Dudok Quartet to perform for Chichester Chamber Concert series

Judith van Driel violin; Marleen Wester violin; Marie-Louise de Jong viola; and David Faber cello will be performing Mozart – String Quartet in F major, K 590; Grażina Bacewicz – String Quartet No 4; and Beethoven – String Quartet No 10 in Eb major, Op 74.

The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam have performed at many of the major European venues and festivals including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, BBC Proms, as well as appearing regularly at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Amsterdam Muziekgebouw.

Judith explains: “We have been together since 2009, three of us. We met more or less in a youth orchestra and they called themselves a street orchestra and they played many of the places that normal orchestras don't play. That could be on the streets or in prison or in schools and we were in this orchestra. That was our background and we found that our ways of making music were similar, and then six or seven years ago the three of us were joined by Marie-Louise.

“I think the main goal of music making is finding a way of communicating with the audience that is unique. There's only one way of communicating through music especially when you're a string quartet. The venues tend to be smaller and the audiences are usually very close and so you get that special connection. It's not just us playing for the audience but we like to feel that the audience are actually part of it.

“We are different people in the quartet, of course, and in a string quartet when it functions well it is because the people are different. You have to find a way with all these different personalities to find an overview that will satisfy all of us. Our goal is not to become one person or to develop one musical identity but really to keep all the individual characters and bring them together in a way where you just don't lose yourself.”

Judith is delighted to include Grażina Bacewicz’s String Quartet No 4 in the Chichester programme: “We discovered it a few years ago when we did a competition. This string quartet was the compulsory piece and we loved it so much that we decided to run with it. She was a composer who wrote so many different fantastic pieces.

“I think it's got the lightness of the Mozart quartet. She wrote it for a competition and won the prize and then the piece was compared to late Beethoven quartets. Maybe there is that quality there but I think that it has many more similarities with Mozart in its playfulness even though the whole piece does have very deep moments in there as well. She is able to push all the right buttons and move us as a listener. She knows what works.”

Tickets for Chichester Chamber Concerts events are available from the CFT.