The Dudok Quartet, which has received numerous international awards throughout its career, was formed in 2009 and is named after Willem Dudok. This 20th-century Dutch architect credited composers in particular with being a major source of inspiration for him as a “building artist.”

The concert begins with Mozart’s First Prussian Quartet from 1789. It is dedicated Frederick William II – a nephew and successor of Frederick the Great – who was a passionate cellist and got some prominent passages in this piece.

This is followed by a short quartet piece by Gabriel Ortiz, composed in 2006 to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. It incorporates fragments of the quartet heard earlier. Ortiz was also inspired to write “Aroma Foliado” by a work by the visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra entitled “All the Petals from Jan Brueghel the Elder’s “Sense of Smell,” 1618, 2002.” The latter “depicts a garden in which a female figure inhales the scent of a large bouquet of flowers”.

Schubert’s famous late string quartet from 1824, named “Death and the Maiden”, draws on a motif dating back to the Renaissance and, quite apart from this connection, is also one of the most moving string quartets in purely musical terms.