Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Webern
Performer: Danish String Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: ECM
Catalogue: 4858469
Release: 2023
Size: 257 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Bach: Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich, Chorale Prelude, BWV 668 (Arr. for String Quartet)
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135
02. I. Allegretto
03. II. Vivace
04. III. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
05. IV. Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß. Grave, ma non troppo tratto – Allegro
06. Webern: String Quartet
Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
07. Contrapunctus 14. Fuga a 3 Soggetti
The Danish String Quartet bring their highly acclaimed Prism project to its conclusion.
In each volume of this series a particular Bach fugue is connected to a late Beethoven quartet which, in turn, is connected to a quartet by a later master: “A beam of music is split through Beethoven’s prism,” in the Danes’ words. “The whole approach invites active, committed listening,” The Guardian observed. “The group plays with virtuosity, intensity and tenderness.”
The project has been eight years in the making. Now on the fifth and final volume, Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale prelude Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit “opens up like a flower” (as Paul Griffiths writes in the liner notes) to preface Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F major. Anton Webern’s early String Quartet, composed in 1905 – and inspired both by Beethoven and Schoenberg – follows, and the programme returns to Bach with Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of the Fugue.