Staff Report
The Danish String Quartet will return to play a masterful program of Haydn, Mozart, Widmann and Brahms based on the theme of “The Hunt” at 7 p.m. on Fri., Feb. 23, at UCSB Campbell Hall.
The members of the quartet, the favorite “Fab Four” of UCSB Arts & Lectures, find themselves at the core of today’s classical music world, beloved by critics and audiences across the globe who celebrate their “technically adroit and vibrant playing” (The New York Times) as much as the infectious joy they bring to music-making.
Fierce friends who have been playing together since childhood, these darlings of A&L’s Chamber Arts series will return to Santa Barbara with the same irresistible energy that thrills audiences worldwide.
Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a music summer camp where they played both soccer and music together, eventually making the transition into a serious string quartet in their teens and studying at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy of Music. In 2008 the three Danes were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin.
The Danish String Quartet has established a reputation for its integrated sound, impeccable intonation and judicious balance. With its technical and interpretive talents matched by an infectious joy for music-making and “rampaging energy” (The New Yorker), the quartet is in demand worldwide.
The quartet’s recent debut recording on ECM Records features works of Danish composers Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård and English composer Thomas Adés and received five stars from The Guardian, praised as “an exacting program requiring grace, grit and clarity, and the Danish players sound terrific … It’s a sophisticated performance.”
The recording debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard Classical Chart and continues to earn international acclaim. In addition to their commitment to highlighting Scandinavian composers, the Danish String Quartet derive great pleasure in traditional Nordic folk music. Their next album will be released in September 2017.
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at 805-893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
