Cras: Piano Quintet & String Quartet Sine Qua Non Quartet & Jean-Pierre Ferey

• Jean Cras (1879 - 1932): Piano Quintet:
• 1Piano Quintet: I. Clair et joyeux09:29
• 2Piano Quintet: II. Calme et paisible07:58
• 3Piano Quintet: III. Alerte et decide06:55
• 4Piano Quintet: IV. Ardent et fier09:09
• String Quartet No. 1:
• 5String Quartet No. 1: I. Lent. Allegro12:10
• 6String Quartet No. 1: II. Calme08:32
• 7String Quartet No. 1: III. Vite et leger. Modere07:34
• 8String Quartet No. 1: IV. Lent. Allegro molto11:16
• Total Runtime01:13:03

Info for Cras: Piano Quintet & String Quartet

Rediscovered in the 1980s, Jean Cras (1879-1932) is now regarded as one of the best French composers of that time. After listening to Cras’s quartet, Maurice Ravel wrote to him: “You know how much I love your music…” It is likely that Cras’s career as a naval officer separated him from musical life in Paris and explains why his work was so recently rediscovered despite its quality and abundance. Chamber music is set solidly at the height of his work, particularly the string quartet and the quintet for strings and piano. Both works are rarely performed, perhaps because of their difficulty. Jean-Pierre Ferey is comtinuing his exploration of Jean Cras’s work with this release. After recording his album of Cras’s works for violin and piano with Marie-Annick Nicolas and Cras’s works for piano solo, the French pianist is now performing alongside the young quartet Sine Qua Non, here recording for the first time.

Sine Qua Non Quartet
Jean-Pierre Ferey, piano

Sine Qua Non Quartet
was created in 2006 by graduates of the national conservatories and music schools of Paris and Lyon. Their careers and diverse sensitivities - Baroque, contemporary music, French chanson, world music, pedagogical research - are so many riches that merge in the Quartet and make for a multi-facetted ensemble. Very quickly, they were invited to play in prestigious venues (Olympia, Théâtre Mogador, UNESCO and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Château de Fontainebleau, Théâtre Impérial in Compiègne, Théâtre Sébastopol in Lille), abroad (Cameroon, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, South America), and in festivals. The Quartet is always seeking to broaden its horizons and thus performs with artists as different as guitarists Olivier Pelmoine and Eric Franceries, pianists Jean-Pierre Ferey and Patrick de Hooghe, the Arte Combo wind quintet, the opera singer Jacques-Greg Belobo, the pop singers Emilie Simon and Marc Perrone, flamenco guitarist Juan De Lerida, jazzman Didier Riey, composers Sergio Arriagada, Laurent Boutros, Olivier Calmel, Florentine Mulsant, Sébastien Vachez…

They have created numerous original shows, including L'Assassinat du duc de Guise in 2008 around the André Calmettes film and the first film score written by Camille Saint-Saëns, a video currently shown at the Cité de la Musique in Paris; Les 8 saisons by Antonio Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla in 2009, directed by Pierre-Yves Gronier; L'Amour sorcier in 2010, around music by Manuel de Falla, transcribed by Sara Chenal and directed by Virginie Vinel... Since 2013, they have showcased women composers with the repertoire of quartets written by women, so illknown by the public. In 2017, their meeting the haute-contre Fabrice Di Falco and bass player Julien Leleu resulted in the birth of the Baroque ensemble Les Sauvages, under the patronage of Frédéric Lodéon.

Booklet for Cras: Piano Quintet & String Quartet