Nightingale String Quartet

"After award-winning Langgaard recordings, the Nightingale String Quartet turns to one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996). Volume 1 in this new cycle takes in the composer’s first published quartet, his momentum momentum-fueled Quartet No. 3 and his taut Quartet No. 15 with its pathos-imbued Funeral march. These are fresh new performances that support the idea that the deeper you dig into Holmboe’s music, the more you find."

The Nightingale String Quartets survey of the complete quartet works of Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) heralded the arrival of a major new ensemble and won the maverick Danish composer thousands of new fans. Poised and restrained one minute, wild and emotional the next, Langgaards string quartets reveal the composers breathtaking originality and individuality, oscillating between luscious Romanticism and outlandish experimentation. They are played with love and understanding on these multiple prize-winning recordings, here gathered together in a single release for the first time.

The string quartets of Danish music's eccentric outsider Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) are passionate works of the composer's youth, representing both his nostalgically romantic side and his profoundly visionary modernity. For the first time on CD, this recording series presents all 9 quartets in the award-winning young Nightingale String Quartet's distinctly dramatic interpretation based on the revised Rued Langgaard Edition.

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen wrote his first three string quartets in 1959 and his 14th and last in 2013, three years before he died. This first volume in a new cycle comes from an ensemble coached by Tim Frederiksen (he who gave us the Nightingale Quartet) at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. The Nordic Quartet gave their graduation performance at the Academy last autumn.

Clarinettist Lesley Schatzberger and the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, both of whom have established well-deserved reputations for thoughtfully delivered and historically considered performances, present a new recording of works by Brahms, Mozart, Glazunov and Sweeny.