The Dahlkvist Quartet

The Dahlkvist Quartet was formed in 2007 and took off upon winning the Young and Promising (Ung och lovande) contest two years later. In 2012/13, the members were appointed Rising Stars. The quartet is now in high demand at a top international level, with regular guest performances at Konserthuset Stockholm.

Double Swedish, Polish and Russian music is on the programme this time. Franz Berwald wrote three string quartets and we will hear the second – composed when he was just 22 years old, yet full of maturity. Swedish Andrea Tarrodi (born 1981) originally wrote her third string quartet from 2014 for the English Brodsky Quartet, which also gave the work its premiere performance. The title, Light Scattering, brings to mind dappled light.

Light also streams through Szymanowski’s elegant Second String Quartet, where mystical and melodic melancholy intermingles with an energetic rhythm, occasionally rooted in folk music. Prokofiev wrote his Second String Quartet from 1941 while visiting the North Caucasus, where he was inspired by the ringing Oriental tones of the region’s traditional music.