Debussy's String Quartet was completed in February 1893 and first performed by the Ysaÿe Quartet on 29 December 1893, at Salle Pleyel - the 234th concert of the Société Nationale de Musique. This was almost exactly a year before Paris was shocked by the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, the most laconic manifestation of Debussy's revolutionary creative spirit. The Quartet, conceived at the same time as the Prélude, is one of his earliest mature works - a piece that still has some roots in the musical language of Franck - especially in its use of themes recurring throughout the work and in some of the harmonies - but in which a fresh and brilliant imagination can be heard, not least in the spectacularly inventive writing for string instruments - something that was thoroughly absorbed by Ravel in the Quartet he wrote a decade later.
Dedicated ‘à mon cher maître Gabriel Fauré', Ravel's only string quartet was started in 1902. Years later, Ravel himself spoke about how he saw the importance of the Quartet quoted by his friend and pupil Roland-Manuel: ‘My String Quartet represents a conception of musical construction, imperfectly realized no doubt, but set out much more precisely than in my earlier compositions.' In a clear parallel with Debussy's String Quartet, Ravel makes use of cyclic themes - material heard in the first movement returns in various guises throughout the rest of the work. The second movement is notable for Ravel's brilliant use of cross-rhythms and one of the less explicit instances of the Spanish influence in his music.