Carl Nielsen String Quartets – Vertavo

National composer of Denmark.

Carl Nielsen was a composer of great breadth – from compositions with a more classical character to a more modernist approach later in his career. As a composer he is probably most closely associated outside Denmark with his symphonies, but several of his chamber music works are still high on the international repertoire. During the time his string quartet in F minor (op. 5) was written, in the period round the year 1890, the quartet was the medium he chose for expressing his personal sentiments in full, and there is no doubt that this quartet represents a key phase in Nielsen´s development as a composer. Even though we can find evidence of Johan Svendsen´s influence in the F minor quartet as well as one or two deeply etched imprints of Brahms, we are presented here with the product of an artist with an intensely personal form of expression who has something else and much more to offer than an imitative style or attempts at achieving freedom from schematic constraints. Also in the string quartet in G minor (op. 13) the influence of Johan Svendsen is unmistakable, but even here we can recognize unmistakable signs of individuality, not least in the rhythmic treatment and in the closeness of the intervals in the finale.

Vertavo String Quartet was founded in 1984 when its original players Berit Værnes (violin) and Bjørg Værnes (cello) were both 15 years old. They were joined in 1994 by Henning Båtnes (viola) and in 1995 by Elise Båtnes (violin) and have quickly become one of Scandinavia´s most outstanding string quartets. They have won several prizes and been on extensive concert tours all over Europe in addition to Australia as well as participated at numerous international festivals.