Dacapo inicia con este disco una aventura que promete ser uno de los acontecimientos del año: la grabación de los cuartetos de Ruud Langgaard (1893- 1952). Nada menos que ocho obras datadas entre 1914 y 1925, o lo que es lo mismo del periodo más visionario de este inclasificable creador danés. Así, los tres cuartetos recogidos aquí (el Segundo, el Tercero y el Sexto) se distinguen por explorar nuevos territorios sonoros. Las indicaciones de tempo y carácter son a veces extravagantes (Furioso mortifero, Pesante collerico, Burlesco rustico…), pero lo que de verdad distingue estas composiciones es la habilidad de Langgaard para contrastar, incluso en un mismo movimiento, los estilos más diversos: del clasicismo al expresionismo, del romanticismo al neoclasicismo, sin olvidar ciertas pinceladas de un folclore tan imaginario como reconocible. Si a ello se suma una inventiva que da lugar a movimientos tan asombrosos como el futurista Scherzo del Cuarteto núm. 2 (1918), en el que se recrea la marcha de una locomotora, queda claro que estamos ante unas obras marcadas por la originalidad más absoluta. Las versiones, por otro lado, son irreprochables y están impecablemente grabadas. © 2012 Ritmo

This superb recording by the excellent Nightingale String Quartet is the first installment of a projected complete cycle of Langgaard’s nine string quartets, and it makes one wonder what else we’ve been missing. Langgaard’s style teeters on the edge of late Romanticism and the Expressionist fervor of the early 20th century, with lush tonal writing cheek by jowl to ripely aggressive bursts of sound. Langgaard’s most notable signature—and perhaps this is what alienated his contemporaries—is a restlessness of mood and form; he’s constantly shifting gears in ways that might seem arbitrary at first. But the pieces unfold with a compelling emotional logic, and some of the music here—the gorgeously pictorial third movement of the String Quartet No. 2 (“Landscape in Twilight”), or the fierce opening movement of the String Quartet No. 3—is simply breathtaking. I can’t wait for the next release. © 2012 San Francisco Chronicle Read complete review

The Danish composer Rued Langgaard (1893–1952) is a new name to me, but if the music on String Quartets Vol.1 (DACAPO 6.220575) is anything to go by then I’ve really been missing something. Denmark’s Nightingale String Quartet is simply superb in this first volume of a series of all nine quartets…Landscape in Twilight, is a simply beautiful pastoral episode. The String Quartet No.3 from 1924, the quite lovely single-movement String Quartet No.6 from 1918 (Langgaard’s numbering system is quite confusing!) and the variations on the chorale melody Mig hjertelig nu laenges complete a revelationary CD.

With its strenuous, conflictual rhythms and flighty inventiveness, No 2 (1918) sets the bar high; and No 3 (1924) displays a concentrated blend of eruptive combativeness and whimsical extravagance that is if anything even more impressive…the ‘Sixth’ Quartet…[are] resourceful and their relaxed tone is welcome as a respite from the high metabolic rate of the main works on the disc.

Langgaard has provocative vitality and fragile sensitivity © 2012 BBC Music Magazine

There is an excellent essay in the booklet which…gives a helpful chronological overview, together with invaluable notes on the musical contents.

String Quartet no. 3…is pure expressionism, its first movement, marked “Rapacious” being one of Langgaard’s most aggressive movements. It is followed by a Presto scherzo marked “Artful”, very brief and mysteriously ending with a series of detached pizzicato/slapstring chords.

…all of these many sections manage to come together and cohere to produce a meaningful and attractive listening experience, especially when played with such skill and insight as invested by the Nightingale Quartet.

The quartet [String Quartet No. 2]…sticks to a typical sonata-form structure, and deals with commonplace natural occurrences. With movement subtitles like Storm Clouds Receding, Train Passing By, Landscape in Twilight, and The Walk, there’s more bucolic than epic at the root of this music, although the second movement depiction of a Train Passing By will jolt you with its vivid machine-like delivery. Beauty lies at the core of the third movement, while various moods and energy levels mark the fourth. All in all a finely crafted four voice discourse in which each instrument plays an important role.

Q2 Music Album of the Week

Very quickly, you see why Langgaard languished on the Island of Misfit Scandinavian Music Toys. He emerged in an era when Danish music was moving out of extroverted romanticism into limned lines with all the intricacies of a midcentury modern coffee table. Langgaard was unapologetically, even psychotically florid. His music has that simultaneous blend of vivid brushwork and disturbing imagery seen in an Egon Schiele painting. The surface is aesthetically pleasing, but within minutes you see that it’s a thin veneer covering up aching, anguished symbolism with Wagnerian gestures.

The performers bring considerable youthful enthusiasm to the Langgaard quartets, but even more interestingly, they seem fully comfortable with Langgaard’s sometimes uneasy blend of nostalgia and Romanticism, on the one hand, and complex and forward-looking mood swings, on the other. Generally slow, but with some outbursts of intensity, this is a thoroughly Romantic quartet work whose overall effect is very moving, nicely complementing the more-intense mood changes of the numbered quartets. © 2012 Infodad.com Read complete review

These are remarkable works. They feature a reckless variety of material and encompass a vast expressive range…it is consistently entertaining, expressive, and curiously moving.