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Ten years and a few months later, Ravel’s quartet was performed at the
Schola Cantorum. Like Debussy, Ravel undertook a cycle of chamber music
with a string quartet. Like Debussy, this work would be his only quartet. But
the comparison ends there. The evening of the performance, Debussy left
immediately after the concert. Had he detested the piece so much he left
without a word? Or was he, instead, irritated by the brilliance he had just
heard? Ravel was tormented by this question as the concert ended. And then
he forgot about it, until the day Debussy sent him a letter. His handwriting
was full of flourishes:
“In the name of the music gods, and
in my own, do not change a single
thing in what you have written in your
quartet.”
TALICH QUARTET 29