Press Releases

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam performs the world premiere of Three Tributes, a new work written for them by composer Bushra El-Turk, commissioned with the support of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, West Cork Chamber Music Festival and String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, the renowned festival in Amsterdam which showcases some of the best quartets in the world and celebrates the ‘power of four’

The works of London-born composer Bushra El-Turk are defined by the integration of music and musicians from different cultural traditions and imaginative fusions of artistic genres and improvisation, an approach that prompts an unusual style of string quartet playing. Her Lebanese roots are especially inspirational in this new work which takes the form of three 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 and early 20th centuries.

The creative spark in rehearsals between composer and players has been remarkable and they all concur that new works bear not only the weight of history but the weight of the future.

The Dudok Quartet’s cellist, David Faber, comments: “Bushra asks us to interact with written expressive microtonal polyphony while adding our own inspirations as we develop the performance. The results take shape as three biographical tributes which unravel in unpredictable ways because of its improvisa4onal elements – but always eloquently, energetically and passionately.”

Always loyal to their dictum “the music we play is never old or new, but always relevant and present” there are no limits to the breadth of repertoire the Dudoks continue to explore. Their artistry and boldness is evident in a fast-growing portfolio of critically acclaimed recordings, from concept albums to single composer collections. Their next, a two-volume collection of Tchaikovsky’s works for string quartet and also piano and voice in new arrangements, is released on Rubicon Classics in April 2024.

DUDOK QUARTET AMSTERDAM
dudokquartet.com

Judith van Driel violin · Marleen Wester violin · Marie-Louise de Jong viola · David Faber cello

For a string quartet to branch beyond mainstream repertoire requires thought and daring. The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam have both.

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, June 2023

• Inception: First met as members of the Ricciotti Ensemble, a Dutch street symphony orchestra.
• Name: the Quartet is named after celebrated Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok (1884-1974) who was from a musical family and also composed in his spare time; “I feel deeply the common core of music and architecture: after all, they both derive their value from the right proportions.”
• Repertoire: ranges from Ligeti, Shostakovich and Weinberg to Mendelssohn, Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven. The Quartet constantly explores new pathways and connections in music. They regularly perform their own arrangements of pieces including Gesualdo, des Prez, Brahms and Shostakovich.
• Collaborations: recent partners have included Hilary Summers, Pieter Wispelwey, Lilli Maijala, Olga Paschenko, Hannes Minnaar, Erik Bosgraaf and James Oesi.
• Performances: major European venues and festivals including Vienna Konzerthaus, BeethovenHaus Bonn, De Doelen, Gergiev Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Festival Jeunes Talents, Festival Quatuors à Bordeaux and the Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale, as well as appearing regularly at Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw. The Quartet made its US debut in 2018 at the Northwestern University Winter Chamber Music Festival, with other recent highlights including a New York debut at the Park Avenue Armory and digital concerts for the Washington Library of Congress and Fontana Chamber Arts Kalamazoo. Other highlights include engagements in Milan, Mantova, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Heidelberg String Quartet Festival.
• Recordings: first recording was Métamorphoses in 2015 on Resonus Classics, exploring themes of musical innovation through works by Ligeti, Haydn and Brahms. It was awarded Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, with the Quartet praised by The Guardian for its ‘lithe, lively sound and alert sense of structure and detail’. Second highly acclaimed release, Labyrinth, explored the use of counterpoint in works by Mozart, Ligeti and Bach.The third, Solitude, (2018) featured works by Mendelssohn, Weinberg and Shostakovich curated around the theme of loss and loneliness – ‘an intense listening experience that will have you on the edge of your seat’ (The Strad). For the two-volume recording of Haydn’s Opus 20 Quartets, the Dudoks researched instrumental set-up and commissioned classical bows. Its 2021 label debut with Rubicon Classics featured the complete Brahms Quartets played on gut strings and was critically acclaimed across the board with The Daily Telegraph describing the album as ‘a marvel, revealing the intricate detail of these pieces with lovely clarity.” Followed by two more on Rubicon: Reflections with quartets by Shostakovich and Bacewicz, and What Remains, with works by Roukens, PéroJn, Gesualdo, de Machaut, Reich and Messiaen. A new collaboration with Hilary Summers, Mike Fenton and Maarten Ornstein resulted in Circus Dinogad (Zefir Records 2023), a fusion of musical genres including baroque, renaissance, traditional and improvisation.
• Commissions: The Quartet is also committed to commissioning new works and has collaborated with composers including Joey Roukens, Peter Vigh, Theo Loevendie and Bushra El-Turk.
• Projects: include world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound Remains with Philippe Jaroussky and Dutch National Opera and a collaboration with director Rosabel Huguet re-imagining Beethoven’s Op 132 String Quartet for children. Entitled Quartet! A card game with Beethoven, the Quartet takes the project to venues including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Flagey and De Doelen as part of its ongoing commitment to education and outreach work. 2024 sees the launch of their own chamber music festival (6-9 May) in the Netherlands dudokmuziekdagen.nl
• Training: Studied at Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet and later at the Dutch String Quartet Academy with Marc Danel of the Danel Quartet. Other important mentors include Eberhard Feltz, Peter Cropper (Lindsay Quartet), Luc-Marie Aguera (Quatuor Ysaÿe), Stefan Metz and, more recently, conductor Reinbert de Leeuw and violinist/conductor Shunske Sato.
• Awards: 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, Joseph Joachim International Chamber Music Competition Weimar and the prestigious Dutch Kersjes Prize (2014).
• Instruments: generously on loan from the Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation (NMF); violins by Francesco Goffriller (1725) and Vincenzo Panormo (1810), viola by Jean Baptiste Lefèbvre (1760) and cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1850). Classical and baroque bows, made by Luis Emilio Rodríguez Carrington, were commissioned with the help of a private sponsor, Stichting Eigen Muziekinstrument, Kersjes FoundaJon and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.
• Reinvention is at the heart of the Dudok Quartet’s quest to make all music relevant in contemporary society. It is committed to craning unique and eclectic live and recorded programmes in order to engage with its audiences in adventurous and imaginative ways and reveal new connections in music. These include its own arrangements of music way off the beaten track and not originally intended for string quartet.