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Danish Saxophone Quartet (= DSQ) was formed in 1986. And for many years now, the quartet has been specializing in the performance of contemporary music. On their two compact discs dedicated to the subject, they unfurl a number of the more than one hundred and fifty different pieces of music which have been composed expressly for the quartet. These pieces display colors illuminating a myriad of nuances of saxophone timbres and modes of performance, with styles that range from intimate minimalism to super-complex structural music.
In addition to this energetic and creative engagement, the quartet has persistently been combining pieces of rhythmic music with the more strictly classical works in their concerts played all over the world. For example, Argentinean tangos penned by the renowned composer Astor Piazzolla are also presented on a CD entitled “Tango”. The group has also played some of the new art-music, klezmer, and a number of endearing jazz arrangements.
The members of The Danish Saxophone Quartet have always been aficionados of J.S. Bach. Over the last many years, they have been playing extracts from The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) and The Art of the Fugue (BWV 1080) in their concerts. It goes without saying that J.S. Bach is one of the most important composers in European music history and these two monumental pieces offer testimony to the enormous capacity of his compositional efforts.
The quartet has toured in the USA, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
The group's second CD, with music composed by Per Nørgaard, Ib Nørholm and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Classical Awards in Denmark. |
