Grieg and Debussy String Quartets – Vertavo String Quartet

Grieg meets Debussy

The renowned and recognized Vertavo String Quartet performs the string quartets of Edvard Grieg and Claude Debussy, two compositions – despite the differences in musical language and style – that indeed have much in common. In many ways the two composers draw closest to each other – while their individual personalities are very clearly defined – in their string quartets. They are both unusually ambitious designs, in full-scale four movement form, by composers more celebrated for shorter pieces, and both works represent the fully developed, central European, classic-Romantic style of sonata-form composition. However, each composer combines this basic language with more exotic elements: Grieg from Norwegian and Italian folk music and Debussy from Javanese Gamelan, and both composers show the influence of the Russian Nationalist school of composers. There is, in fact, good reason to suspect that Debussy had Grieg´s quartet in mind as a partial model for his own.

The Vertavo String Quartet, founded in 1984, has earned a reputation of being one of Europe´s most outstanding string quartets. Hearing their performances on this album, one realizes how well earned their reputation is. Comprising the cellist Bjørg Værnes, the violist Henninge Landaas, and violinists Berit Cardas and Øyvor Valle, the quartet has recorded several albums, received the Norwegian Grammy Award, toured in Europe, North America and Australia, and received several international awards and prizes.