Nielsen, Carl - String Quartets, Vol. 1 - Young Danish String Quartet, The
GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE
HÖGSTA BETYG I DAGENS NYHETER
HÖGSTA BETYG I P2:s CD-REVYN'What will the Young Danish Quartet change their name to when it no longer suits their ages? If they continue to play with such levels of vigour and originality, with a sense that the music is new and exciting to them, a name-change may not be considered necessary at all. There is wisdom and subtlety here aplenty but the over-riding impression is of a quartet young and stylistically free.'
(Gramophone)
"...hur bra som helst"
(Vi)
• Carl Nielsen thrust Danish music into the 20th century, and his chamber music has a prominent position in the international repertoire. In spite of this Carl Nielsen only composed a limited number of chamber works for strings. His official oeuvre includes four string quartets with an opus number; however three of them were already composed before 1900.
• While today it is hard to draw any great distinctions among these four Nielsen quartets in terms of popularity, it was a different matter in his own time, when the earliest, the G minor quartet, was by far the least frequently performed, while the next one, in F minor, and the last, in F major, vied for a definitive first place, probably because they both belonged to the regular repertoire of well established ensembles
• This recording features two of his string quartets (in G minor and F major) and the only string quintet (in G major) he ever composed. All three works played a central role in Carl Nielsen's musical career, since they were major successes for the debuting composer and contributed to his initial breakthrough.
Tim Frederiksen, viola
The Young Danish String Quartet