Knave Volume 18 No 1 2, Jan Feb 1986

The String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Opus 11, was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's first completed string quartet of three string quartets, published during his lifetime. (An earlier attempt had been abandoned after the first movement had been completed.) Composed in February 1871, it was premiered in Moscow on 16/28 March 1871 by four members of the Russian Musical Society: Ferdinand Laub and Ludvig Minkus, violins; Pryanishnikov, viola; and Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, cello.

Celebrating his 80th birthday in 2012, Per Nørgård is undoubtedly one of the most important Danish composers since Nielsen. This disc brings together his two violin concertos as well as the orchestral work Spaces of Time. The music of Helle Nacht (‘bright night’) has several transparent layers, and at each hearing the listener will be able to experience the work differently. The transparency of the music is even more pronounced in the version for chamber orchestra, created especially for Peter Herresthal.