Quatuor Ébène

Quatuor Ébène
General information
Genre (s)	Classic
founding	1999
Website	www.quatuorebene.com
Current occupation
violin	Pierre Colombet
violin	Gabriel Le Magadure
viola	Marie Chilemme
cello	Raphaël Merlin

Quatuor Ébène (Eng. " Ebony Quartet ") is a French string quartet that was founded in 1999 at the Conservatory for Music, Dance and Theater in Boulogne-Billancourt . The repertoire includes classical and contemporary music with an occasional smooth transition to jazz .

History and work

The quartet completed advanced studies with the Ysaÿe Quartet (1984) in Paris as well as with Gábor Takács , Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág . As a result, and against the background of its broad repertoire, the quartet won numerous prizes such as the ARD Music Competition in 2004 , the Belmont Prize of the Forberg Schneider Foundation in 2005, the Borletti-Buitoni Trusts in 2007 and the Frankfurt Music Fair Prize in 2019 .

Many recordings of the works by Haydn, Bartók, Debussy, Fauré, Mozart as well as by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn have often received multiple awards. The album Fiction , recorded in 2010 with jazz arrangements , the crossover album Brazil from 2014 and the album Eternal Stories (2017 together with Michel Portal ) show the special position of Quatuor Ébène among the classical chamber music quartet. For the 20th anniversary of the quartet and the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethovens , Quatuor Ébène was on a seven-part world tour from April 2019 to January 2020 under the motto “Beethoven Live Around the World”. Each of these seven partial tours was concluded with a live recording of Beethoven violin quartets (Perelman Theater Philadelphia, Wiener Konzerthaus, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Sala São Paulo, Melbourne Recital Center, Alliance Française Nairobi, Philharmonie de Paris). These recordings were released in spring 2020 on the Warner / Erato label .

Members

• Pierre Colombet , violin
• Gabriel Le Magadure , violin
• Mathieu Herzog until December 2014; Adrien Boisseau until 2017; Marie Chilemme , viola
• Raphaël Merlin , violoncello

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Beethoven Around the World: The Complete String Quartets   DE 29 05/22/2020 (2 weeks)

• Joseph Haydn : String Quartets. CD. Mirare, 2006.
• Béla Bartók  : String Quartets 1/2/3. CD. Mirare, 2007.
• Claude Debussy , Gabriel Fauré , Maurice Ravel : French string quartets. CD. Erato, 2008.
• Johannes Brahms : String Quartet No. 1, Piano Quintet. CD Erato, 2009
• Fiction . With Fanny Ardant , Luz Casal , Natalie Dessay , Stacey Kent , Richard Héry. CD. Erato, 2010.
• Gabriel Fauré : La musique de chambre pour instruments à cordes et piano. Avec Renaud Capuçon , Gautier Capuçon , Gérard Caussé, Nicholas Angelich , Michel Dalberto. 5CDs. Erato, 2011.
• Fiction, Live at the Folies Bergère 2010 . Avec Natalie Dessay , Stacey Kent , Richard Héry, Jim Tomlison. DVD. Erato, 2011.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : String Quartets KV465 "Dissonances" & KV421, Divertimento KV 138. CD. Erato, 2011.
• Mendelssohn , Felix & Fanny , String Quartets No. 2 Op. 13, E flat major and No. 6 Op. 80th CD. Erato, 2013.
• Brazil, With Stacey Kent , Bernard Lavilliers . CD. Erato, 2014.
• Schubert: String Quintet and Songs, with Gautier Capuçon , Matthias Goerne , Laurene Durantel . CD. Erato, 2016.

Awards

• 2004: Prize winner of the string quartet of the ARD Munich International Music Competition
• 2004: Belmont Prize from the Forberg Schneider Foundation.
• 2009: ECHO Klassik "Chamber music recording of the year" (Debussy / Fauré / Ravel: string quartets)
• 2011: ECHO Klassik "Chamber music recording of the year" (fiction)
• 2012: ECHO Klassik "Ensembles of the Year" (Mozart: Dissonances)
• 2012: ECHO Klassik "The Chamber Music Recording of the Year" (Fauré: Complete Chamber Music for Strings and Piano)
• 2015: ECHO Klassik "Ensemble / Orchestra of the Year"
• 2019: Frankfurt Music Prize

Web links

• Quatuor Ébène (Official Website). In: www.quatuorebene.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020 ; accessed on June 10, 2020 (English). 
• Quatuor Ébène - biography. In: www.quatuorebene.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020 ; accessed on June 10, 2020 (English). 
• Quatuor Ébène. In: www.concerti.de. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020 ; accessed on June 10, 2020 . 
• Quatuor Ébène (Paris). Chamber Music Basel, December 9, 2014, archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; accessed on June 11, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Quatuor Ébène. In: www.concerti.de.
2. ↑ See the quote from the New York Times In: Quatuor Ébène (biography on its own website).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Quatuor Ébène. Biography on the ensemble's website.
4. ^ Beethoven Around the World - The Complete String Quartets. Warner Classics, May 15, 2020; Archived from the original on June 10, 2020 ; accessed on June 10, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Chart sources: Germany
6. ^ Foundation website