One of the more renewable satisfying and sublime traditions in Santa Barbara’s classical music culture has been the long-standing residency-like returns of the Danish String Quartet (DSQ), considered in many circles to be one of the very finest and more thoughtful string quartets in the known world.
Each occasion has been marked by some special programming twist and treat. Last year, they mixed up classical repertoire with Danish folk music strains from their ECM album Keen Road (listen here). This year, on April 10 at The Granada Theatre (a step upward from their usual Campbell Hall locale), the DSQ returns with a rich program, joined by the Danish Girls’ Choir.
The Granada program features resonances of past and present string quartet concerts, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The program features some Danish folk music, music of American composer Caroline Shaw, significant Danish composer Bent Sørensen, Schubert, (Death and the Maiden) and Icelandic composer-of-note Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Þann heilaga kross. Thorvaldsdottir’s Rituals was one of four commissioned pieces in the quartet’s Doppelgänger Project — which two years ago featured the U.S. premiere of a fascinating piece by the prominent British composer Thomas Adès.
This is also a high season for famed string quartets giving premieres in our town. At this concert, the DSQ will offer the U.S. premiere of Bang on a Can–er David Lang’s in wildness (an A&L co-commission), just a few weeks before the mighty Kronos Quartet gives the West Coast premiere of the ambitious new piece Three Bones, with pipa player Wu Man along, at Campbell Hall on May 2.
The members of the group, in collusion since their youthful days 25 years ago, seem as down-to-earth as they are serious, trafficking in some lofty musical terrain. In an interview, DSQ violist Asbjørn Nørgaard said, “We don’t have a manifesto and we don’t preach. We are still just some Scandinavian dudes who love what a string quartet can do. Some of the greatest works of art crafted by humanity happen to be music composed for string quartet. And if no one plays this music, it would be like losing Mona Lisa or if the Sistine Chapel suddenly evaporated. But the string quartet, as an ensemble, is also just capable of so many things.
“We have seen what groups such as the Kronos Quartet, the Jack Quartet, and Brooklyn Rider are doing. We would find ourselves bored if we didn’t constantly try to push the limits of what our quartet can do.”
Yes, Denmark’s relationship with the United States has grown bizarrely strange, and strained, thanks to the oil-hungry madness pouring forth from the current White House. But absurd political maneuvering and power grabs aside, Denmark has long been a cultural hot spot, globally, and has a local stake in the Danish village of Solvang. The DSQ is one of the nation’s present points of well-earned pride.
Nørgaard expresses the group’s own sense of pride, in their musical mission and also the format they have devoted their creative lives to. As he opines, “We do believe that a string quartet is simply a brilliant, flexible ensemble that can comfortably navigate music of all times and genres. Today, so much of classical music is anchored in ‘institutions’ — the opera, the symphony. They are great and all. But with a string quartet, you get really close. Four humans, acoustic instruments, that’s all. If you are in a room with a string quartet, everything can happen.”
See the Danish String Quartet and Danish National Girls’ Choir on Friday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at The Granada Theatre (1214 State St.) See bit.ly/4bZ3TiD.
