Dudok Quartet

Having first met as members of a Dutch street symphony orchestra, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam is forging a reputation as one of the most creative and versatile ensembles of its generation. Winners of many awards, they have performed in major venues around the world including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Park Avenue Armory New York, and the Library of Congress Washington DC. Their many recordings have received much praise; The Telegraph, for example, described their recent recording of the complete Brahms Quartets as a ‘marvel, revealing the intricate detail of these pieces with lovely clarity’.

The quartet will begin their concert today with the first of Mozart’s set dedicated to Haydn which has aptly been described as ‘a rich example of the quartet as an enlightened conversation among friends’. This will be followed by a newly commissioned piece from British-Lebanese composer Bushra El-Turk which she explains as ‘three tributes/portraits of Levantine female singers who lived during the Nahda period, a cultural renaissance in the Arabic-speaking world that took place between the mid-19th century and the early 20th century’. The programme concludes with Schubert’s much-loved reflections on youthful mortality in his ‘Death and the Maiden’ quartet.

The Dudok Quartet takes its name from renowned Dutch architect and great lover of music Willem Marinus Dudok (1884–1974) who strongly believed in ‘the common core of music and architecture’ stating ‘after all, they both derive their value from the right proportions’. It is fitting that they will play a beautifully balanced programme for us in the perfectly proportioned Holywell Music Room.

Judith van Driel (violin), Marleen Wester (violin), Marie-Louise de Jong (viola), David Faber (cello)