Season Preview: Danish String Quartet

The highly sought-after Danish String Quartet returns to North America in the 2019-2020 season as one of the most prominent musical voices in the monumental celebrations of Beethoven’s 250th year. The Quartet’s fresh, inventive approach to repertoire and warm, emotional performances keep critics wanting more and audiences “flocking to witness the combination of gritty energy and expressive urgency that these four musicians put on display.” (San Francisco Chronicle) With three sweeping North American tours, the Danish thrills and delights that expansive audience, focusing its entire performance season on the towering Beethoven string quartets, alongside many important works which inspired, and were inspired by, these revered giants of the classical canon.

As part of a three-year residency with the La Jolla Music Society, the Danish String Quartet brings a series of five concerts that mirror the programs in its ongoing recording project with ECM New Series, PRISM. PRISM I, released in 2018, was nominated for a Grammy®, and the second disc in the series, PRISM II, is due out September/October 2019.

Each PRISM program is an exploration of the symbiotic musical and contextual relationships between Bach fugues, Beethoven string quartets, 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.

La Jolla Music Society
Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Saturday, November 16, 2019
PRISM I

Bach: Wohltemporierte Klavier II, Fugue no. 7 in Eb major, BWV 876 (arr. Mozart)
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144
Beethoven: String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127

Sunday, November 17, 2019
PRISM II

Bach: Fugue No. 24 in B minor, BWV869
Schnittke: String Quartet No. 3
Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat Major Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge, Op. 133

Friday, November 22, 2019
PRISM III

Bach:Fugue no. 4 in C# minor from Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV 849 (arr. Förster)
Bartok: String Quartet No. 1
Beethoven: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

Saturday, November 23, 2019
PRISM IV

Bach: Fugue no. 16 in G minor, from Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV 861 (arr. Förster)
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13
Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132

PRISM V

Bach: Fugue No. 18: Fuga a 3 soggetti; Contrapunctus XIV from Art of Fuge, BWV 1080 Webern: String Quartet (1905)
Bach: Vor deinen Thron tret' ich, BWV 668
Beethoven: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135

In February 2020, the Danish returns to North America as the featured string quartet performing the entire Beethoven cycle at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center over the course of six concerts. The following May, the Quartet returns to the United States to perform the cycle in St. Paul, MN at the Schubert Club.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center:
Friday, February 7, 2020 at 7:30PM
Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 5:00PM
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 7:30PM
Thursday, February 14, 2020 at 7:30PM
Sunday, February 16, 2020 at 5:00PM
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 7:30PM

Schubert Club:
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 7:30PM
Friday, May 8, 2020 at 7:30PM
Sunday, May 10, 2020 at 4:00PM
Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 7:30PM
Friday, May 15, 2020 at 7:30PM
Sunday, May 17, 2020 at 3:00PM

Additional North American Tour Dates:

2019:

Nov. 1 / Minneapolis, MN /American Swedish Institute
Nov. 3/Vancouver, BC/Vancouver Recital Society
Nov. 4-5/Portland, OR/Portland Friends of Chamber Music
Nov. 7/Seattle, WA/Meany Center for the Performing Arts
Nov. 8/Rohnert Park, CA/Sonoma State University
Nov. 10/Berkeley, CA/Cal Performances
Nov. 12-13/Santa Barbara, CA/UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures
Nov. 19/Irvine, CA/Philharmonic Society of Orange County

2020:

Jan. 30/Montreal, QB/Fondation Arte Musica
Jan. 31/Chicago, IL/University of Chicago
Feb. 1/Detroit, MI/Detroit Chamber Music Society
Feb. 3-5/Denver, CO/Friends of Chamber Music Denver
May 3/Boston, MA/Celebrity Series of Boston
May 4/Iowa City/University of Iowa