David Dalle
Thursday August 1st, 2024 with David Dalle
The Danish String Quartet, Cris Derksen, Moneka Arabic Jazz, Raphael Weinroth-Browne at the Ottawa Chamberfest! Tickets to give away!

In 1994, two great musical institutions were founded in Ottawa. The Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and, with much less fanfare, the David Dalle Show on CKCU. We are both celebrating our 30th anniversary this year! Over these 30 years, I have attended countless concerts at the Chamberfest including some of the best musical experiences in my life! This year, one of the highlights is the return of the Danish String Quartet, comprised of three Danes: Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin, Frederik Øland, violin, Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola and Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin. Aside from their stellar and bold ability as musicians, the most remarkable thing about them is their extremely creative programming. I have mentioned this many times before, that classical music programming tends to be very dull and unimaginative, and it is one of the areas most primed for revolutionary change. Artists who have pursued truly imaginative, thoughtful and artistic programming in performance and recordings have been featured prominently on my show, such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Igor Levit, Christina Petrowska Quilico and a few others, including the Danish String Quartet. They also have had the great fortune to find a recording home with ECM, one of the most innovative music labels. As befitting these qualities, they've embarked on several multi-year projects such as Prism, which links Bach fugues, Beethoven's five late quartets, and more recent quartets. They've described it as "A beam of music is split through Beethoven’s prism. The important thing to us is that these connections be experienced widely. We hope the listener will join us in the wonder of these beams of music that travel all the way from Bach through Beethoven to our own times.” We have heard several installments of Prism on previous shows. Tomorrow in Ottawa we are very fortunate to have the Danish String Quartet present the fourth and final part of their Doppelgänger project. This four year project paired a work by Franz Schubert with a world premiere of a complementary work by four different composers: Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Thomas Adès. The final part couples Schubert's String Quintet--which I believe is the greatest music for five instruments in existence--with a new string quintet by English composer Thomas Adès. They have not recorded this project yet, hopefully they will with ECM! I first heard, and was completely swept away by, Schubert's String Quintet at the Chamberfest many, many years ago! The Danish String Quartet will be joined by Finnish cellist Joahnnes Rostamo tomorrow evening in Ottawa. A concert not to be missed! https://www.chamberfest.com/event/2024/danish-string-quartet-with-johannes-rostamo-schubert-ades/