Proms at Belfast: Augusta Holmès / Debussy / Fauré, Atkinson/Pandya/Van Kuijk Quartet

[bluestateprommer]

Sunday 11 August 2024
15:00
Ulster Hall
34 Bedford Street
Belfast BT2 7FF

Augusta Holmès: Les Heures (first performance at The Proms)
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor

Interval

Fauré: La bonne chanson (version with piano & string quintet)

James Atkinson, baritone (Proms debut artist)
Michael Pandya, piano (Proms debut artist)
Van Kuijk Quartet

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ep6fbp

https://www.ulsterhall.co.uk/what-s-on/proms-belfast-holmes-debussy/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021pqw

[bluestateprommer]

Very fine Chamber Music Prom from Belfast, with the Augusta Holmès work as the obvious 'novelty' for the occasion. Her own text is somewhat over-baked 19th-century romantic, which is admittedly par for the course. Her music is OK; didn't necessarily knock me out of my chair, but good to hear. It sounded as though the Van Kuijk Quartet trimmed the vibrato a bit for the Debussy. The balance was rather lopsided towards the first half, but the ~22 minutes of La bonne chanson turned out to be just right for the second half on its own. (If there was an encore, R3 didn't carry it.) Well worth hearing / catching up on for anyone who missed it at the moment.