Dynamic ranges are wide, with Ravel's crescendos not underplayed in any mistaken attempt at classicism, and rubatos are applied with tactful expressivity.

Among the many breathtaking moments on the Ebène Quartet's CD, there is one in particular that keeps calling one back. It occurs at around 1'14” into the Ravel's slow movement, the second set, which enters like a bittersweet memory before a literal recollection of the Quartet's opening motif. Other subtle details of interpretation include the chord at 2'03” that underpins a transformation of the first subject before the same chord leads directly into the second subject – and when it does, utterly changing in character, turning warmer, more openly inviting. The ebb and flow of the passage at 5'29” where the second subject rides above an arpeggiated accompaniment, music that looks both forwards to Debussy's own La mer and backwards to Rimsky's Sheherazade (or so it seems). There's a fluidity to the Ebène's playing of both works that suits the music's character, a mood of wistfulness too that the Ravel especially benefits from. This improvisatory approach is hardly surprising from an ensemble that is also celebrated for its jazz performances.
It was a brilliant idea to include Fauré's late Quartet which, in a sense, provides the linchpin for all three works, the Ravel having been composed in Fauré's class to mark the 10th anniversary of Debussy's quartet, and which is dedicated to Fauré. An extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards, Fauré's Quartet responds well to the Ebène's sensitised approach.
Anyone requiring this particular trio of works won't be disappointed, which makes the various pairings of the Ravel and Debussy quartets on their own seem somewhat less enticing.

There's a fluidity to the Ebène's playing… that suits the music's character, a mood of wistfulness too that the Ravel especially benefits from.

A commanding performance from Quatuor Ebène in Ravel's String Quartet. The range of colours they bring to this music is always extraordinary, and in my opinion the balance between all four voices is just right.

it is the performance of the Fauré that makes this disc so rewarding. Late Fauré...is notoriously elusive, both melodically and harmonically. But the Ébène manage to make everything in the three-movement quartet seem perfectly logical, utterly natural and close in sensibility to the works by Debussy and Ravel that flank it.