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Danish String Quartet
20th Anniversary Season
U.S. Tour April 13-21, 2023
Doppelgänger III
"Rituals" by Anna Thorvaldsdottir - U.S. Premiere
Apr 13, 2023 / Santa Barbara, CA / UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures
Apr 14, 2023 / Berkeley, CA / Cal Performances
Apr 16, 2023 / / Vancouver, BC, Canada / Vancouver Recital Society
Apr 18, 2023 / Madison, WI / University of Wisconsin, Madison
Apr 20, 2023 / New York, NY / Carnegie Hall
Apr 21, 2023 / Washington, DC / Washington Performing Arts
ECM Releases PRISM V on April 14, 2023
Final Disc of PRISM Series
Beethoven - Webern - Bach
New York, NY: March 21, 2023 -- The Danish String Quartet, celebrating its 20th Anniversary season, brings the third round of the Quartet's four-year project, DOPPELGÄNGER, to the U.S. in April. The project pairs world premiere commissions with major works from Schubert's masterful chamber music repertoire, and DOPPELGÄNGER III features the U.S. premiere of "Rituals" by Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The Quartet performs the new program on the West Coast in Santa Barbara, Berkeley and Vancouver, and on the East Coast in New York and Washington, DC. The tour also includes a stop in Madison, WI, with a program of Haydn, Shostakovich, and Britten, along with new material from their forthcoming ECM recording of Nordic and Northern European folk tunes, due out later this year.
U.S. Concert Dates, April 2023
Thursday, April 13, 7 pm | Santa Barbara, CA
UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures | Tickets & Info
Doppelgänger III
SCHUBERT String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”
SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR "Rituals" (US Premiere)
SCHUBERT (arr. Danish String Quartet): Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
Friday, April 14 | Berkeley, CA
Cal Performances | Tickets & Info
Doppelgänger III
SCHUBERT String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”
SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR "Rituals"
SCHUBERT (arr. Danish String Quartet): Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
Sunday, April 16, 3 pm | Vancouver, BC, Canada
Vancouver Recital Society | Tickets & Info
Doppelgänger III
SCHUBERT String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”
SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR "Rituals"
SCHUBERT (arr. Danish String Quartet): Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
Tuesday, April 18 | Madison, WI
Wisconsin Union | Tickets & Info
HAYDN Quartet No. 26 in G Minor, Op. 20, No. 3
SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 7 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 108
BRITTEN: 3 Divertimenti for String Quartet
Danish String Quartet (arr) : Folk Music
Thursday, April 20, 7:30 pm | New York, NY
Carnegie Hall | Tickets & Info
Doppelgänger III
SCHUBERT String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”
SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR "Rituals" (New York Premiere)
SCHUBERT (arr. Danish String Quartet): Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
Friday, April 21, 7:30 pm | Washington, DC
Washington Performing Arts | Tickets & Info
SCHUBERT String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”
SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR "Rituals"
SCHUBERT (arr. Danish String Quartet): Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
Programs subject to change
"The whole approach invites active, committed listening,...The group plays with virtuosity, intensity and tenderness.” -- The Guardian
PRISM V to be released by ECM on April 14
Bach, Beethoven and Anton Webern
PRISM V on ECM Website
Press Release
Streaming preview available upon request
PRISM V brings the highly acclaimed PRISM project to a close. In each volume of this ECM series, a Bach fugue was connected to a late Beethoven quartet which, in turn, was connected to a quartet by a later master: “A beam of music is split through Beethoven’s prism,” in the words of the Quartet.
On PRISM V, Bach’s chorale prelude Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit “opens up like a flower” (as Paul Griffiths writes in the liner notes) to preface Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F major. Anton Webern’s early String Quartet, composed in 1905—and inspired by both Beethoven and Schoenberg—follows, and the program returns to Bach with Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of the Fugue.
Throughout the series the Quartet has emphasized that “late Beethoven is not a disconnected island in music,” but rather “a continuation from Bach and the old masters,” which, furthermore, points toward the future. Previous recordings in the series have addressed the influence of late Beethoven on Shostakovich, Schnittke, Bartók and Mendelssohn.
"The music on these albums is delightfully complex and open-ended…A late quartet by Beethoven is an incredibly intricate piece of art. One can spend a lifetime zooming in on every inch of the score and still find new details. Each bar, each moment is a maze of possible interpretational paths…”
--Danish String Quartet, PRISM V Performers' Note
"Since making their teenage debut in 2002, the musicians of the Danish Quartet have risen to the pinnacle of their profession but have never lost their expansive sense of wonder."
The Strad