Program

GABRIELLA SMITH: Carrot Revolution 
SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 142
Traditional Folk Songs of Scandinavia (arranged by Danish String Quartet)

Musicians

FREDERIK ØLAND, violin; RUNE TONSGAARD SØRENSEN, violin); ASBJØRN NØRGAARD, viola; FREDRIK SCHØYEN SJÖLIN, cello

The Danish String Quartet, renowned throughout the world for their continually inventive music-making, return to DACAMERA with an exciting and inspired program.

The electrifying virtuosity of the Danes is immediately on display in Carrot Revolution, a dazzling quartet by Gabriella Smith ( “an outright sensation”-The Los Angeles Times). The quartet’s inception also holds the seeds of DACAMERA’s season theme. The American composer  writes, “I envisioned Carrot Revolution as a celebration of that spirit of fresh observation and of new ways of looking at old things, such as the string quartet – a 250-year-old genre – as well as some of my even older musical influences (Bach, Perotin, Gregorian chant, Georgian folk songs, and Celtic fiddle tunes).”

The mood shifts to the drama of Shostakovich’s F-sharp Minor Quartet, a powerful center to the program, before concluding with the Danish Quartet’s signature arrangements of Northern European folk songs— a worldwide audience favorite. From the infectious spirit of the concert’s opening to this original and moving conclusion, this concert provides a compelling exploration of the age-old power of music, transformed into a string quartet concert for today.