32. Crespo Series

32. Crespo Series
The very first Bantry chamber music festival in 1996 was part of the bi-centenary celebrations of the attempted French invasion of Ireland in Christmas week 1796. So music by French composers became one of our musical themes that year. This year also sees the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ravel. So a double excuse for an all-French programme of the ground-breaking quartets by Debussy and Ravel. These quartets often appear together on recordings but seldom in concert programmes. Debussy and Ravel both developed a distinct musical language totally separate from the Viennese tradition, it is a more delicate voice, at times almost otherworldly with a promise of magic.