Quatuor Ebène Virgin Classics 0709222****

France’s Quatuor Ebène sound painstakingly deliberate, sometimes almost romantically so, when you place their approach to Mozart beside that of the Artemis Quartet in Beethoven. It’s as if they want to get inside every nook and cranny of the music, to make every conjunction of notes, every harmony, every dissonance stand out in glowing colours. Even if you find too much self-consciousness in the approach, regard it as dangerously self-admiring, simply don’t approve of such i-dotting and t-crossing, or regard the playing of the Divertimento in F simply too rich, you may find yourself reoriented by the Ebène’s music-making. They show so much in the music that, after listening to them, you might simply find other ensemble’s approaches almost cursory.

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