Brighton Festival – Quatuor Van Kuijk
Quatuor Van Kuijk are a jolly lot. They entered laughing (somebody backstage had started to clap before they were quite ready) and this happy opening continued through the relaxed introduction by the second violin, Sylvain Favre-Bulle. He apologised for the lack of enough good French quartet music but promised us the Ravel (which did not show on the Festival website). He also explained that they had generously arranged some worthy chansons to fill the gap in their repertoire. They clearly love Poulenc’s music, the gently melancholic Cé, the animated Fêtes galantes and the whimsical Les chemins de l’amour – I half expected Maurice Chevalier or Jacques Tati to pass by.
Quatuor Van Kuijk
They continued their programme with arrangements of chansons by Gabriel Fauré, the sadly pulsing Les berceaux and the dreamy Mandoline. All their cheeriness and flânerie in no way compromised the virtuosity of the performance. As they passed the tunes lightly between each other their connection and enjoyment was evident to us all.
So they came to the big number, Ravel’s Quartet in D, that somehow now sounded more French than ever – half an hour of bliss. The encore, their own arrangement of Fauré’s Clare de lune, brought us gently back down to earth although I was in a dream for the rest of the day!
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange,
20 May 2025
Rating:
Andrew Connal
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Quatuor Van Kuijk
Nicolas Van Kuijk, Sylvain Favre-Bulle – violin
Emmanuel François – viola
Anthony Kondo – cello
Poulenc – Cé
Fêtes galantes
Les chemins de l’amour
Fauré – Les berceaux
Mandoline
Ravel – String Quartet in F major Op.35
Fauré – Clare de lune
