experience it on a regular basis on disc.

The same goes, I fear, for the String Quartet no. 5 by Bruno Mantovani (son of the much-admired and much-derided light music maestro). Written during the lockdown of 2020, the work presents – in the composer’s own words – “a strict canon between the four instruments. Beginning on the note A, which is also the first note of Ravel’s Quartet, this piece is a perpetual cross-fade – known in the visual arts world as ‘morphing’. What inspired me to this idea of continuity was the music of Ravel, whose constantly moving harmony seems to create a perpetual metamorphosis”. One can hear what he means, even though there is nothing – once we get beyond the opening pizzicato A – that actually sounds like Ravel. More significantly, however, and unlike that of Ravel, Mantovani’s “continuity” is not free from monotony; and, with the exception of a stirring late climax, he offers little that is genuinely memorable.

The disc’s final work brings some more echt Ravel, and in many ways its most distinguished performance. For all its miraculous thematic material, the Introduction and Allegro needs careful handling. In essence it is a concertante work for harp and supporting chamber ensemble, but it poses significant problems of balance and style. The harp must lead but not dominate; equally, it must merge seamlessly with the other instruments but never be submerged by them. To my ear, the Quatuor Voce, along with Ceysson, Delangle and the flautist Juliette Hurel, solve these problems as well as any group I can remember. In addition their performance is urbane, alluring, and possesses the kind of atmosphere I find occasionally wanting in the accompanying version of the Quartet. There is also liberal use of – generally subtle – rubato. Initially, I was a little disconcerted by this, feeling that it made the work’s basically clear sonata structure appear rather episodic; over the course of its eleven minutes, however, I became convinced that this was not a problem. Ravel, after all, is never in less than perfect control of his material, and can take what might at first seem like excessive tempo irregularities comfortably in his stride. 

All in all, then, we have something of a mixed bag. A disc consisting of an excellent Introduction and Allegro, a very good String Quartet, an able if not wholly convincing arrangement of the Mother Goose Suite and an ultimately underwhelming new work will not be to everyone’s taste. On the other hand, if the programme suits, you need not hesitate. 

Nigel Harris 

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