Debussy – Quatuor en sol mineur / Ravel – Quatuor en fa majeur

Discogs

Alright, so I couldn’t find this on Discogs. That does not happen too often. Looking for the title, all I came up with were performed only by the Talich Quartet. This one however is performed by two different quartets: The Talich and the elusive Quatuor Debussy. That combination is not on Discogs.

So I had to add it. When trying to add it, I got a warning that it has a possible duplicate. A record on the same label, using the same catalogue id, but with a different title. Okay, made a comment about it and moved on. Record added, link added on this page. So far so good.

Then I started to look for that elusive Debussy Quartet that played Ravel (yes, not Debussy!). All my search found was a quartet using that name that looked way too young. They have one of those covers where all the musicians are running or dancing around and acting goofy. Not the picture I had of a quartet that is active since the Seventies. Turns out the Quatuor Debussy was founded in 1990 in Lyon. The recording I am talking about here is from 1976. Unless they met Doctor Who during their practicing, I highly doubt it could be the same. Also the names were different.

So do a search on the individual names. Result: someone else made the same mistake on Discogs. The primarius (first violin in the quartet, usually the leader) Jacques Prats was mentioned as being in the Debussy Quartet, but it was linked to that quartet from Lyon. The plot thickens.

Using some of the other names, I was able to finally find my own record. It is the same, but the entry does not mention the Quatuor Debussy at all. It conveniently skips it, and subsequently it is picked up as a variation of a the aforementioned Debussy / Ravel record that was done by the Talich Quartet alone.

To make it more complicated: that record is added to the Calliope Studios label in New York. They do mostly De La Soul and hip hop. Care to guess if it is the same?

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