Page 175 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

The Danish String Quartet.

These players have a stated mission to keep the quartet repertoire fresh. They tackle
Beethoven’s hallowed late work (which has the Heiliger Dankgesang, song of
thanksgiving, in the third movement) with a sense of adventure and freedom rather
than weighty reverence. Precise, lithe, flexible, their performance might not replace the
many great interpretations out there – from the Busch to the Takács Quartets and
beyond, depending on taste – but for vitality and humanity, keep this one by you.

If you haven’t heard it yet, Grace Williams’s Sea Sketches (1944), suddenly on everyone’s
repertoire list, will open the BBC National Orchestra of Wales’s live concert from
the Aldeburgh festival, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Also features a new work by
Gavin Higgins. BBC Radio 3, Friday, 7.30pm/BBC Sounds.