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 Bb 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 (composed in 1983). As the quartet
explains, “A beam of music is split through Beethoven’s prism. The
important thing to us is that these connections be experienced widely.
We hope the listener will join us in the wonder of thee beams of music
that travel all the way from Bach through Beethoven to our own times.”
Recorded in historic Reitstadel Neumarkt and produced by Manfred Eicher,
the album is issued as the Danish String Quartet embarks on a tour with
dates on both sides of the Atlantic, climaxing with a run of Prism
concerts on the West Coast of the U.S. The Quartet plays the full Prism
cycle at La Jolla Music Society over five concerts in late November.
