The Nash Ensemble - Debussy: String Quartet & Sonatas [CD]

The personnel may have changed over the years but the musical standards remain reassuringly high. Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary season, The Nash Ensemble here delivers perfectly judged accounts of Debussy's String Quartet & Sonatas. <p>Besides that early quartet and the three sonatas which date from the composer's final years, the programme also includes a rare outing for David Walter's chamber ensemble arrangement of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. <p>Scored for twelve players (single strings and winds, plus harp and crotales), this is an idiomatic version which loses none of the mastery and languor of the orchestral original. <p>This album again demonstrates the truth of The Sunday Times's evaluation of the Nash: 'chamber music royalty'. <p>From two players to twelve: few ensembles could respond with equal authority to the very varied demands made by this wonderful collection of Debussy's chamber music. But then, few ensembles can stand comparison with the Nash, whose members continue to set the standards across a dauntingly wide repertoire. <p>A realisation of the Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune for chamber ensemble adds to this album's more familiar attractions of the string quartet and three sonatas.</p> <p>Gramophone Editor's Choice: 'Aptly, Debussy's Faune opens Hyperion's programme in an exquisite arrangement by David Walter for wind quintet, string quartet, double bass, harp and crotales, which loses little from Debussy's heady orchestral score.'</p> <p>Featured on BBC Radio 3's Record Review on 18th January: 'Claude Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune finds new levels of intimacy in this arrangement by oboeist and composer David Walter and such a sensitive and deliciously coloured performance by the Nash ensemble.'</p> <p>BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice: 'Musical awakenings rarely go hand in hand with a 60th anniversary, but The Nash Ensemble has always had something of the extraordinary about it. This recording demonstrates that age truly is just a number, and no barrier to probing, revelatory perspectives.' (5 stars)</p>