The immediate model for this first important chamber music work by Ravel was Debussy’s String Quartet from 1892/93. Nevertheless, the composition, written in 1902/03, already contains unmistakable features that are characteristic of later Ravel works: highly developed sense of tone colour, unexpected harmonisations of the melodic line, cyclical interplay of the motifs and themes. Ravel evidently saw the quartet as a kind of conclusion to his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and dedicated it to...