Over the past decade, the Danish String Quartet has risen precipitously in the ranks of the classical world’s estimation of what a contemporary string quartet should look, behave, and sound like. Fortunately for Santa Barbara and classical music appreciators, the DSQ has also regularly interfaced with audiences here, thanks to the sponsorship of UCSB Arts & Lectures. This unofficial/official residency has included performances of new and old repertoire and the group’s sideline specialty of Scandinavian folk music.
Most impressively, the Danes have been duly engaged in such contemporary meets old masters showcases as their Beethoven-driven “Prisms” and the rewarding “Doppelgänger” series. In the latter case, taking place over the past four years, a foundation of Schubertian focus has been enmeshed with newly-commissioned works relating to Schubert in various ways and through various, well, prisms. A&L is part of a consortium of music presenters on both sides of the Atlantic who have made the series possible, along with Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, Vancouver Recital Society, Flagey in Brussels and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.
When DSQ appears at Campbell Hall on April 10, this substantial series reaches its finale with a brand-new piece by the vastly respected British composer Thomas Adès. To accommodate two quintets on the program, they’ll bring in a special fifth wheel musician for this occasion, Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo.
Contemporary classical musicians often face the dilemma of satisfying a hunger — from the audience and performers — to keep standard repertoire alive, while also addressing the wide world of gifted and exploratory living composers. Thus, the interest in new-old marriages in their series.
As violist Asbjørn Nørgaard admits, “we are always looking for ways to recontextualize the old pieces. Of course, this is somewhat in demand by audiences, but honestly, we ourselves find it a bit boring to just keep programming chamber music albums and concerts in the same way year after year.”
DSQ has called upon some of the more respected living composers on the contemporary music scene: Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski, and Anna Thorvaldsdottir. While others have loosely referenced Schubert in their new concepts, Adès shows his hand in titling his one-movement quintet piece “Wreath for Franz Schubert.” Aptly, the new music is framed by Schubert’s String Quintet in C, and “Die Nebensonnen” from Winterreise.
In writing about the new baby, Adès comments, “the players are loosely coordinated, but within specific boundaries, so that within certain limits no two performances would be the same, and the duration is flexible: between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the players, or maybe the weather. The inescapable relation to Schubert’s double-cello quintet will be clear, especially to its slow movement. At a recent (devastating) performance of it, I was fascinated over again by the role of the second cello — at once lead singer, commentator, and umpire.”
He adds, “I am most grateful to the great Danish String Quartet for giving me the time and encouragement to realize and develop this new path in my work.”
There is an ongoing mutual admiration society link between DSQ and Santa Barbara. Nørgaard states, “we tour a lot and it is a fun but also a somewhat hard life as we all have kids and families back home. Sometimes we dream of cloning a quartet, so we can be two places at once. But when we tour, it feels very good to be able to return to places. When you are returning to a place, it starts to feel more like a home.
“Arts and Lectures in Santa Barbara was one of the first promoters who took a chance and invited a very young Danish quartet a decade ago, and since then we have been returning many times. We know and love the people in Santa Barbara. We know the city, the area. It almost feels like a tiny piece of Denmark to us, even if it is quite far and different in many ways.” See Danish String Quartet on April 10 at 7 p.m. at UCSB Campbell Hall, artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/events-tickets/events/23-24/danish-string-quartet
