IRIPOTTER! ".1.r1..:i: i i:, t-: i D[ilis1l $IRilICOUIRTET Friday, PROGRiMlIOTES January31, 20.l4 / Bpm HANS ABRAHAMSEN Deoartmentof Music's (b.19s2) ConradPrebvs Concert Hall StrrngQuartet No. 1, "Ten SPONSOR Preludesfor Strinq Quartet" uomposedtn l9/3. Sam B. Ersan Hans Abrahamsenhas been a prominent figure in Danish music since the Kontra Quartetof ARTISTS Copenhagenpremiered his String QuartetNo. 1, Frederik Oland,Violin "TenPreludesi'ln 1973;he was 21.Abrahamsen, RuneTonsgaard Sorensen, Violin born in Copenhagenin 1952,demonstrated Asbjorn Norgaard,Viola exceptionalmusical gifts in his early teens Fredrik SchoyenSjolin, Cello and had alreadybegun composingby the ttme he enteredthe RoyalDanish Academy PROORAM of Musrcin Copenhagenin 1969to study HANS ABRAHAMSEN Frenchhorn and composition,in which his prrncipal String QuartetNo. 1,"10 Preludes for Strrng teacherwas NrelsViggo Bentzon. Quartet" He continuedhis composition studiesat the RoyalAcademy of Music in Arhus with pelle CLAUDEDEBUSSY: Gudmundsen-Holmgreen,and in 1975went String Quartetrn G minor, Op.10 back to Copenhagenfor advancedtraining in Anrme et trds decide music hrstory and music theory;he also studied Assezvif et bien rythme compositionprivately with Per NorgArdand Andantino,doucement expressif GydrgyLigeti. Since 1982,Abrahamsen has Tresmodere; tres mouvemente taught at the Academyof Music in Copenhagen; INTERMISSION he has also servedas Artistic Directorof the EsbjergEnsemble. Among his honors are the FELIX MENDELSSOHN.BARTHOLDY CarlNielsen Prize (1989)and Wilhelm Hansen String Quartetin A Minor,Op. 13 Prize(1998). In The New GroveDictionary of Adagio;Allegro vtvace Music and Musicians,Danish critic, teacher. Adanionon lento and music administratorAnders Beyerwrote. Intermezzo:Allegretto con moto 'Abrahamsen'smusic possessesa particular Presto epic quality.He likes to tell stories,to create musical imagesfor the listener.But theseare string quartet for Ysaye'squartet, which gave the first performancein Paris on December29, 1893. Debussywas alreadynotorious with his teachers for his refusalto follow musical custom,and so it comes as a surpriseto find him choosing to write in this most demandingof classical forms. Early audienceswere baffled.Reviewers used words like "fantastic"and "oriental,"and Debussy'sfriend ErnestChausson confessed mystiflcation. Debussymust have felt the sting of these reactions,for he promisedChausson, "WelI,I'll write another for you . . . and I'll try to bring more dignity to the form." not in the shapeof clear forms and figures:his But Debussy did not write another string quartet, works never revealtheir innermost secrets,and and his Quartetin G Minor has becomeone the composerrarely presentsthe listener with of the cornerstonesof the quartetliterature. unambiguoussolutions." The entire quartet grows directly out of its Abrahamsenwrote of his String QuartetNo. 1, frrst theme,presented at the very opening, subtitled "Ten Preludes,""Even with all their and this sharply rhythmic figure reappearsin brevity,these ten'short-stories' for string quartet various shapesin all four movements,taking contain almost all that can be desiredof musical on a different character,a different color and expressionwithin the relativel.yshort period of a different harmony on each reappearance. 20 minutes. Violenceexpressed as joy,simplicity What struck early audiencesas "fantastic"now as necessity,contrasts as form. The eruptive seemsan utterly original conceptionof what a side of the music is not sharply segregatedfrom string quartetmight be. Hereis a combination the simpie,harmoniously melodious side. Each of energy,drama, thematic imagination and of the 'short stories'pointsforward to the next attention to color never heardbefore in a string and at the same time back to its predecessorand quartet.Debussy may have felt pushedto thus makes for a unified overallstructure. Thar apologizefor a lack of "dignity"in this music,but the last of the preludesis a straight Baroque we value it today just for that failure. pastichecould be interpretedas an almost Thosewho think of Debussyas the composerof Holbergianmoral in which things are sorted misty impressionismare in for a shock with his out and looseends tied up. As in fairy tales one quartet,for it has the most slashing,powerful could say,'...there, this was a true story."' opening Debussyever wrote:his marking for the beginning is 'Animated and very CLAUDEDEBUSSY resolute."Thrs (1862-1918) first theme,with its characteristictriplet spring, is the backboneof the entire quartet:the singing StrrngQuartet in G Minor,Op. 10 secondtheme grows directly Composedin 1893. out of this opening (though the third introduces new materiai). The Early in 1893,Debussy met the famed Belgian developmentis marked by powerful accents, violinist EugeneYsaye. Debussy was at this Iong crescendosand shimmering colorsas time aimost unknown (Preludeta the Afternoon thrs movement drives to an unrelentinoclose in G of a Faunwas stiil a year in the future),but he Mrnor. and Ysayeinstantly becamefriends-though Ysayewas only four years older than Debussy,he The Scherzomay well be the quartet'smost treated the diminutive Frenchman Iike "his Iittle impressivemovement. Against powerful brother."That summer,Debussy composed a ptzzicatochords, Debussy sets the viola'sbowed 2 the chamber repertory. 'Al1 the melodic charm, violin over tremolo harmonies,reminiscent of all the perfection of detaii, all the deftness of the fourth movement of Beethoven'sA minor touch we associatewith the later works are Quartet,Op. 132, launches the finale.A clutch of presentin this Quartetfrom his eighteenthyear." highly chargedmotives is presentedand worked This Quartetis also the most Beethovenianof out with greatintensity as the music unfolds. Mendelssohn'sworks, embracing bold contrasts, The work closesnot with a wail of tragedyor adventurousharmonies, complex counterpoint, with a sunburst of redemption, but with a recall cyclical procedures,multi-compartmented of the Quartet'smost introspectivemoments- movements,and a pervasiveimpassioned first the theme of the Adagio, and then the expressionthat lend this music an urgency introduction from the openingmovement, which Mendeissohnseldom recaptured.At a bringing with it a final reflection upon the musrc performanceof the Quartetat a Paris salon, and thought,Ist Es Wahr? a music loving priest nudgedMendelssohn during the finale, and whispered, "He does that in one of his symphonies." "Who?"asked the composer."Why, Beethoven, the author of this Quartet,"came the reply. "That was bittersweet," Mendelssohnallowed. The Quartet opens with a slow introduction whose A major tonaiity servesas an emotional foil for the tempestuousmain body of the movement.Two arching phrases-the seconc DANISH STRING QUARTET soaringhigh in the frst violin's compass- Embodying the quintessential elements of a preface the quotation of the searching motto chamber music ensemble,the Danish Strinq phrasefrom Ist Es Wahr?,recognizable by its Quartethas establisheda reputationfor Iong-short long rhythm. The music's tempo and possessingan integratedsound, impeccable energy are quickened by scurrying filigree before intonation and judicious balance. With its the viola initiates the principal theme,based technical and interpretivetalents matched by on the motto rhythm. The cello posits a lyrical an infectiousjoy for music-making,the quartet melody as the complementary subject.The is in demand worldwide by concert and festival scurrying phrasesreturn to mark the onset of the presentersalike. Sincemaking its debut in developmentsection, which is remarkablefor 2002 al the CopenhagenFestival, the group of the intensity of its counterpointand its nearly musical friends has demonstrateda passionfor febrilemood. The recapitulationserves both to Scandinaviancomposers, who they frequently return and to enhancethe earlierthemes before Incorporateinto adventurouscontemporary the movementcloses with an explosivecoda programs, while also proving skilied and that stopswithout resolvingthe music's strong profoundperformers of the classicalmasters tensions.The deeplyfelt Adagio offers another Last season,the New YorkTimes selected thetr paraphraseof the motto theme at beginning concert as a highlight of the year:"One of the and end as the frame for the somber,densely most powerful renditions of Beethoven'sOpus packedfugal episodethat occupiesthe middle 132String Quartetthat I'veheard live or on a of the movement.The third movement.titled recording."This scope of talent has secured Intermezzo,uses a charmingly folkish tune, them a three-yearappointment in the coveted daintily scored,in its outer sectionsto surround ChamberMusic Societyof Lincoln an etherealpassage of musicai featherstitching Center'sCMS Two Programbeginning in the 2013-14season at the center.Both ideas are deftly combined rn and they have also been named as a BBCRadio 3 the coda.A dramatic cadenza-recitativefor the New GenerationArtist for 2013-15. 4 Sincewinning the Danish RadioP2 Chamber by. This is music making of wonderful ease Music Competitionin2A04, the quartethas and naturalness..."It recently recordedworks been in greatdemand throughoutDenmark by Brahms and Fuchs with award-winning and in October2013 it presentedthe seventh clarinettist SebastianManz at the Bayerische annual DSQ-Musifest,a three-dayfestival held in Rundfunk in Munich to be releasedby AVI-music Copenhagenthat brings togethermusical friends in early 2014.The quartet'slove of Scandinavran the quartethas met on its travels. Outsideof rts music has been capturedin a recordingof folk homelandthe quartetwill perform in the UK, music that was releasedon its own label in Spain,Germany, Northern Ireland, Australia, September2013. Norway and Polandduring the 2013-14season. Violinists FrederikOIand and RuneTonsgaard E In 2009the Danish String Quartetwon First Prize Sorensenand violist AsbjornNorgaard met (-l in the 11thLondon InternationalString Quartet 7J as children at a music summer camp where Competition,as well as four additionalprizes .U they playedboth football and music together, from the samejury. This competition is now eventually making the transition into a serious Z calledthe WigmoreHall InternationalString string quartet in their teens and studying at QuartetCompetition and the Danish String Copenhagen'sRoyal Academy of Music. In 2008 Quartethas performedat the famed hall on the three Daneswere joined by Norwegiancellist severaloccasions. It will return to WigmoreHall Fredrik Schoyen Sjiilin. The Danish in Aprii 2014to perform a program of Beethoven String was primarily taught and Haydn. Quartet and mentoredby ProfessorTim Frederiksenand The Danish String Quartetwas awarded has participatedin master classeswith the First Prizein the Vagn HolmboeString Tokyo and EmersonString Quartets,Alasdair QuartetCompetition and the CharlesHennen Tait,Paul Katz,Hugh Maguire,Levon Chilingirian InternationalChamber Music Competition and GaborTakacs-Nagy. in Holland and the AudiencePrize in the wwwdanishquartet.com Trondheim InternationalString Quartet Competitionin 2005.The Danish String Quartet was awardedthe 2010NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prtzeat the Mecklenburg-VorpommernFestival in Germanyand, in 2011,received the prestigious CarlNielsen Prize.

In 2006,the Danish String Quartetwas Danish Radio'sArtist-in-Residence, giving them the opportunlty to recordall of Carl Nielsen'sstring quartetsrn the Danish RadioConcert Hall, subsequentlyreleased to critical acclaim on the Dacapoiabel in 2007and 2008. The New YarkTimes review said "TheseDanish players have excelledin performancesof works by Brahms,Mozart and Bartok in New York in recentyears. But they play Nielsen'squartets as if they owned them." ln2012 the Danish String Quartetreleased an equally-acclaimedrecording of Haydn and Brahms quartetson the German AVI-musiclabel. Said Anthony Tommasini of the New Yorkfjmes: "What makes the performance speciaiis the maturity and calm of the playing, even during virtuosic passagesthat whisk