Listening to Ravel...

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Wikipedia:

Maurice Ravel

The Quartet in F major

was Ravel's final submission to the Prix de Rome and

the Conservatoire de Paris. The composition was rejected by both institutions

soon after its premier on March 5, 1904. The quartet received mixed reviews

from the Parisian press and local academia. Gabriel Fauré, to whom the work

is dedicated, described the last movement as “stunted, badly balanced, in fact

a failure.” Ravel himself commented on the work, “My Quartet in F major

responds to a desire for musical construction, which undoubtedly is inadequately

realized but which emerges much more clearly than in my preceding

compositions.” As a result of major criticism and rejection, a frustrated Ravel

left the Conservatoire in 1905 following what was later called the Ravel Affair.

Ravel's loss during the 1904 Prix de Rome and rejection from the Conservatoire

de Paris catapulted his career forward: a sympathetic public rallied behind

his compositions and musical style. In 1905, Claude Debussy wrote to Ravel:

“In the name of the gods of music and in my own, do not touch a single note

you have written in your Quartet.” Ravel's string Quartet in F major stands

as one of the most widely performed chamber music works in the classical

repertoire, representing Ravel's early achievements and rise from obscurity.

On CD, it is often coupled with Debussy's own string quartet.

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