Danish String Quartet

The Danish String Quartet bring their highly acclaimed Prism project to its conclusion. In each volume of this series a particular Bach fugue is connected to a late Beethoven quartet which, in turn, is connected to a quartet by a later master: "A beam of music is split through Beethoven's prism," in the Danes' words.

"The whole approach invites active, committed listening," The Guardian observed. "The group plays with virtuosity, intensity and tenderness."

The project has been eight years in the making. Now on the fifth and final volume, Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale prelude Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit "opens up like a flower" (as Paul Griffiths writes in the liner notes) to preface Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 in F major. Anton Webern's early String Quartet, composed in 1905 - and inspired both by Beethoven and Schoenberg - follows, and the programme returns to Bach with Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of the Fugue

PERSONNEL:

• Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen - (violin)
• Frederik Oland - (violin)
• Asbjorn Norgaard - (viola)
• Fredrik Schoyen Sjolin - (cello)

Recorded 2. & 3. June 2021 Festsal, KFUM/KFUK, Copenhagen

TRACKS:

• 01. Chorale Prelude "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit“ BWV 668
• String Quartet No.16 in F major op.135
• 02. Allegretto
• 03. Vivace
• 04. Assai lento, cantante e tranquillo
• 05. Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß: Grave, ma non troppo tratto – Allegro
• 06. String Quartet (1905)
• The Art of Fugue BWV 1080
• 07. Contrapunctus 14