Scandi fab four shine a light on Beethoven, Bach and beyond

Four Scandinavian musicians are changing the way we look at Beethoven’s genius with a series of recordings

The Danish String Quartet have released Prism IV, the fourth album of their Beethoven project on the ECM label.

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The Danish String Quartet started out as a student group at music school. Three of the founding members, Rune Tonsgard Sorensen, Frederik Oland and Asjborn Norgaard, had met at a summer camp where they started playing together.

However there was one piece of music that outfoxed them.

“This late Beethoven quartet had a different flavour from that of most other music we had encountered. It felt as if it had fallen down from outer space on to our music stands, disconnected from music history and tradition,” the group says.

Later joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schoyen Sjolin, the young quartet soon attracted the attention of the ECM label’s founder and producer Manfred Eicher and they embarked on an ambitious five-disc project called Prism for which each album links a Bach fugue to a late Beethoven quartet, which is in turn connected to a quartet by a later composer. “A beam of music is split through Beethoven’s prism,” as they put it.

The Danish String Quartet's Prism IV is released in June.

Each release has been eagerly received – this is top-notch playing – and now the fourth in the series has been released. The Fugue in G minor from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book I sets things in motion, but unlike the previous albums which include 20th century works by Shostakovich, Schnittke and Bartok, this one features Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 2 which was composed and premiered within months of Beethoven’s death in 1827 and is closely modelled on the main work on this disc, the Op 132 15th quartet.

The DSQ is by now firmly established as one of the most exciting and adventurous of the young quartets on the current scene, and you only have to listen to their handling of the finale of the Beethoven work to see why – the contrasting moods and switched are handled magnificently – visceral and thrilling one moment, headstrong and joyful the next.

They can weave a spell as well – the famous adagio which Beethoven wrote as a “holy song of thanksgiving” after recovering from severe illness – is beautifully shaped and played with great sensitivity.

The performance of the Mendelssohn is equally impressive and the younger composer’s memorial to a musical giant is especially moving, particularly in the lovely slow movement.

This series is something special and by linking Beethoven’s great quartets to Bach and later composers we view these familiar works through new eyes, backing up the group’s claim that “Beethoven is not a disconnected island in music”.

I cannot recommend this album and the previous Prism series highly enough.

Prism IV is due for release on June 6 and you can pre-order it at classicsdirect.com.au for $29.95.