Quatuor à Cordes, op. 121

the long version

Gabriel Fauré's String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121, is his last work, completed in 1924 shortly before his death at the age of 79. His pupil Maurice Ravel had dedicated his String Quartet to Fauré in 1903, and he and others urged Fauré to compose one of his own; he declined, on the grounds that it was too difficult. When he finally decided to write it, he did so in trepidation. The quartet is in three movements, the last movement combining the functions of scherzo and finale. The work has been described as an intimate meditation on the last things, and "an extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards." - Wikipedia.