The Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, presents the Danish String Quartet, recipient of Musical America's 2020 Ensemble of the Year, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, and coveted appointments that include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two Program and the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists program. Danish String Quartet performs on Friday, October 8 at 7:30 pm. This performance marks the return to live and in person performances at The Broad Stage.
Their eclectic repertoire includes the Mozart String Quartet No 16 in E-flat major, a Curated Suite of Dances including by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, John Adams, and Felix Blumenfeld, and a DSQ specialty -- a selection of Nordic Folk Music - about which The New York Times said, "Most rare and interesting there's deep absorption, when players enter a kind of trance, a state of euphoric joy ... for listeners, the world dissolves and we are carried along by sound. When at their best, their tone throbs with joy."
Nordic folk music is the focus of Wood Works, an album of traditional Scandinavian folk music, released by Dacapo in 2014. As a follow-up, the Danish String Quartet released Last Leaf for ECM, an album of traditional Scandinavian folk music. This recording was one of the top classical albums of 2017, as chosen by NPR, Spotify and The New York Times, among others.
Rob Bailis, artistic and executive director of The Broad Stage said, "The story of this string quartet is perhaps like none other, having been friends since boyhood and having arrived at a profound identity as an ensemble by the time they were in their teenage years -their creative and musical relationship is forged equally in lifelong friendship and the pursuit of a produced artistic vision."
"They bring a vigorous integrity to every program they research - whether it's illuminating late Beethoven with related works of Bach and Schnittke, or an exploration of Nordic folk music - their natural virtuosity, nearly telepathic communication skills, and wicked nuanced insight into the music they perform pour off the stage as easily and personably as if you had invited this group of musical powerhouses to a dinner party at your house and the conversation just sparkled for hours."
Tom Huizenga on National Public Radio said, "You don't have to be a Scandinavian musicologist to fall in love with Last Leaf, the Danish String Quartet's new album of Nordic folk songs and dances ... the Danish musicians have exceeded all expectations. In the quartet's elegant, idiomatic arrangement you can hear feet shuffling on a sawdusted dance floor and the drone of an old squeezebox."
Tickets priced from $50 to $80 are available at
www.thebroadstage.org and Patron Services at 310.434.3200. The Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center is located at 1310 Eleventh Street, Santa Monica CA 90401.
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