Quatuor Ebene & Michel Portal – Eternal Stories (2017) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

The New York Times has described the French ensemble as “a string quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band” and its recordings of Haydn, Bartók, Brahms and Schubert have been praised all over the world. Portal and the Ébène first played together in Paris in 2013, where Piazzolla’s compositions were also on the programme, prompting Le Monde to speak of “a significant lesson, a superb encounter, a real conversation.”

Eternal Stories might just turn out to be one of the best albums that Portal has ever recorded. He could well have been thinking of his beloved Charlie Parker, who in 1949 realised his dream of making a recording with a string section. Eternal Stories is not some kind of attempt at a remake, but comprises completely new pieces and two new arrangements of classic Portal numbers, a late work by Piazzolla and astonishing contributions from members of Quatuor Ébène itself.

Tracklist

Pierre Colombet (1979- )
1 City Birds 07:53

Michel Portal (1935- )
2 L’Abandonite 07:38
3Judy Garland04:21

Xavier Tribolet
4 Élucubration 04:19

Michel Portal
5 Eternal Story 06:21
5 Tango Sensations
6 I. Asleep 04:48
7 II. Loving 05:23
8 III. Anxiety 05:22

Gabriel Le Magadure
9 Plus l’Temps 03:12

Michel Portal
10 Solitudes 05:15

Raphaël Merlin (1982- )
11 Le Corbillon 05:26

Adrien Boisseau
12 It Was Nice Living Here 08:47

Personnel
Quatuor Ébène
Michel Portal, clarinet, bandoneon
Xavier Tribolet, keyboards
Richard Hery, percussion

Download:

mqs.link_QuaturEbeneMichelPrtalEternalStries20172444.1Qbuz.rar