‘A perfect balance between competition and festival’ - Postcard from Bordeaux Quartet Competition

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The 2022 edition of the revitalised triennial Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition soon proved that it had become that rarest of competition breeds: an event that at least as many people would want to attend as would want to win.

Founded in 1999 by cellist Alain Meunier and Bernard Lummeaux, Bordeaux has long been worth paying attention to. The 1999 edition was won by the Belcea Quartet and in 2003 the Ébène Quartet took first prize. Recent winners are the Schumann (2013), Akilone (2016) and Marmen (2019) quartets. Adding to the interest, it’s also been a competition ready to experiment, with the 2019 edition dispensing with standard semi-final and final rounds, the six quartets competing instead across three concerts. Yet, like many big string quartet competitions, the Bordeaux has also always appeared strangely hidden away, with barely an online presence, and still less significant international PR or remote viewing options.

But in 2020, Meunier and Lummeaux handed the artistic direction to the Modigliani Quartet, and general direction to impresario Julien Kieffer, also brother of the Modigliani’s cellist, François Kieffer. The competition was renamed Vibre! and reimagined to incorporate a festival – running alongside the competition during competition years, and as a stand-alone the rest of the time…