These cuts make for a barely shorter efficiency, maybe not even simply observed by an off-the-cuff listener, however not a materially completely different expertise. Extra hanging was the enjoying itself, in each the “Rosamunde” and the “Quartettsatz”: unshowy, tender with an ember glow, charismatically dancing. Phrases have been handed round with ease; rhythms and voices doubled seamlessly. At any given second there was, as David Allen lately noticed in The New York Instances, the impression that every word had been thought of. This was ensemble music at its purest — a consensus interpretation, rendered selflessly in service of the group as instrument.
Thorvaldsdottir’s “Rituals” wasn’t written as a direct response to Schubert, however within the context of Thursday’s program it got here off as one thing of a distant cousin; her work is much less excited about repeating complete passages, however like her Viennese predecessor she obsesses right here over gestures, reshaping them, foregrounding and obscuring them, layering them in explorations of counterpoint and compatibility.
Learn into the title what you’ll: day by day routines, ceremonies, faith. All of them are implied within the piece’s 9 sections — successfully made 11 by two “Ascension” interludes with the wealthy concord of a chorale and the serene lyricism of a hymn. The segments move into each other with out pause, apart from some written rests, and unfold organically, every little motif launched then recurring in a brand new guise.
Initially are sputtering bows and glissando slides over a droning basis that’s sometimes constructed out into briefly sustained, then shifting chords. These textures — others come alongside, together with percussive col legno and open fifths that flip regular floor into weightless suspension — glide among the many devices, a vocabulary ordered then reordered, at all times expressing a recent thought. Thorvaldsdottir, in a mode characteristically summary but suggestive, might extend an concept like this advert infinitum. However at 21 minutes, her rating speaks with poetic concision, ending earlier than it has overstated its level.
About poetry: The Danes concluded their recital with a Schubertian association of “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” during which the primary violin acted because the soprano. However additionally they launched a fifth instrument, a music field. As Oland turned its deal with, the machine spun out a roll of paper punched with the swirling piano line — seeming to repeat itself however, in its small adjustments, irresistibly transferring.
Danish String Quartet
Carried out on Thursday at Zankel Corridor, Manhattan.