The String Quartet

In this episode we play early works of the Dane Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) and the Finn Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), beside some parts from a string quartet of the, in these parts of the world unknown, composer Valborg Aulin (1860-1928). Nielsen began to write his first orchestral works around 1890, but earlier, as a teenager, he wrote his first quartets. Nielsen’s Quartet in D minor is a typical early work: mildly virtuoso, entertaining and little complicated dance music. The techniques of young Sibelius are somewhat more academic, as if he wanted to try out everything he had learned directly in his first quartets. But, also for Sibelius, it all began with Haydn and Spohr. Aulin’s First String Quartet in F major, from 1884, is more modern and contains elements of both Mendelssohn and contemporary French music.