Danish String Quartet

The Danish String Quartet is an elite chamber-music group by any definition, an unusually ambitious quartet teeming with personality and programmatic insights that make them magnetic in any setting. The Boston Globe touched on how special they are in a review that described “a concert that was as comprehensively rewarding as any chamber-music performance in recent memory… Do not lose track of this group: Even by today’s high standards, it offers something very special.” That’s the truth; in a musical landscape with more high-level talent than most people have time to absorb, it’s worth taking note when groups are routinely described as in a league of their own. This is one of those groups.

In their return to Boston, the Danish String Quartet will present a uniquely curated suite of dances—filling the standard movements such as allemande, courante, and sarabande with works by composers ranging from from Marc-Antoine Charpentie to John Adams; and, finally, Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in G Major, D.887, called his “last and greatest work” (Gramophone).

Frederik Øland, violin

Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin

Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola

Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello

Benjamin Britten               Three Divertimenti

‘An alleged suite’, a curated suite of dances:

Prelude                        Marc-Antoine Charpentier      Prelude
Allemande                   John Adams    Pavane: She’s so fine
Courante                     Trad. Polski
Sarabande                  Felix Blumenfeld         Sarabande
Gavotte                       John Adams    Stubble Crotchet
Gigue 1                       Marc-Antoine Charpentier      Gigue Francaise
Gigue 2                       John Adams    Toot Nipple

Franz Schubert                 String Quartet in G Major, D.887