United States Tanglewood Competition 2024 [9] – Numerous: Danish String Quartet (Frederik Øland, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen [violins], Asbjørn Nørgaard [viola], Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, Johannes Rostamo [cellos]). Seiji Ozawa Corridor, Lenox, 1.8.2024. (CSa)
Schubert – Quintet in C for 2 violins, viola and two cellos, D.956
Thomas Adès – Wreath for Schubert for String Quintet
Schubert (arr. Sørensen) – Die Nebensonnen from Wintereisse
Nearly 24 years in the past, London’s Nationwide Gallery determined to mount an exhibition known as Encounters: New Artwork from Outdated, wherein a gaggle of main modern artists had been invited to create a wholly new work in response to one of many world’s best collections of European work of the previous. As a part of a quest to extend consciousness of the richness of the previous works on everlasting show, latest commissions had been introduced alongside the work which had impressed them. Thus, a canvas by Louise Bourgeois sat subsequent to a seascape by J.M.W. Turner, an Anthony Caro sculpture was paired with a Renaissance masterpiece by Duccio, and a transferring video by Invoice Viola answered a static scene from Christ’s crucifixion by Hieronymus Bosch. In the same approach and for comparable causes the Danish String Quartet have, over the previous 4 years, launched into an revolutionary worldwide commissioning venture wherein modern composers have been invited to answer late main chamber works by Schubert. This has led to a sequence of performances by the group the place the premiered new work is paired with its ‘doppelgänger’ – the Schubert quartet or quintet which provoked it. The so-called DOPPELGÄNGER sequence is one thing of a misnomer. The brand new works are hardly the ghostly doubles or fateful useless ringers that the title suggests. Somewhat they’re modern-day rejoinders to, or observations on nice compositions of the previous – distinctive however intimately associated.
The Ozawa Corridor programme by the quartet’s 4 vigorous younger Danes and one honorary Finn comprised three works: Schubert’s nice Quintet in C, D.956 for 2 violins, viola and one cello, Thomas Adès’s response entitled Wreath for Franz Schubert, and one other association for quintet –Die Nebensonnen – the penultimate track from Schubert’s Wintereisse.
The music critic and author Richard Morrison lately noticed that ‘a lot classical music is about confronting loss of life…and accepting our personal mortality’, and positively mortality and imminent loss of life was the prevailing theme in all three items. The Schubert Quintet, certainly one of his best chamber works, was possibly accomplished in September 1828, two months earlier than he died, whereas loss of life in Die Nebensonnen (or The Mock Suns) hovers menacingly over Schubert’s lonely traveller as he nears the top of his winter journey. Because the title suggests, reminiscences of loss of life permeate Wreath for Franz Schubert and in Adès’s delicate, mystical one motion homage, one can detect an inconsolable sense of loss.
Regardless of the group’s comparative youth, these lanky Vikings share a collective notion and musical sensitivity past their years, enabling them to convey the programme’s underlying message with extraordinary perception. An unstuffy platform method and mild humour belie the truth that the quartet has established itself as one of the crucial distinctive chamber ensembles performing right this moment. Though their enjoying model is predicated on a deep understanding of the European custom, the gamers are against the mainstream of conventional programming. In earlier interviews they declare to have been free of the heavy weight of Russian, Hungarian and Viennese performing legacies. Their strategy to established repertoire is recent and dynamic, with a fierce consideration to element, interpretative vigour and cohesion.
All these qualities and extra had been evidenced by an totally elegant rendition of the C minor Quintet. After a number of brief introductory phrases of recommendation from violist Asbjørn Nørgaard directed at these unfamiliar with the work: ‘In case you inform individuals you’ve heard it you’ll be cool’, the 50-minute journey started with a glisteningly clear, gloriously lyrical and dramatic opening Allegro, wherein every instrumental line was completely articulated with out sacrificing total harmonic stability. Subsequent got here a serenely meditative Adagio blended with deep craving and flashes of white-hot depth. Lingering melancholy was immediately banished by the third motion, an ecstatic Scherzo, performed with joyfully rustic abandon, whereas a sturdy remaining Allegretto led to a glittering quicksilver conclusion.
The promise of recent artwork from previous got here after the interval with Adès’s Wreath adopted by Schubert’s Die Nebensonnen organized for string quintet by violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen. In Wreath, Adès investigates a single phrase from the quintet’s gradual motion and in a sequence of variations, fully transforms it. The obvious simplicity of the piece masks the inherent difficulties it poses for musicians. Adès describes it as ‘a step by step unfolding “lifespan” of entwined “blooms”, wherein the gamers are loosely coordinated, however inside particular boundaries, in order that no two performances are the identical’. A primary listening to revealed a carefully attenuated Schubertian soundworld, suggestive of rustling leaves and the unbroken ebb and stream of water, and superbly woven collectively by an individually liberated but tightly knit ensemble of grasp musicians.
In Die Nebensonnen, the 4 Danes, joined as soon as once more by cellist Johannes Rostamo recreated, briefly however vividly, the second when the wanderer rejects life and resigns himself to darkness. It marks the tragic finish of Schubert’s winter journey and was chosen to mark the top of the printed programme. Splendidly performed, it was a tragic however becoming conclusion to a night wherein the contemplation of mortality made one grateful to be alive. However there was nonetheless time for an encore: Carl Nielsen’s Underlige Aftenlufte (or Fascinated Night Air) organized by the Danish String Quartet.
Chris Sallon
Featured Picture: Danish String Quartet on the Tanglewood Competition 2024 © BSO / Hilary Scott
