String quartets / Carl Nielsen
The Danish String Quartet
The concerts of the Danish String Quartet had to be cancelled.
String Quartet III: Nielsen/Beethoven
Carl Nielsen 1884
© Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen
- Duration 2h, one interval
Past Dates
“It is here that I found my own sound,” wrote Carl Nielsen upon completion of the third movement of his Quartet in F minor, adding that: “it was through this quartet that I understood its ingredients.” The new self-confidence could not even be shaken by an authority such as the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, for whom Nielsen played the piece a short time later: “Yes, dear Mr. Nielsen”, he said relentingly when the 25-year-old had rejected all of his proposed revisions: “maybe I am a Philistine. Write what you want, as long as you feel it.” Nielsen took the quintessence of his experience with the genre into his fourth string quartet in 1919, convinced that he had “soon discovered the true nature of string instruments”. In the Danish String Quartet’s programme, the piece encounters one of Beethoven’s last string quartets: a work that promises rewarding comparisons to Nielsen’s final word on the string quartet in its tension between conservative outer form and uncompromising expressivity.
Carl Nielsen [1865–1931]
String Quartet No. 1 in G minor op. 13 [1887/88]
Ludwig van Beethoven [1770–1827]
String Quartet No.10 in E flat major op. 74 Harfenquartett [1809]
Carl Nielsen
String Quartet No. 2 in F minor op. 5 [1890]
The Danish String Quartet
Frederik Øland, violin
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin
Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello
