Featuring the U.S. premiere of Wreath – For Franz Schubert, a new work by composer Thomas Adès.
The group will be joined by cellist Johannes Rostamo for the eagerly anticipated capstone to its four part Doppelgänger Project
Courtesy photo.
SUMMARY
- Wed, April 10 | 7 p.m. | Campbell Hall
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- Joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo for the eagerly-anticipated capstone to their international Doppelgänger Project
- This can’t miss program features the U.S. Premiere of Wreath – For Franz Schubert, a Thomas Adès composition co-commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures
- Program also features Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
- $65 / $45 / $25 / $15 UCSB students (Current student ID required)
- Tickets & Info: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
“There are simply two kinds of string quartets: the Danish, and the others.” Boston Classical Review
“Some of the most essential listening of the past decade” The New York Times
“Phrases were passed around with ease; rhythms and voices doubled seamlessly…This was ensemble music at its purest – a consensus interpretation, rendered selflessly in service of the group as instrument.” The New York Times on Doppelgänger III at Carnegie Hall, 2023
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the Danish String Quartet on Wednesday, April 10 at 7 p.m. at Campbell Hall. The Danish String Quartet is joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo for the eagerly-anticipated capstone to their international Doppelgänger Project. In part IV, the Danish pairs Schubert’s String Quintet, frequently cited among the greatest of all works of chamber music, with a new piece titled Wreath – For Franz Schubert by renowned British composer Thomas Adès. Part III of the project was heralded by The New York Times as “ensemble music at its purest – a consensus interpretation, rendered selflessly in service of the group as instrument.”
Program
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
Thomas Adès: Wreath – For Franz Schubert (A&L co-commission)
Schubert (arr. Danish String Quartet): Lied to be announced
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Danish String Quartet return to North America in April to perform the fourth and final installment of their Doppelgänger series, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project that pairs a new work with its “doppelgänger” – the Schubert quartet or quintet that inspired it. In this Doppelgänger concert, the Quartet is joined by the versatile Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo (principal cellist in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra) to perform a new quintet by renowned British composer Thomas Adès, Wreath – for Franz Schubert, alongside Schubert’s final chamber work, the masterful String Quintet in C major, considered one of the classical canon’s greatest pieces of chamber music.
The Quartet have had a long relationship with Adès’s music, having recorded his Arcadianaquartet on their debut ECM CD (2016), and featuring his Four Quartets concerts earlier this year. About this new work, Adès writes in his program note:
Wreath – for Franz Schubert is a single-movement work for string quintet. The central string trio of violin, viola and cello play arco throughout, a gradually unfolding “lifespan” of entwined “blooms.” The outer violin and cello outline them in pizzicato. 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 fifteen and thirty 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. 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.
The Doppelgänger project previously featured works by Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski and Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The new works have been commissioned by the Danish String Quartet with the support of Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, Vancouver Recital Society, Flagey in Brussels and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.
ABOUT THE DANISH STRING QUARTET
The Danish String Quartet celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, and the Grammy-nominated quartet continues to assert its preeminence among the world’s finest string quartets. Formed when they were in their teens, they are renowned for impeccable musicianship, sophisticated artistry, exquisite clarity of ensemble and, above all, an unmatched ability to play as one. Performances are characterized by a rare musical spontaneity, giving audiences the sense of hearing even treasured canon repertoire as if for the first time. They exude a palpable joy in music-making that has made them one of today’s most highly acclaimed and in-demand classical quartets, performing to sold-out concert halls around the world. Their inventive and intriguing programming and repertoire choices have produced critically acclaimed original projects and commissions as well as popular arrangements of Scandinavian folk music.
This season, the Danish String Quartet completes its Doppelgänger series, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project. Doppelgänger pairs world premieres from four renowned composers – Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Thomas Adès – with late major chamber works by Schubert. Each season, the Quartet performs a world premiere on a program with its doppelgänger – the Schubert quartet or quintet that inspired it – culminating in 2024 in the premiere of Wreath, a quintet by Adès, after the String Quintet in C Major. The Doppelgänger pieces are commissioned by the Danish String Quartet with the support of Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, Vancouver Recital Society, Flagey in Brussels and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. The 2023-2024 season sees them on tour in eighteen cities in the USA and Canada and venues in Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Brussels, Italy and their home of Denmark.
The Danish String Quartet’s most recent recording project is Prism, a series of five discs on ECM New Series that explores the symbiotic musical and contextual relationships between Bach fugues, Beethoven string quartets and works by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Bartok, Mendelssohn and Webern. In a review of the final release, Prism V, the New York Times critic David Allen wrote “these releases must qualify as some of the most essential listening of the past decade.” The Quartet’s discography reflects the ensemble’s special affinity for Scandinavian composers, with the complete quartets of Carl Nielsen (DaCapo, 2007 and 2008) and Adès, Nørgård and Abrahamsen, on their ECM debut in 2016. They also released two discs of traditional Scandinavian folk music, Wood Works (Dacapo, 2014) and Last Leaf (ECM, 2017), which was one of the top classical albums of the year, as chosen by NPR, Spotify and The New York Times, among others.
The Quartet takes an active role in reaching new audiences through special projects. In 2007, they established the DSQ Festival, which takes place in intimate and informal settings in Copenhagen. In 2016, they inaugurated a concert series, Series of Four, in which they both perform and invite colleagues to appear.
They are the recipients of many awards and prestigious appointments, including Musical America’s 2020 Ensemble of the Year and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. The Quartet was named in 2013 as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and appointed to The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). The Quartet was then awarded the 2010 NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany and in 2011 they received the Carl Nielsen Prize, the highest cultural honor in Denmark.
Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørenson and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a music summer camp where they played soccer and made music together. As teenagers, they began the study of classical chamber music and were mentored by Tim Frederiksen of Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 2008, the three Danes were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin.
ABOUT JOHANNES ROSTAMO
Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo is a versatile musician, interested in all forms of musical communication from early baroque to contemporary music, jazz and folk. He has served as principal cellist in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since 2008 and as professor of cello at Royal College of Music in Stockholm since 2022. He also has an active career as soloist, chamber musician and baroque musician. In addition, Rostamo is the artistic leader of Orfeus Barock Stockholm with a concert series in Grünewaldsalen, Stockholm.
Rostamo enjoys creating projects, such as the latest CelloCelloCello, a solo project where he presents the timeline of his instrument from the 17th century to the contemporary music of today, combining baroque and modern cello. He is also a founding member of the chamber music concept Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble which experiments on the concert form itself and collaborates with musicians and artists of all genres. Since 2011, this acclaimed group has had concert series in Stockholm and their albums Moveable Feast (Channel Classics) and Voices of Angels (BIS) were both received with the highest praise. During the summer season, Rostamo is a recurrent guest at major chamber music festivals throughout Europe.
As a soloist, he appears regularly with orchestras in the Nordic countries. His recording of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Cello Concerto in A Minor with Orfeus Barock Ensemble received a Swedish Grammy nomination. His recording of Joonas Kokkonen´s cello concerto with conductor Paul Mägi and the KMH Symphony Orchestra live in Tallinn in 2006 was released by Academus.
Apart from his work in Stockholm, he is often invited to work as guest principal cellist in orchestras as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Les Siécles (Paris), Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Camera Bern. In addition, he is a regular guest in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
He studied music in Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo and the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) with professors Heikki Rautasalo, Torleif Thedéen, Truls Mörk, Frans Helmerson and Hatto Beyerle. In addition, he has studied baroque cello with Emmanuel Balssa, Bruno Cocset and Gaetano Nasillo.
Rostamo plays a cello built by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona in 1698, generously loaned to him by Conni Jonsson.
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
Danish String Quartet is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures in association with UCSB Department of Music.
Event Sponsor: Anonymous
Tickets are $65 / $45 / $25 / $15 UCSB students (Current student ID required).
For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2023-2024 season.