Den Danske Strygekvartet

The Danish String Quartet are recurring guests at the Mogens Dahl Concert Hall, this time presenting a concert as part of their four-year project, “Doppelgänger.” In this project, they juxtapose newly commissioned works with late chamber music compositions by Franz Schubert.

This evening’s program pairs Bent Sørensen’s “Doppelgänger” for string quartet (2020) with Schubert’s magnificent final string quartet, No. 15 in G major.

Bent Sørensen was captivated by this late Schubert quartet as early as 1981, making it a natural choice for him to consider when he received the commission from The Danish String Quartet. The commission implicitly suggested that the new work should, in some way, reference one of Schubert’s late quartets.

However, direct musical references are nearly non-existent, apart from the shared key (G major) and some distinctive chord transformations. The piece also features a fugue, which Sørensen crafted with Schubert’s struggles with fugal writing in mind. In this way, Sørensen’s quartet becomes a “Doppelgänger” to Schubert’s work—hence the title, which also alludes to the two movements of the piece that mirror each other on several levels.

Finally, The Danish String Quartet will perform their own arrangement of Schubert’s enigmatic lied “Der Doppelgänger,” where the restless nocturnal wanderer suddenly finds himself face to face with—himself! This is underscored in the music by a chord that, like a Janus head, points in multiple directions.


Program:

Franz Schubert (1797–1828):
String Quartet No. 15 in G major

INTERMISSION

Bent Sørensen (1958–):
Doppelgänger for string quartet (2020)

Franz Schubert (1797–1828):
Der Doppelgänger (arr. The Danish String Quartet)


Before each concert, the café opens at 7:00 PM, where refreshments can be purchased, and pre-orders for the intermission can conveniently be made. The doors to the concert hall open at 7:15 PM.

Learn more at Mogensdahl.dk

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