sign in sign up
<<
Home , String quartet

PRESENTS Danish String Frederik Øland, | Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin Asbjørn Nørgaard, | Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin,

ChamberMusicConcerts.org · 541-552-6154 DANISH FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 – 7:30PM Recorded in Denmark for Chamber Concerts

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18 no. 3 Allegro Andante con moto Allegro Presto Scandinavian Folk Music (Traditional, arranged by the Danish Quartet) “Ye honest bridal couple”/ Sønderho bridal trilogy part 1/ Sønderho bridal trilogy part 2 Six tour from vendsyssel / “the peat dance” “Easter Sunday”/ Polsk after Rasmus Storm “Stædelil” “Halling after halteguten” “Regin smidur” “Five sheep, four goats” “Shine you no more”

PLATINUM SPONSOR: Anne C. Diller gold sponsors: Chris Donchin, Gary & Coralie Farnham, Jeanette Larson, Louis Roemer & Karen Gernant silver sponsors: John & Kay Johnson, Fred & Laura Perloff, Sandra Sobol & Jon Holtzman, Thomas & Cynthia Stauffer

online producer/director: OurConcerts.Live

Exclusive Representation: Kirshbaum Associates Inc. 711 West End Avenue, Suite 5KN, New York, NY 10025 www.kirshbaumassociates.com The Danish String Quartet is currently exclusive with ECM Records and has previously recorded for DaCapo and Cavi-Music/BR Klassik Danish String Quartet Frederik Øland, violin | Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola | Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello

mong today’s many exceptional groups, the GRAMMY® nom- A inated Danish String Quartet continuously asserts its preeminence. The Quar- tet’s playing reflects impeccable musicianship, sophisticated artistry, exquisite clarity of ensemble, and, above all, an expressivity inextricably bound to the music, from Haydn to Shostakovich to contemporary scores. Performances bring a rare musical spontaneity, giving audiences the sense of hearing even treasured canon repertoire as if for the first time, and exuding a palpable joy in musicmaking that have made them enormously in-demand on concert stages throughout the world. The recipient of many awards and prestigious appointments, including Musical America’s 2020 Ensemble of the Year and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, the Danish String Quartet was named in 2013 as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and appointed to the The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). In 2021-2022, the Danish String Quartet introduce DOPPELGÄNGER, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project. DOPPELGÄNGER pairs world pre- mieres from four renowned —Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Thomas Adès—with four major works from the masterful chamber music repertoire of Schubert. Each season, the Danish String Quartet will perform a world premiere on a program with its doppelgänger—the Schubert quar- tet or that inspired it—culminating in the premiere of a quintet by Adès, after the great in C major. The DOPPELGÄNGER pieces are commissioned by the Danish String Quartet with the support of Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, Vancouver Recital Society, Flagey in Brussels, and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. The first commission, composed by Bent Sørensen and inspired by Schubert’s quar- tet in G Major (D.887), is scheduled to premiere in 2021. As part of a three-year residency, the Danish String Quartet brought a series of five concerts, which mirror the programs in its ongoing recording project with ECM New Series, PRISM, to La Jolla Music Society in November 2019. Each PRISM program is an exploration of the symbiotic musical and contextual relationships between Bach , Beethoven string , and works by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Bartok, Mendelssohn, and Webern, forming an expertly curated musical evolution within each individual program and across the entire PRISM repertory. Prism I, the first disc of this five-album project for the ECM label, was released in September 2018 and garnered a GRAMMY® nomination in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for the group’s recordings of Beethoven’s Op. 127 in E-flat Major, Bach’s in E-flat Major (arranged by Mozart), and Shostakovich’s final string quartet, No. 15 in E-flat minor. Prism II was subsequently released in Septem- ber 2019 to rave reviews including a five-star review from BBC Music Magazine, “Best of 2019” from The New York Times, and “Classical Music You Must Hear” from Apple Music. The Danish String Quartet returned to North America in the 2019-2020 season as one of the most prominent musical voices in the monumental celebrations of Bee- thoven’s 250th year. With two sweeping North American tours, the Danish engaged its expansive audience in programming centered around the towering Beethoven , as well as many important works which inspired, and were inspired by, these revered giants of the classical canon. The Danish returned to Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as the featured string quartet performing the entire Beethoven cycle over the course of six concerts in February 2020. European engage- ments included dates throughout Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Brussels. The group takes an active role in reaching new audiences through special projects. In 2007, they established the DSQ Festival, now in its 12th year, which takes place in an intimate and informal setting at Copenhagen’s Bygningskulturens Hus. The 2019 DSQ Festival features an array of meticulously curated programs including such guests as pianists Vikingur Olafsson and Wu Qian, violinist Alexi Kenney, and vio- list Jennifer Stumm. In 2016, they inaugurated a new music festival, Series of Four, in which they both perform and invite colleagues—the Ebène Quartet, mandolin player Chris Thile, among others—to appear at the venerable Danish Radio Concert Hall. Concerts this season include collaborations with pianist Gabriel Kahane and violinist Pekka Kuusisto. Since its debut in 2002, the Danish String Quartet has demonstrated a special affin- ity for Scandinavian composers, from Carl Nielsen to Hans Abrahamsen, alongside music of Mozart and Beethoven. The Quartet’s musical interests also encompass Nordic folk music, the focus of Wood Works, an album of traditional Scandinavian folk music, released by Dacapo in 2014. As a follow-up, the Danish String Quartet released Last Leaf for ECM, an album of traditional Scandinavian folk music. This recording was one of the top classical albums of 2017, as chosen by NPR, Spotify and The New York Times, among others. Named Artist-in-Residence in 2006 by the Danish Radio, the Quartet was offered the opportunity to record the Nielsen string quartets at the Danish Radio Concert Hall. The two CDs, released in 2007 and 2008 on the Dacapo label, garnered enthu- siastic praise for their first recordings—“these Danish players have excelled in per- formances of works by Brahms, Mozart and Bartók in recent years. But they play Nielsen’s quartets as if they owned them,” noted The New York Times. In 2012, the Danish String Quartet released a recording of Haydn and Brahms quartets on the German AVI-music label, for which they also received critical notice. “What makes the performance special is the maturity and calm of the playing, even during virtu- osic passages that whisk by. This is music-making of wonderful ease and natural- ness,” observed The New York Times. Subsequently, they recorded works by Brahms and Robert Fuchs with clarinetist Sebastian Manz, released by AVI-music in 2014 and in 2017, an album with music of Thomas Adès, Per Nørgård, and Abrahamsen, the Quartet’s debut album on ECM. The Danish String Quartet has received numerous citations and prizes, including First Prize in the String Quartet Competition and the Charles Hen- nen International Chamber Music Competition in the Netherlands, as well as the Audience Prize at the Trondheim International String Quartet Competition in 2005. In 2009, the Danish String Quartet won First Prize in the 11th London International String Quartet Competition, now known as the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition, and return to the celebrated London concert hall frequently. The Quartet was the awarded the 2010 NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prize at the Meck- lenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany, and in 2011, they received the Carl Nielsen Prize, the highest cultural honor in Denmark. Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørenson and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a music summer camp where they played soccer and made music together. As teenagers, they began the study of classical chamber music and were mentored by Tim Frederiksen of Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 2008, the three Danes were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin. www.danishquartet.com. CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS Thanks our Digital Presentation Underwriters Danish String Quartet

PROGRAM NOTES

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18 no. 3 (1799)

y the time Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, that city had long since been BEurope’s greatest center of string chamber music composition and performance. While other major European cities favored the keyboard, “in Vienna...the violin was the primary instrument of musical activity” writes historian Leon Botstein. But this 18th-century violin differed from later versions with a softer, more intimate tone from gut strings, and the absence of chin rests which restricted hand movement, bow pressure, and volume. With no public chamber music concerts in large halls, this softer, more transparent sound matched the informal performance conditions: the privacy of small rooms and invited audiences in the aristocratic salons and Akademies. “Composers pre- ferred to showcase their best new works...before select private groups” (Botstein). They often circulated early versions of their compositions for performance in such settings, making note of what worked — and what didn’t. It was a more relaxed, collegial era focused on the performers rather than the audience. According to music historian Robert Winter “Performances...of the informal, pickup variety had been the lifeblood of quartet playing in Vienna for a generation.” Though both a great keyboard and virtuoso, Beethoven also actively par- ticipated in this private, string-oriented culture. He attended the twice-weekly “string quartet parties” of Emanuel Forster, and the weekly concerts at Karl Lichnowsky’s palace. He took violin lessons from Ignaz Schuppanzigh, met the other prominent local musicians, and also wrote violin , cello sonatas, and five wonderful string trios. With the special Viennese heritage of Haydn and Mozart quartets, how- ever, Beethoven approached the genre carefully in 1798. Like other composers, he circulated early versions of his quartets: Op. 18 no. 1 (certainly) and probably Op. 18 nos. 2 and 3 as well. Beethoven scholar Joseph Kerman writes of the cautious intent of these early performing versions that “Nothing similar is known with Beethoven’s music in other genres.” Beethoven’s first quartet — tonight’s Op. 18 no 3 — also reflected his seriousness about the genre. Instead of scattered sketches, he began writing all of them in a single volume for the first time. Because tonight’s D Major quartet constitutes Beethoven’s first work in the genre, it not surprisingly encompasses the closest approach to the Viennese intimacy of Mozart and Haydn’s style. Beethoven writes “the gentlest, most consistently lyrical work in the [Op. 18] set” according to Beethoven scholar Michael Steinberg. He fash- ions a very soft and tender primary theme in the -form first movement, and offers balanced four-bar phrases in a delightful transition theme. Such phrasing also appears in the secondary and closing themes as well. Another gentle four-bar theme serves as the refrain in the second movement (a Sonata-rondo actually, as the central episode serves as a development section primarily focused on the refrain). The Trio section of the third-movement consists entirely of four-bar phras- ing, as does the balanced lyricism of the 16-bar primary theme in the Sonata-form finale. Yet even in this early work, Beethoven subjects these and other themes to the dra- matic accents, destabilizing rhythms, striking dynamic contrasts, and other aspects of his revolutionary style that undermined the clarity of 18th-century classical con- ventions. In the opening movement, the repeated one-bar descending scales of the secondary theme gradually evolve into harmonic chaos, and finally cadence into a new theme in the “wrong” key. Beethoven’s unexpectedly powerful and extensive coda in the second-movement Rondo, with constant 16th-notes, sforzando accents, fortissimo dynamics, and almost four-octave range thrusts the structural weight to the end of the movement (unlike the of Haydn and Mozart). And the presto of both the Scherzo and moto perpetuo eighth notes in the finale continually verge on rhythmic instability. During the18th-century careers of Haydn and Mozart, neither the modern profes- sional string quartet nor any public chamber music concerts existed in Vienna. How- ever, a review of Beethoven’s Op. 18 quartets in 1801 stated “they must be played frequently and very well [emphasis added], for they are very difficult to perform and in no way popular.” Beethoven’s following quartets — the Op. 59 “Razumovsky” set of 1806 — thus took the next logical step, requiring Europe’s first professional string quartet (led by Ignaz Schuppanzigh) to do them justice. The traditional 18th-century culture of Vienna’s informal and private quartet performance, embraced by Beetho- ven only a decade earlier, already seemed a distant memory. Program notes by Ed Wight THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS We truly appreciate the generous contributions of our loyal supporters. Your gifts help CMC cover the costs of production, administration, and expensive artist fees, allowing our ticket prices to remain affordable. Please call 541-552-6154 or visit ChamberMusicConcerts. org for details on how you can support world-class chamber music.

GRANTS: Steven & Bari Frimkess Barth Family Fund Alice Hardesty Coronavirus Relief Fund for Cultural Support Barry Harris Oregon Arts Commission, a State Agency William & Suzanne Hering Arthur & Mechtild Howard Chamber Music Leadership: $8000+ John & Kay Johnson Anonymous Jeanette Larson Cynthia & Norman Lawrence Chamber Music Circle: $4000-$7999 Pix Morgan Anonymous Roger & Christine Moore Anne C. Diller Tim & Teri O’Rourke Dr. Margaret Evans JoAnn Prujan Karen Gernant & Louis Roemer Herb & Mary-Jean Singleton Richard Hay Fred Sommer Dr. Mary Jane Morrison Russy & Anita Sumariwalla Oregon Arts Commission, a State Agency U.S. Bank Wealth Management Donna Ritchie Steven & Priscilla Weaver Retina Care Center: Dr. Rinkoff, Dr. AufderHeide, Dr. Diaz Karen & George Wilson Wayne Thomas & Carole Brown Vince & Patty Wixon

Chamber Music Society: $1000-$3999 Benefactors: $500-$999 Patrick Alexander Gail Alexander, in memory of Joel Feiner Marc & Susann Allen Paul & Priscilla Arnold Marilyn Anderson & Bill Tout Ann Bard Atchison Emerging Artist Fund Sol & Virginia Blechman K Richard & Patricia Berlet J. Bryant & Baiba Calhoun Sandy Burd Jean Conger Jan Craigie John & Lynne Dolan Kenneth Deveney Gary & Coralie Farnham Chris Donchin Steven & Bari Frimkess Ernest Ettlich Flora Henningsen Daphne Fautin & Bob Buddemeier Suzanne Lang Ellen Fowler Ted Michel & Mona Anthony David & Alexandra Myers Patrons: $125-$249 Ann Strauss Oregon Pacific Bank Terry Ansnes Lawrence & Saundra Theis Fred & Laura Perloff Terry Cain Victoria Weiss Susan Plass René Casteran Thomas & Margery Winter Ruth & Ellen Reiterman Peter DeGroot & Myrl Bishop Ilana Rubenfeld Mary Eddington ESTERHAZY SOCIETY ESTATE GIFTS Marilyn Salter Joyce Epstein Peter Brunner John & Margaret Scarborough David & Carole Florian Jean Conger Andrew Smith Mary W. Gillespie Betty Jane Darling Sandra Sobol & Jon Holtzman John & Judith Kloetzel Anne F. Decker Julia Sommer Alan Levine Kurt & Billie Raye Erlings Thomas & Cynthia Stauffer Joan Linkogle Ernest Ettlich Samuel & Suzanne Mitchell Gary & Coralie Farnham Sustainers: $250-$499 Priscilla & Alan Oppenheimer John & Carol Fox John Alexander Susan Rust Jon & JoAnn Harbaugh Grace Chu & David Appleby Colleen Searle Alice Hardesty Jan Gorden Michael Smith & Nora Carol Ingelson Leestma Suzanne & William Hering Rebecca Kilburn Robert Wetmore Mary Lou Heumann Rick & Judy Lindemann L Neil & Ardyth White Arthur & Mechtild Howard Nancy Menken Janice Williams Edward & Sheila Hungerford Ann Montgomery Elisabeth Zinser Tom & Joy Lowell Donald & Dawn Morris Alicia MacArthur Mark A. Newberger Friends: $60-$124 Ann Macrory Philanthropic Fund of the Elizabeth Aitken Lewis & Nancy Owen Dallas Jewish Community Mary Coombs Alexis Packer Foundation Donna Gould Lorna Patterson Frank & Patricia Nichols Sandra Hendrickson Donna Ritchie Russell Otte & Sara Hopkins Andrea King-Brockman Ilana Rubenfeld Paula Phillips Susanne Krieg Herb & Mary Jean Singleton Frederick & Heather Schmidt Karen Leng Phyllis Skinner & William Earle & Vanya Sloan Barbara Mathieson Matthews John Strong Don Matthews & Judith Rosen Wayne Thomas & Carole Robert Walden Brown Deborah Mattsson Cynthia White Nancy Mendenhall Jon & Suzanne Polich Wallace & Janet Ross Dean Shutt Dean & Sarah Silver