The Grammy nominated Danish String Quartet comes to Wheaton College January 26

Wheaton College Artist Series presents Danish String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 26 at Armerding Concert Hall.

On the photo: Danish String Quartet. Courtesy of: Caroline Bittencourt

The Wheaton College Artists Series is happy to introduce the Grammy nominated Danish String Quartet for their only Chicago-are appearance this season. This world-renowned ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 26 at Armerding Concert Hall, 520 E. Kenilworth Ave. in Wheaton.

"There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres," said Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosopher. Each string instrument is wonderful, but if you combine several of them together, their sound will carry you into an ocean of endless beauty and joy. And so it is with this marvelous string quartet.

“This is one of the best quartets before the public today,” said Robert Battey of The Washington Post. 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 BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and appointed to the The Bowers Program in 2013.

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. The Quartet was also awarded the 2010 NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany. In 2011, they received the Carl Nielsen Prize, the highest cultural honor in Denmark. They are the recipients of the First Prize in the Vagn Homboe String Quartet Competition and the Charles Hennen International Chamber Music Competition in the Netherlands, as well as the Audience Prize at the Trondheim International String Quartet Competition in 2005.

On the photo: Danish String Quartet. Courtesy of: Tristan Cook

The Quartet features Frederik Øland (Violin), Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (Violin), Asbjørn Nørgaard (Viola), and Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin (Cello). “The three of us, the Danes, met very early in our lives in the Danish countryside at a summer camp for enthusiastic amateur musicians,” they mentioned on their website. “Not yet teenagers, we were the youngest players, so we hung out all the time playing football and chamber music together.”

In 2001, Professor Tim Frederiksen of The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen started coaching them on a regular basis and strengthened their musicality and technical mastery. In 2008, Norwegian cellist Fredrik joined them and became a perfect match for their ensemble. The musicians are great friends, and their friendship provides the deep connection that helps them to perform in full harmony with each other.

The Danish String Quartet is a world-renowned ensemble that impresses its audiences with rare musical spontaneity, sophisticated artistry, and love for music. They perform the music of many composers and styles - from Haydn to Shostakovich to contemporary scores. The Danish String Quartet also loves to perform music of Scandinavian composers, from Carl Nielsen to Hans Abrahamsen, as well as the European classics like Mozart and Beethoven. Nordic folk music also plays an important role in their programming.

The concert will begin with String Quartet in G minor, Op. 20, No. 3 written by Franz Haydn, an Austrian composer of the Classical period. Called “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet” for his musical contributions, Haydn wrote the six string quartets, Opus 20 in 1772. The composer reached full musical maturity creating these quartets.

As Ron Drummond from Classical Net wrote, “This cannot be overstated: the six string quartets of Opus 20 are as important in the history of music and had as radically a transforming effect on the very field of musical possibility itself, as Beethoven's Third Symphony would 33 years later.” Danish String Quartet has all the necessary qualifications and skills to demonstrate the beauty and passion of String Quartet No. 3 from this opus.

The program will continue with String Quartet No. 7 in F Sharp minor, Op. 108 written in 1960 by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich. He dedicated this quartet to the memory of his first wife Nina Varzar, who died in 1954. Shostakovich was the first Russian composer who demonstrated a deep interest in writing string quartets and expressing his musical ideas through them. He composed fifteen string quartets during a period of about 40 years, and his String Quartet No. 7 demonstrates all the drama and pain that he felt after losing his wife. Danish Quartet has proven it can perform such intimate works with great emotional power and intentionality.

The first half of the concert will conclude with the Three Divertimenti for String Quartet written in 1933 (revised in 1936) by British composer Benjamin Britten. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century and certainly one of the greatest British composers of all time. The Three Divertimenti are called March, Waltz, and Burlesque, and together they represent a set of three individual character pieces with their own unique features, mood, and style. The composer was dedicated to the mission of writing music for the public, not only for a small circle of classical music experts, and Danish String Quartet promises to be faithful to the composer’s intent.

After the intermission, Danish String Quartet will perform its own arrangements of folk music, which sounds intriguing and exciting.

What could be better than spending a cold January evening listening to the sounds of string instruments?As Psalm 150:4 says, “Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flute.”

For tickets and additional information, visit https://tickets.wheaton.edu/shows/danish-string-quartet/ for online tickets or call 630-752-5010.

This concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 26 at Armerding Concert Hall located at 520 E. Kenilworth Avenue in Wheaton.

Natalia Dagenhart