What Remains Dudok Quartet Amsterdam

• Joey Roukens (b. 1982): What Remains (String Quartet No. 4):
• 1Roukens: What Remains (String Quartet No. 4): I. Strange Oscillations09:47
• 2Roukens: What Remains (String Quartet No. 4): II. Motectum14:53
• Pérotin (1160 - 1230): Viderunt omnes (Arr. for String Quartet by Dudok Quartet Amsterdam).
• 3Pérotin: Viderunt omnes (Arr. for String Quartet by Dudok Quartet Amsterdam)02:01
• Guillaume Machaut (1300 - 1377): Messe de Nostre Dame:
• 4Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame: I. Kyrie (Arr. for String Quartet by Dudok Quartet Amsterdam)01:19
• Carlo Gesualdo (1566 - 1613): Madrigals, Libro 6:
• 5Gesualdo: Madrigals, Libro 6: No. 9, Deh, come invan sospiro (Arr. for String Quartet by Dudok Quartet Amsterdam)02:41
• Steve Reich (b. 1936): Different Trains:
• 6Reich: Different Trains: I. America – Before the War08:59
• 7Reich: Different Trains: II. Europe – During the War07:30
• 8Reich: Different Trains: III. After the War10:30
• Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 1992): Fête des belles eaux:
• 9Messiaen: Fête des belles eaux: No. 6, Oraison (Arr. for String Quartet by Dudok Quartet Amsterdam)08:26
• Total Runtime01:06:06

Info for What Remains

The title What Remains of String Quartet No. 4 (2019) by Joey Roukens can be understood in various ways. On a poetic level, the words correspond to the character of the music, which often seems to hark back to ‘something remaining’ from a previous era – ruins, ghosts, scraps or memories. This interpretation, both of the words and of the music itself, marked the beginning of the associative exploration that led to this album of the same title. A fascinatingly curated programme from the Dudok, drawing on music from the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries, with 20th century works by Messiaen and Reich, and into the 21st century with the work that provides the album’s title, the 4th String Quartet by Roukens, commissioned by the Dudok Quartet. Both Reich and Roukens’ music was influenced by Gregorian chant, and the early organum and polyphonic music that followed. Time, travel, locomotion – journeys through time and the memories of these journeys all come together on this thrilling new album from the Dudok Quartet, Amsterdam.

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam

The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam
is one of the most versatile and appealing string quartets of this time. The quartet’s aim is to share the heart of music through captivating performances and an open approach of the audience.

In June of 2013, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam has finished their studies at the Dutch String Quartet Academy with highest distinction. In November of 2014 the Dudok Quartet was awarded the Kersjesprize, an award annually given to an ensemble of exceptional talent in the Dutch chamber music scene. The quartet furthermore received top prizes in various international string quartet competitions in Bordeaux (Concours international quatuor à cordes), Weimar (Internationaler Joseph Joachim Kammermusikwettbewerb), The Netherlands (Charles Hennen Competition/Orlando Competition) and Poland (Radom first international string quartet competition)

The members of the quartet first met in the Ricciotti Ensemble, a Dutch street symphony orchestra. The ensemble was founded in 2009. During the first two years since then, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam studied with the Alban Berg Quartett at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. After that, they studied with Marc Danel at the Dutch String Quartet Academy. Further important artistic impulses came from Eberhard Feltz, Peter Cropper (Lindsay Quartet), Luc-Marie Aguera (Quatuor Ysaÿe) and Stefan Metz.

Many well-known contemporary classical composers, such as Kaija Saariaho, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Calliope Tsoupaki and Max Knigge worked with the quartet on their music. In 2014, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam has signed for several recordings with Resonus Classics, the world’s first solely digital classical music label. Both their first two albums, combining string quartet core repertoire by Haydn and Mozart with both string quartets by György Ligeti and world premieres of the ensembles own arrangements, have been received with unanimous praise in international press reviews including an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. 2016 saw the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound remains, featuring the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam in a leading role accompanying the world-renowned countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.

The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam has performed with many renowned guest musicians such as recorder player Erik Bosgraaf, pianists Alexei Lubimov, Hannes Minnaar, Ralph van Raat and Daria van den Bercken, and cellists Pieter Wispelwey, Dmitri Ferschtman and Quirine Viersen. The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam performed at many prestigious festivals and venues throughout Europe and in the United States of America, such as the Grachten Festival, the Orlando Festival, Festival Quatuors à Bordeaux and Festival Jeunes Talents (France), Carinthischer Sommer and the Vienna Konzerthaus (Austria), Haydn Festival Fertöd (Hungary), Davos Festival (Switzerland), the Linari Classic Festival (Italy) and the Léon Chamber Music Festival and Festival Música en Segura (Spain), Winter Chamber Music Festival (Il, USA)

Willem Marinus Dudok (1884 – 1974) was a famous Dutch architect. He was also a great lover of music: he came from a musical family and composed music in his spare time. “I owe more to composers than I owe to any architect”, he wrote. “I feel deeply the common core of music and architecture: after all, they both derive their value from the right proportions.”

Booklet for What Remains