Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F major

- Composer: Joseph-Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 -- 28 December 1937) - Performers: Alban Berg Quartett - Year of recording: 1984 String quartet in F major, written in 1903. 00:00 - I. Allegro moderato. Très doux 07:41 - II. Assez vif. Très rythmé 14:34 - III. Très lent 23:53 - IV. Vif et agité 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 5 March 1904 by the Heymann Quartet. 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 Co