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Danish String Quartet

Keel Road

ECM
Release Date: August 30, 2024

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Once a Shoemaker
1 Mabel Kelly  
2 Pericondine - Fair Isle Jig  
3 Stormpolskan  
4 En Skomager Har Jeg Vaeret  
5 Once a Shoemaker.  
6 Lovely Joan  
7 Carrolans Quarrel with the Landlady  
8 Regin Smidur  
9 Captain O'Kane  
10 Kjolhalling  
11 Planxty Kelly  
12 As I walked out  
13 Marie Louise - The Chat - Gale  
14 Nar Mitt Oye  
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Keel Road is the latest chapter in the Danish String Quartet’s reckoning with music from – or inspired by – northern folk and traditional sources, rounding off a decade of sustained engagement with the genre. Wood Works, issued in 2014 on the Danish Dacapo label gave notice of the extent of the DSQ’s commitment to folk, explored in parallel with their classical activities, and Last Leaf, released in 2017 on ECM New Series took the story further. A resounding success with press and public, Last Leaf ranked high amongst albums of the year at NPR, The New York Times and Gramophone, the latter magazine suggesting this might be “the best album of folk ditties from a string quartet you’ll ever hear”, an assertion now challenged by Keel Road. 

Once again, the group casts its associative net wide: “We set out on a musical journey that traverses the North Sea. For centuries, the main communication channel of Northern Europe, the highway and the internet of bygone eras. And even though known for its swift upsurges and strong gales, brave sailors would again and again travel the keel road, enabling a continuous exchange of goods, culture and music. The musical keel road of this album will take us from Denmark and Norway to shores far away: to the Faroe Islands, to Ireland and England.” The journey illuminates musical affinities as well as distinctions. “While folk music represents local traditions and local stories, it is also the music of everywhere and everyone. At the end of the day, our stories and our music remain closely connected.

  • There are no weak links on the Danish String Quartet's 'Keel Road'
    Posted At: September 3, 2024 12:00 AM
    The DSQ writes……As a string quartet, we find ourselves at the core of the classical music world. On a daily basis, we delve into works by great masters such as Beethoven and Mozart, but we also play the occasional folk music gig. Over the years we have been fortunate to study in many different places, in masterclasses with renowned teachers and have had opportunities to perform in major concert halls across...
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  • In advance of the Colorado Music Festival, Danish String Quartet violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sorenson chats with 88.5KGNU
    Posted At: July 25, 2024 12:00 AM
    88.5KGNU'S Anya Sanchez writes….KGNU’s Sanford Baran interviews Rune Tonsgaard Sorenson, a violinist from the Danish String Quartet, known for their mix of classical and folk music. Sorenson shares his musical journey and his early love for the violin. He discusses the quartet’s formation in 1998 and highlights their diverse repertoire, which includes both classical and folk music, and their creative proces...
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  • Danish String Quartet performs: 'Once a shoemaker' from upcoming 'Keel Road'/ theStrad
    Posted At: July 22, 2024 12:00 AM
    Keel Road is the latest chapter in the Danish String Quartet’s reckoning with music from – or inspired by – northern folk and traditional sources, rounding off a decade of sustained engagement with the genre. Wood Works, issued in 2014 on the Danish Dacapo label gave notice of the extent of the DSQ’s commitment to folk, explored in parallel with their classical activities, and Last Leaf, released in 2017 on...
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  • Danish String Quartet caps off 10 year Santa Barbara residency w/Thomas Ades premiere / Santa Barbara Independent
    Posted At: April 1, 2024 12:00 AM
    The Danish String Quartet plays at UCSB Campbell Hall on April 10. Santa Barbara Independent's Josef Woodard writes…..Over the past decade, the Danish String Quartet has risen precipitously in the ranks of the classical world’s estimation of what a contemporary string quartet should look, behave, and sound like. Fortunately for Santa Barbara and classical music appreciators, the DSQ has also regularly ...
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  • Danish String Quartet returns to Orange County to perform Haydn, Schubert, and Shostakovich / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: March 25, 2024 12:00 AM
    This concert is part of the Distinctive Experiences co-presented with the Irvine Barclay Theatre and sponsored by Sam B. and Lyndie Ersan.BroadwayWorld's A.A. Cristi writes…..Danish String Quartet Returns To Orange County Performing Works Of Haydn, Schubert, And ShostakovichThe Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Irvine Barclay Theatre present the return of the fan-favorite Danish String Quartet, for ...
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  • Danish String Quartet return to PUC with Haydn, Purcell, Shostakovich, and Scandinavian folk music / TOWN TOPICS
    Posted At: October 25, 2023 12:00 AM
    Danish String Quartet  write…..As a string quartet, we find ourselves at the core of the classical music world. On a daily basis, we delve into works by great masters such as Beethoven and Mozart, but we also play the occasional folk music gig.        Over the years we have been fortunate to study in many different places, in masterclasses with renowned teachers and have had opportu...
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  • The Celebrity Series of Boston presents the Danish String Quartet at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall / WBUR
    Posted At: January 18, 2023 12:00 AM
    As a string quartet the Danish String Quartet ( Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (violin), Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin (cello), Asbjørn Nørgaard (viola), Frederik Øland (violin) find themselves at the core of the classical music world. They write…….On a daily basis, we delve into works by great masters such as Beethoven and Mozart, but we also play the occasional folk music gig.Over the years we have been fortunate ...
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  • One cannot question the Danish String Quartet's finesse, scrupulous attention to detail, and musical integrity on Prism III / ClassicsToday
    Posted At: April 27, 2021 12:00 AM

    ClassicsToday's Jed Distler writes.....It is fitting that the Danish String Quartet programs Beethoven's C-sharp minor quartet Op. 131 alongside Bartók's Quartet No. 1, for their commonalities are revealing. Each work's movements play continuously without interruption. And just as Beethoven begins his quartet with a brooding, intensely building fugue, Bartók accurately described his wor...
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  • The New York Times - Best Classical Music of 2020
    Posted At: December 3, 2020 12:00 AM

    Trying to Keep the Art Form Going "Then everything stopped." This was the grimly honest way the mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges described to me what happened this year - to her fast-rising career, and to all of classical music after the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of opera houses and concert halls everywhere. Careers were halted, incomes decimated; musicians with coveted orchestra jobs faced ...
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  • DSQ is set for complete Beethoven SQ cycle at CMS / PLAYBILL
    Posted At: February 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    David Finckel, co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, noticed their style first. Four men, walking onto the stage of CMS's Rose Studio in 2012, had a wildness about them. "They looked like Scandinavian cowboys," Finckel recalls. These "cowboys" were the Danish String Quartet (DSQ), auditioning for a place in CMS's young artist program (now called The Bowers Program)....
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  • Danish String Quartet celebrates Beethoven's 250th in twin cities / Minneapolis Star Tribune
    Posted At: December 28, 2019 12:00 AM

    The year will be packed with events marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Top pick for Twin Cities audiences is the complete cycle of the composer's string quartets, which the Danish String Quartet is playing for the Schubert Club. Spread over six recitals May 6-17 at various venues, these 16 quartets are history-making masterpieces where Beethoven entered regions of the human spiri...
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  • Danish String Quartet 'Prism II' makes 105.9:WQXR 'Best Classical Recordings of 2019'
    Posted At: December 17, 2019 12:00 AM

    As a decade that has brought its fair share of ups and downs comes to a close, it's hard to be anything but amazed by one enormous plus: the sheer volume of exceptional new classical recordings that hit the shelves in the 2010s. The last year has been a fitting culmination, chock-full of brilliant reinterpretations of old favorites and bold ventures into new musical frontiers. Here are our favorites of 2...
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  • Danish String Quartet will accept musical america's prestigious award for 'Ensemble of the Year'
    Posted At: October 17, 2019 12:00 AM

    On December 4th, the Danish String Quartet will accept Musical America's prestigious award for Ensemble of the Year. The announcement was made earlier this week, and comes just a month after the release of volume 2 of the DSQ's acclaimed Prism series of recordings for ECM New Series, each pairing one of the late Beethoven Quartets with a Bach Fugue and a quartet by a later master. "One awaits...
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  • The Danish String Quartet - Prism is the WFMT: 'Featured New Release'
    Posted At: October 9, 2019 12:00 AM

    The Danish String Quartet's Grammy-nominated Prism project links Bach fugues, late Beethoven quartets, and works by modern masters. In volume two of the series, Bach's Fugue in B-flat minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier (in the arrangement by Viennese composer Emanuel Aloys Förster) is brought together with Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 130, and Alfred Schnittke's String Quartet No. 3. As the qua...
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