Learn To Wait
Oslo String Quartet
OSQ01 (stringquartet.com)
Listen
String Quartet No. 1: IV. Molto vivace - Listen on Spotify
Britten - String Quartet No. 1: 1 Britten: Britten - String Quartet No. 1: I. Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo - Listen on Spotify
Asheim - String Quartet No. 3 Learn To Wait - Listen on Spotify
Read the Review
The Oslo String Quartet launches their very own label with Learn To Wait, a digital-only release that features music by Benjamin Britten, György Ligeti and Nils Henrik Asheim, whose third quartet gives the project its title (OSQ01 stringquartet.com).
Britten’s String Quartet No.1 from 1941 was written while he was in the United States, having left England at the start of the war. Although a relatively early work, its brilliance of invention, scoring and technique is a clear indicator of how the composer’s career would develop.
The central work in the recital is Asheim’s String Quartet No.3, Learn To Wait, composed during the pandemic lockdown. It’s a ten-minute single movement featuring note clusters, harmonics and extended bowing techniques that apparently seemed a logical choice for the disc as the Oslo players happened to be working on it at the same time as the other two quartets; however, it has trouble holding its own in such company.
Ligeti’s String Quartet No.1, Métamorphoses nocturnes from 1953-54 clearly has more to say right from the start, the range of its fascinating soundscape showing a personal voice emerging from the influence of both Bartók and Schoenberg’s 12-tone system.
