Danish String Quartet – Keel Road, Germany 2024 ECM Records 2785

Danish String Quartet – Keel Road

Factory sealed. New

Keel Road Review by James Manheim

The Keel Road of this album's title is, in the words of the Danish String Quartet, "a retracing of the musical pathways across the North Sea." Such a thing is not unknown to folk groups from either the British Isles or Scandinavia, who have often incorporated tunes from both regions into their performances. The Danish String Quartet has issued several albums of folk material, and one might easily imagine this material being played at European folk festivals and the like. There are traditional tunes from Denmark, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Ireland, and England. Yet this is not really a folk album; the material is expanded in the direction of classical chamber music in several ways. There are new compositions from the group's first violinist (Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen) and cellist (Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin) that depart from traditional models, and the adaptations of the music to the string quartet medium are called arrangements but, as often as not, are something more, with introductions and transitional material. There are additions of spinet, harmonium, bass, and clog fiddle (the southern Swedish träskofiol), all played by the quartet's members. Especially interesting is the inclusion of three pieces by the blind Irish musician and composer Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), who, several centuries ago, was doing something akin to what the Danish String Quartet accomplishes here. This highly recommended album comes with studio sound from ECM that exceeds even that label's usual high standards, creating an intimate, true chamber music sound. It made classical best-seller lists in the late summer of 2024