Danish String Quartet | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

April 13, 2024 • 2:14 pm Comments Off on Thomas Adès and the Danish Quartet

Thomas Adès and the Danish Quartet

The Danish String Quartet’s multi-year “Doppelgänger” Project has paired newly commissioned works by four leading contemporary composers with chamber music masterpieces by Franz Schubert (three of them quartets, the last one being Schubert’s String Quintet in C major). The project has now concluded with the premiere of Thomas Adès’s new string quintet Wreath.

Wreath — for Franz Schubert is the latest creation from one of the world’s most-sought-after composers. “I am most grateful to the great Danish String Quartet for giving me the time and encouragement to realize and develop this new path in my work,” Adès writes in the freshly completed score.

My program notes for the Cal Performances performance in April 2024 can be found here.

Filed under: Cal Performances, chamber music, commissions, Danish String Quartet, Schubert, Thomas Adès

April 28, 2022 • 12:56 pm Comments Off on Danish Quartet: Doppelgänger II

Danish Quartet: Doppelgänger II

Friday night brings the second installment in the Danish Quartet’s ongoing Doppelgänger Project at Cal Performances, with the world premiere of Finnish composer Lotta Wennaköski’s Pige, her response to Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet. Here’s the introduction I wrote to this program (click on tab “about the performance”).

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Filed under: Cal Performances, Danish String Quartet, Schubert

November 14, 2019 • 1:00 pm Comments Off on A Prismatic Program from the Danish String Quartet

A Prismatic Program from the Danish String Quartet

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Currently touring the West Coast, the Danish String Quartet paid a visit recently. I now get what the fuss is about. Here’s my review for Strings:

The Danish String Quartet‘s contribution to the Beethoven 250 celebrations this season includes a tripartite North American tour. As part of the fall segment of this tour, which is currently underway, the Scandinavian foursome made a recent stop in Seattle. On offer was the first of the Beethoven-themed programs they are presenting under the project name PRISM. The performance launched this season’s International Chamber Music series at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts of the University of Washington.

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Filed under: Bach, Beethoven, chamber music, Danish String Quartet, review, Shostakovich, string quartet, Strings