Ébène Quartet: The Freedom of Instability

You never know quite how it’s going to go when interviewing a string quartet: not because string quartets are inherently the natural habitat of tricky personalities, but simply because the ratio of one to four isn’t always ideal for establishing a genuine human connection. It’s especially true when this particular brand of foursome can represent such a mighty single unit if all is working well. And all is certainly working well for the Ébène Quartet. For starters, there’s its sheer longevity: near enough to 20 years together for its three long-term members, violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, and cellist Raphaël Merlin; and although violist Marie Chilemme joined as recently as 2017, she seems to be spun from exactly the same musical DNA. Then there’s the scale of the group’s international success since its 2004 victory at the ARD Music Competition: the string of award-winning albums, the relationships established with the world’s greatest concert halls and festivals, the fact that the players are as acclaimed as jazz musicians as they are as classical ones – and now there are the quartet’s projects to mark Beethoven’s 250th birthday.