The Danish String Quartet plays Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No.7 in F major, Op.59 No.1. Recorded at Parlance Chamber Concerts, Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S., on April 8, 2018.
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Beethoven composed his three Quartets, Op.59, in 1805-1806 for the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Kyrilovich Razumovsky. The count was an excellent amateur violinist, who played second violin in his own house string quartet, except when Louis Sina stepped in so he could sit back and listen. His first violinist was the illustrious Ignaz Schuppanzigh, whom Beethoven had known since 1794 and who premiered many of the composer's works.
The three Razumovsky Quartets represent an entirely different world than Beethoven's six early Quartets, Op.18, published only four years before. In between he had written his never-mailed letter, the heartrending "Heiligenstädt Testament", which dealt with the anguish of his deafness and solitude, and had composed such innovative new works as the Eroica Symphony, the Appassionata Piano Sonata, and the first version of his opera Fidelio. His radical new style, with its expanded sonata forms, epic themes, complexities, and individualities, met with hostility and derision from early performers and critics. "Perhaps no work of Beethoven's", wrote his famed early biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer, "met a more discouraging reception from musicians than these now famous Quartets".
The first movement of the present F major Razumovsky Quartet is remarkable for its lush expansiveness. This is already apparent in Beethoven's first theme, which unfolds lyrically in the cello over pulsing repeated-note accompaniment, then is taken over by the first violin. The shift in register is something that he explores throughout the work and is one aspect, in addition to length, that gives such a spacious impression. Once this theme peaks, Beethoven instantly changes texture and introduces several new ideas before moving on to his new key area.
When the composer eventually launches what sounds like a repeat of the exposition, he suddenly shoots off in another direction, a grand deception clearly playing on the listener's expectation of that repeat. A famous "first" in the annals of sonata-form, this "non-repeat" considerably alters the structure of the first movement by making it one long sweep and shifting a greater proportion of time and weight onto the development section. Beethoven takes full advantage of the space he created for development by indulging in contrasts of register, new figuration, tension-building, fugal writing, and a mysterious and enormous preparation for the onset of the recapitulation.
Beethoven labeled his second movement "Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando" rather than calling it a scherzo outright, perhaps because he ingeniously adopts a full-fledged sonata form instead of the traditional scherzo-trio-scherzo or five-fold expansion of that form. Placed second rather than in the more typical third spot in the sequence of movements, this extraordinary scherzo ranks as Beethoven's most original in form. Again, expansiveness is the ruling feature of the movement, which grows out of the distinctive repeated-note rhythmic pattern of the opening. This idea generates a remarkable number of miniature themes, which Beethoven treats in wonderfully airy "scherzando" textures.
The composer uses the relatively rare description "mesto" (mournful) in his performance direction for his slow movement, thereby acknowledging its tragic qualities. It was here in his sketches that he made the strange notation: "A weeping willow or acacia on my brother's grave". He may have been referring to his distress at his brother Caspar Carl's marriage to Johanna Reiss, who was six months pregnant, or remembering another brother who died in infancy, but the main melody, featuring the first violin and then the cello in high register, is certainly an expressive lament. The movement closes with a florid cadenza for the first violin, in which the darkness seems to dissipate and which leads directly into the finale, a device Beethoven had explored in other middle-period works.
Beethoven incorporated a Russian theme into each of the first two Razumovsky Quartets, making an audible connection to his patron, though it is uncertain whether the idea and the choice of theme was Beethoven's or the count's. Here the cello merrily introduces the Russian theme while the violin is still trilling. We wonder what Count Razumovsky thought of Beethoven's cheerful rendition of the originally soulful melody. The mood has definitely lightened here, though the scope is still grand – a full sonata form, complete with repeat of the exposition. Beethoven crowns the work with an imaginative coda in which he slows the Russian theme, imbuing it with mock sadness, only to sweep it away with his virtuosic final flourish.
Source: Jane Vial Jaffe (parlancechamberconcerts.org)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
♪ String Quartet No.7 in F major, Op.59 No.1 (1806)
i. Allegro
ii. Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando
iii. Adagio molto e mesto
iv. Thème russe. Allegro
Danish String Quartet:
Frederik Øland (violin)
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (violin)
Asbjørn Nørgaard (viola)
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin (cello)
Parlance Chamber Concerts, Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S., April 8, 2018
(HD 720p)
Embodying the quintessential elements of a fine chamber music ensemble, the Danish String Quartet has established a reputation for their integrated sound, impeccable intonation and judicious balance. With their technical and interpretive talents matched by an infectious joy for music-making and "rampaging energy" (The New Yorker), the quartet is in demand worldwide by concert and festival presenters alike. Since making their debut in 2002 at the Copenhagen Festival, the musical friends have demonstrated a passion for Scandinavian composers, who they frequently incorporate into adventurous contemporary programs, while also giving skilled and profound interpretations of the classical masters. The New York Times selected the quartet's concerts as highlights of 2012 and 2015, praising "one of the most powerful renditions of Beethoven's Opus 132 String Quartet that I've heard live or on a recording, and "the adventurous young members of the Danish String Quartet play almost everything excitingly". The Danish String Quartet received the 2016 Borletti Buitoni Trust provided to support outstanding young artists in their international endeavors, joining a small, illustrious roster of past recipients since the Trust's founding in 2003.
The Danish String Quartet's expansive 2017-2018 North American season includes more than 30 performances across 17 states. The ensemble gives debut performances at numerous renowned venues, such as the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Bravo! Vail and Ravinia summer festivals, Cleveland Chamber Music Society, Ensemble Music Society Indianapolis, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Oregon Bach Festival, and San Francisco Performances, among others. Further season highlights include returns to the Mostly Mozart Festival, UW World Series at Meany Hall in Seattle, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Philadelphia and Buffalo Chamber Music Societies. This season, the Quartet features a richly satisfying array of diverse repertoire which includes both giants of the string quartet canon – Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, and Mozart – with lesser-performed works by Sibelius, Schnittke, and Jörg Widmann. Additionally, the ensemble joins the outstanding Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen to perform the Shostakovich Piano Quintet at Ravinia and the Brahms Piano Quintet at CMS Lincoln Center's residency at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where they also collaborate with cellist Jakob Koranyi for the Schubert Cello Quintet. Overseas, they tour extensively throughout Europe in their native Denmark, Norway, Germany, Luxembourg, and Holland as well as Australia and the Far East. The Danish String Quartet continues to expand upon their deep affinity for Scandinavian folk music with several performances of their own arrangements of traditional Nordic music, and with the release of a new recording on ECM Records this fall.
After their highly successful 2016-2017 season, which included debuts at the Tanglewood, Caramoor and Edinburgh Festivals, the Danish String Quartet debuted at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall performing Shostakovich String Quartet in E-flat minor as well as Schubert Cello Quintet with eminent Swedish cellist Torleif Thedéen, in a performance described by New York Magazine as "a raw kind of splendor". In addition to their New York engagement, the quartet's robust North American schedule took them to Salt Lake City, Stanford, Ashland and Portland (OR), Vancouver, Kansas City (MO), Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Chicago, Boston, Orono, Dartmouth, Washington DC, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kalamazoo, Detroit, St Paul, and Denver, as well as a teaching residency at Dartmouth College. Internationally, they performed throughout Israel, South America, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, and their home country, Denmark. As champions of contemporary music from Scandinavian composers, the Quartet premiered a new work by Rolf Wallin titled Swans Kissing based on the 1914 series of paintings, "The Swan", by Swedish painter Hilma af Klint. This work was commissioned by the Quartet for its world premiere in London's Wigmore Hall.
The Quartet's recent debut recording on ECM Records features works of Danish composers Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård and English composer Thomas Adés and received five stars from The Guardian, praised as "an exacting program requiring grace, grit and clarity and the Danish players sound terrific... It's a sophisticated performance". The recording debuted at #16 on the Billboard Classical Chart and continues to earn international acclaim. They also recently presented the US premiere of Danish composer Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen's Quartet No.7 "The Extinguishable" at the University of Chicago. In addition to their commitment to highlighting Scandinavian composers, the Danish String Quartet derive great pleasure in traditional Nordic folk music. Their next album will be released in September 2017.
Since winning the Danish Radio P2 Chamber Music Competition in 2004, the quartet has been greatly admired throughout Denmark and in October 2016 they presented their tenth annual DSQ Festival, a four-day event held in Copenhagen that brings together musical friends the Quartet has met on its travels. Additionally, in 2016 the Quartet curated a new music festival, Series of Four, where they served as both performers and artistic directors, bringing world-renowned artists to the intimate series of concerts in Copenhagen. In 2009 the Danish String Quartet won First Prize in the 11th London International String Quartet Competition, as well as four additional prizes from the same jury. This competition is now called the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and the Danish String Quartet has performed at the famed hall on several occasions, including their final concert of the 2015-2016 season performing a program of Beethoven, Janáček and Nielsen.
The Danish String Quartet's talents have secured them numerous awards and coveted appointments including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two Program, the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists program. They were awarded First Prize in the Vagn Holmboe String Quartet Competition and the Charles Hennen International Chamber Music Competition in Holland as well as the Audience Prize in the Trondheim International String Quartet Competition in 2005. They were the recipients of the 2010 NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany and, in 2011, received the prestigious Carl Nielsen Prize.
In 2006, the Danish String Quartet was Danish Radio's Artist-in-Residence, giving them the opportunity to record all of Carl Nielsen's string quartets in the Danish Radio Concert Hall, subsequently released to critical acclaim on the Dacapo label in 2007 and 2008. The New York Times extolled, "These Danish players have excelled in performances of works by Brahms, Mozart and Bartók in New York in recent years. But they play Nielsen's quartets as if they owned them". In 2012 the Danish String Quartet released an acclaimed recording of Haydn and Brahms quartets on the German AVI-music label, about which The New York Times proclaimed: "What makes the performance special is the maturity and calm of the playing, even during virtuosic passages that whisk by. This is music making of wonderful ease and naturalness..." They recorded works by Brahms and Fuchs with award-winning clarinettist Sebastian Manz at the Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, released by AVI-music in 2014, and are currently signed with ECM Records.
Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a music summer camp where they played both soccer and music together, eventually making the transition into a serious string quartet in their teens and studying at Copenhagen's Royal Academy of Music. In 2008 the three Danes were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin. The Danish String Quartet was primarily taught and mentored by Professor Tim Frederiksen and have participated in master classes with the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets, Alasdair Tait, Paul Katz, Hugh Maguire, Levon Chilingirian and Gábor Takács-Nagy.
Source: danishquartet.com / parlancechamberconcerts.org
"They could be grounded in their tone or mystical. They allowed time to stand still, and they could assume the pose of excitingly aggressive rockers. They did it all." — The Los Angeles Times
"They bring a freshness and energy plus a level of sheer accomplishment that I don't ever remember hearing in these works." — Gramophone
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See also
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No.5 in A major, Op.18 No.5 – Quatuor Ébène (HD 1440p)
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No.9 in C major, Op.59 No.3 – Quatuor Ébène (HD 1080p)
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