Impressions Parisiennes (Parisian Impressions) is a new album from Quatuor Van Kuijk on Alpha Classics.  Exclusively Available in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128 and DSD 64 at NativeDSD Music from the Edit Master Source.

Whilst the string quartets by Debussy (1893) and Ravel (1903) have been a source of great joy to the Van Kuijk Quartet –  their recordings and concerts of these works have become their musical passport – they remain eager to add further such works from that period, a golden age of French composition, to their repertoire. Here they leave the path laid down by their previous recordings of music by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert Debussy, Ravel and Chausson and share their impressions and subjective experiences of works for piano and voice composed between 1870 and 1943 by Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc.

The quartet’s individuality is subtly apparent in this repertoire and is evident in the transcriptions they have made, as well as in a new work from Baptiste Trotignon inspired by the same composers. The idea that the quartet could make use of the musical possibilities offered by a transcription was sparked by a remark from Poulenc himself, who had composed a string quartet in 1945-1946 that he had withdrawn after an unsatisfactory first rehearsal, joking that “les cordes ne sont pas dans mes cordes” (strings are not my strong point); he had always been more inspired by wind instruments. He then, however, soon recycled most of the themes from his quartet into his Sinfonietta for orchestra. Encouraged to trust their intuition and their approach by knowing of this phantom quartet, the Van Kuijks add another string to their bows with these transcriptions of songs by Poulenc, Satie and Fauré, enthused and seduced by their freedom and lightness.

Quatuor Van Kuijk
Nicolas Van Kuijk, Violin
Sylvain Favre-Bulle, Violin
Emmanuel François, Viola
Anthony Kondo, Cello