Debussy’s String Quartet’s was received in 1893 with little attention. One of the composer’s most famous works, particularly from his chamber music, it was met with almost as little fanfare as his now well-known “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” a year later. Though these works came at the front end of his career, it is somewhat surprising that they took time to work their way into the repertoire as they stand today. This difference in acceptance and rise in fame is something of an extra-musical difference between classical and popular musics that is worth considering.

This video is of a somewhat older recording by the Juilliard Quartet, but what it lacks in sound clarity, it makes up for in interpretation. The principal line is never in question.

An updated recording by the same quartet on Spotify.