Privileged to see and hear them
THE Van Kuijk Quartet gave an outstanding performance at the Martin Hall on Saturday, October 21 to a packed audience.
These young French musicians are all accomplished soloists, wonderfully skilled and together one of the best quartets ever heard in town.
It is to the enormous credit of LU Arts that they are managing to attract music of this quality on a regular basis.
They began with the string quartet by Claude Debussy who, having dismissed Brahms and Tchaikovsky as not interesting and Beethoven as boring, composed a very different style of quartet regarded as the first venture into musical impressionism.
The melodies in the first movement are enchanting, played here with surefingered accuracy and a really lovely tone.
The pizzicato in the second movement was terrific, moving from soft to loud and back with the musicians in total control.
The excellent viola and cello had more to do in the andantino as the eye contact between the players remained constant; they were playing without a score until the last movement.
It was a seriously good performance which the audience clearly appreciated.
After a very amusing introduction by the second violin they then played Leos Janacek’s 1st String quartet inspired by a Tolstoy novella about a woman trapped in a cruel and loveless marriage.
The music is sorrowful, energetically violent and eerie, very demanding to play and with each musician taking the spotlight.
The second violin and viola played effortlessly well, but then they all did.
In the five years since they formed they have become an award winning international quartet of the highest quality and it was a joy to listen to them. The audience applause was generous.
After the interval we were treated to Maurice Ravel’s string quartet.
The opening slow movement has some wonderful melodies and they cre- ated such a warm sound for a cold night. As with the Debussy, the faster second movement has a lot of pizzicato, with the mutes coming on and off throughout for the quieter
sections, and once again the viola and cello shone.
The third slow movement was a masterclass, smiles flashing between the players who were at the top of their game.
They played the last movement at some pace, never losing accuracy for a moment, and with the same energy with which they began this superb concert.
Their website is worth a look as they tour the country before setting off again on their international travels.
We were privileged to see and hear them in Loughborough, with all credit to LU Arts for making this possible.