The concert started off with a modern piece called Swans Kissing. Unpleasant with lots of glissandi. Violinist Fredrik introduced it with reference to a painting of 2 swans, black swan on white background rising from the bottom meeting a white swan on black background from the top.
The second section was a series of folk music. One from the Faero Islands, another from the oldest recorded song, some old codex. They played their own “New Waltz”, and a lively reel.
The second half was Beethoven’s Razumovsky Quartet, No. 2 in E Minor. This was a beautiful piece. The first movement is one I have listened to many times, but the whole is complex, with so many great sections.
This garnered an ovation, which led to a short but beautiful Nielsen piece as an encore.
From the discussion we learned that Nielsen wrote many popular songs that all Danes know, suitable for many occasians. We also learned about folk music, and the similarity to Celtic music is no doubt due in part that travel to Scotland took 2 days by boat vs 5 days tor travel up the Norwegian coast.
see also the Dartmouth