Gramophone Magazine
Awards Issue 2022
Editor's Choice

Quatuor van Kuijk

Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 12
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44 No. 1

The Quatuor Van Kuijk celebrates the tenth anniversary of its creation and its sixth recording for Alpha with a complete set of Mendelssohn’s quartets, of which this is the first volume: it opens with the Quartet op.13, composed in 1827, when he was only eighteen years old. ‘A trial run? No, a masterstroke! In every movement of this first quartet, we are constantly aware that the sense of urgency is the blood that runs through its veins. Never before have we heard such tension maintained over an entire quartet’, writes Stéphane Goldet in the album’s booklet notes.

"The Van Kuijk marry high technical polish (tuning and ensemble virtually flawless), close attention to Mendelssohn’s detailed markings and a spirit of youthful, spontaneous ardour." - Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2022.