The Kuijken Ensemble play Debussy

The Kuijkens keep it in the family for this twilit account of Debussy’s chamber works. Delicate, wonderfully sensitive to colour, the ensemble plays instruments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the piano being a straight-strung Erard. A padded-cell acoustic is at its worst in the string quartet.

Jessica Duchen

Our rating

4

Jessica Duchen

Published: October 20, 2016 at 8:24 am

COMPOSERS: Claude Debussy
LABELS: Arcana
ALBUM TITLE: Debussy
WORKS: String Quartet; Syrinx; Sonatas
PERFORMER: Kuijken Ensemble
CATALOGUE NO: Arcana A392 (1999)

The Kuijkens keep it in the family for this twilit account of Debussy’s chamber works. Delicate, wonderfully sensitive to colour, the ensemble plays instruments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the piano being a straight-strung Erard. A padded-cell acoustic is at its worst in the string quartet.

Jessica Duchen

Jessica Duchen

Journalist and Critic, BBC Music Magazine

Jessica Duchen studied music at Cambridge University and was the classical music correspondent for The Independent from 2004 to 2016. She has also written for The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine and the JC, among others. Jessica Duchen has written librettos include numerous choral works and operas for the composer Roxanna Panufnik, including Silver Birch, commissioned by Garsington Opera and shortlisted for an International Opera Award in 2018. Two more works based on stories by Oscar Wilde were commissioned for Garsington’s Youth Company, The Happy Princess with composer Paul Fincham (2019) and The Selfish Giant with John Barber, which fell victim to lockdown, this has been postponed to 2021.
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