Album: Quatuors à Cordes by Quatuor Ébène (2010)
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: 2010s, Album


Album: Green: Mélodies françaises sur des poèmes de Verlaine by Quatuor Ébène (2015)
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: 2010s, Album


Album: String Quartet No. 1 in C minor / Piano Quintet in F minor by Quatuor Ébène (2009)
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: 2000s, Album


Album: Eternal Stories by Quatuor Ébène (2017)
Genre: Jazz
Record Label: Erato/Warner Classics
Format: Album

Description: A tango is a precious thing—its delicate timbres and robust flourishes need to be handled with care, and by skilled, passionate musicians. French Ensemble Quatour Ebène elegantly swings and sways through these tunes, anchored by intoxicating accordions, groovy rhythms, and dreamy jazzy harmonies.

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Jazz, 2010s, Album, Erato/Warner Classics


A tango is a precious thing—its delicate timbres and robust flourishes need to be handled with care, and by skilled, passionate musicians. French Ensemble Quatour Ebène elegantly swings and sways through these tunes, anchored by intoxicating accordions, groovy rhythms, and dreamy jazzy harmonies.

Album: Mendelssohn: Felix & Fanny by Quatuor Ébène (2013)
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: 2010s, Album


Album: Brazil by Quatuor Ébène (2014)
Genre: Classical
Record Label: Erato/Warner Classics
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2010s, Album, Erato/Warner Classics


Album: Quatuors 1 2 3 by Quatuor Ébène (2007)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2000s, Album


Album: Dissonances: String Quartets, KV 421 & 465 / Divertimento, KV 138 by Quatuor Ébène (2011)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2010s, Album


Album: Gabriel Fauré – 3 : Quintettes avec piano, op. 89 & 115 by Quatuor Ébène (2012)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2010s, Album


Album: String Quintet / Lieder by Quatuor Ébène (2016)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2010s, Album


Album: 'Round Midnight by Quatuor Ébène (2021)
Genre: Classical
Record Label: Warner Classics
Format: Album

Description: The fine French ensemble Quatuor Ébène undertake a journey after dark that ends with Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg’s transformation of Richard Dehmel’s poem “Verklärte Nacht” into one of the most glorious late-Romantic string sextets. Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht is a story of love, understanding and hope, and it’s gorgeously played by the Ébènes and two starry guests (cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and violist Antoine Tamestit), the sinuous lines sensitively woven. French composer Henri Dutilleux’s Ainsi la Nuit, a string quartet of which he was most proud and a modern classic, is superbly done. In between, Night Bridge—composed by the Ébène’s cellist, Raphaël Merlin—weaves jazz and pop songs into a heady sequence.

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2020s, Album, Warner Classics

The fine French ensemble Quatuor Ébène undertake a journey after dark that ends with Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg’s transformation of Richard Dehmel’s poem “Verklärte Nacht” into one of the most glorious late-Romantic string sextets. Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht is a story of love, understanding and hope, and it’s gorgeously played by the Ébènes and two starry guests (cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and violist Antoine Tamestit), the sinuous lines sensitively woven. French composer Henri Dutilleux’s Ainsi la Nuit, a string quartet of which he was most proud and a modern classic, is superbly done. In between, Night Bridge—composed by the Ébène’s cellist, Raphaël Merlin—weaves jazz and pop songs into a heady sequence.

Album: String Quartets by Quatuor Ébène (2008)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2000s, Album


Album: Fiction by Quatuor Ébène (2010)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2010s, Album


Album: String Quintets, K. 515 & 516 by Quatuor Ébène (2023)
Genre: Classical
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2020s, Album


Album: Mozart: String Quintets K. 515 & 516 by Quatuor Ébène (2023)
Genre: Classical
Record Label: Warner Classics
Format: Album

Description: Choosing artistic partners to work with can be difficult. But when it came to seeking a violist for its new album of Mozart string quintets, the Quatuor Ébène had a ready-made solution—their old friend Antoine Tamestit. 

The quartet first played with Tamestit in 2004, at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Both emerged as top prizewinners, and an immediate rapport was established when Mozart’s string quintets were among the first pieces that the five musicians performed together.

Two of Mozart’s six quintets feature on the album: No. 3 in C major (K515) and No. 4 in G minor (K516). Quite why Mozart opted to add an extra viola for quintet-writing purposes—Boccherini before him, in setting the benchmark, used two cellos—is unclear. “Mozart’s own love for the viola is probably a big part of this decision,” Tamestit suggests. “He owned two himself, and somehow the extra viola gave him all the voices he needed for the harmonies of his quintets.”

Marie Chilemme, the Quatuor Ébène’s resident violist, agrees that having two violas in the mix enables Mozart to significantly stretch the expressive possibilities of his writing. “Even more than in his string quartets, it gives a deepness and an emotional dimension,” she comments. “Another layer, another shadow that he can play with,” is how Tamestit puts it. “Very often it brings a new intimacy, an extra level of refinement.”

Chilemme played first viola for the recording of String Quintet No. 4, with Tamestit on second. Swapping roles for Quintet No. 3 further enhanced the pair’s appreciation of Mozart’s subtly detailed writing for the two instruments. “We exchanged roles not just to be fair and equal, but because we both enjoyed so much the two viola parts,” Tamestit explains. “Mozart writes in a sublime way for both players.”

Founded in 1999 in Paris, France, the Quatuor Ébène has won numerous awards and garnered constant critical acclaim across its near quarter-century of existence. Playing with the group has given Tamestit a unique insight into its exacting working methods. “They always put musical gesture and musical emotion first, in what to me is a very surprising rehearsal process,” he says. “They try to find the rough gestures and raw emotions in the music first. And then they have this incredible capacity to bring in all the technical details, to make the most perfectly balanced chords, and the most perfectly luminous intonation.”

The exceptional quality of the Quatuor Ébène’s playing suffuses the new Mozart album, which brings together two pieces of starkly different temperament. “These quintets are like light and shadow, the major and the minor, the yin and yang of Mozart’s music, and they complement each other really well,” Chilemme comments. “We are already planning to record the other four quintets too.”

Artist Background: The Ébène Quartet (French: Quatuor Ébène) is a French string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. uatuor Ébène was founded in 1999 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in France. The group first came to international attention in 2004 when it won first prize in the string quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition, also taking the Audience Prize, two prizes for interpretation, and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Music Scene: Part of the French music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Classical movement.

Tags: Classical, 2020s, Album, Warner Classics


Choosing artistic partners to work with can be difficult. But when it came to seeking a violist for its new album of Mozart string quintets, the Quatuor Ébène had a ready-made solution—their old friend Antoine Tamestit. 

The quartet first played with Tamestit in 2004, at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Both emerged as top prizewinners, and an immediate rapport was established when Mozart’s string quintets were among the first pieces that the five musicians performed together.

Two of Mozart’s six quintets feature on the album: No. 3 in C major (K515) and No. 4 in G minor (K516). Quite why Mozart opted to add an extra viola for quintet-writing purposes—Boccherini before him, in setting the benchmark, used two cellos—is unclear. “Mozart’s own love for the viola is probably a big part of this decision,” Tamestit suggests. “He owned two himself, and somehow the extra viola gave him all the voices he needed for the harmonies of his quintets.”

Marie Chilemme, the Quatuor Ébène’s resident violist, agrees that having two violas in the mix enables Mozart to significantly stretch the expressive possibilities of his writing. “Even more than in his string quartets, it gives a deepness and an emotional dimension,” she comments. “Another layer, another shadow that he can play with,” is how Tamestit puts it. “Very often it brings a new intimacy, an extra level of refinement.”

Chilemme played first viola for the recording of String Quintet No. 4, with Tamestit on second. Swapping roles for Quintet No. 3 further enhanced the pair’s appreciation of Mozart’s subtly detailed writing for the two instruments. “We exchanged roles not just to be fair and equal, but because we both enjoyed so much the two viola parts,” Tamestit explains. “Mozart writes in a sublime way for both players.”

Founded in 1999 in Paris, France, the Quatuor Ébène has won numerous awards and garnered constant critical acclaim across its near quarter-century of existence. Playing with the group has given Tamestit a unique insight into its exacting working methods. “They always put musical gesture and musical emotion first, in what to me is a very surprising rehearsal process,” he says. “They try to find the rough gestures and raw emotions in the music first. And then they have this incredible capacity to bring in all the technical details, to make the most perfectly balanced chords, and the most perfectly luminous intonation.”

The exceptional quality of the Quatuor Ébène’s playing suffuses the new Mozart album, which brings together two pieces of starkly different temperament. “These quintets are like light and shadow, the major and the minor, the yin and yang of Mozart’s music, and they complement each other really well,” Chilemme comments. “We are already planning to record the other four quintets too.”

Quatuor Ébène

Biography

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Discography