OSQ plus one: Sinding
After the Oslo String Quartet in 2024 released its first recording on the newly launched label OSQ to great success, we now immediately branch out launching a subseries that we call “OSQ plus one”. The idea is to make one-off partnerships with other musicians, forming a piano quintet, a string quintet, or any other type of quintet constellation. Our first endeavour in this respect is to reintroduce the massive Piano Quintet by Christian Sinding, once one of the most famous of Norwegian composers, to the world.
Listen from Apple Music here!
Listen from Spotify here!
Learn to wait
Our OSQ #01 is devoted to the first quartets by Benjamin Britten and György Ligeti, as well as the third quartet by Nils Henrik Asheim. Why? Because we think it is a great combination, and also because we happened to be working on these pieces quite simultaneously. A mere coincidence, perhaps, but still kind of appropriate, as the overriding idea of our new venture is to invite you, our listener, into the ever-evolving workshop of the Oslo String Quartet.
Nils Henrik Asheims piece incidentally gave us the title of the album, Learn to wait. It was composed during the pandemic, which certainly was a time in which we had to learn the art of waiting. But soon the wait will be over, as we are making ready for the release of our first album on our very own label, OSQ.
Listen to the recording here.
Magnar Åm: “Imaginary”
The Norwegian contemporary composer Magnar Åm has composed “Imaginary” on commission from Ove Berg, Nordic Sound.
Åm drew inspiration for this release from the piano improvisations he recorded for Nordic Sound in 2023. However, the first movement is taken from the fourth movement of “Soli Deo Gloria”, Requiem for Organ. This work was also commissioned by Nordic Sound, for the bicentennial of the fire at Grue Church on Whitsunday, 1822, where 116 people lost their lives. Released by Nordic Sound 2022. The work was written for the Oslo String Quartet and recorded in Grue Church, Norway 2025. The composition of “Imaginary” is supported by the Norwegian Cultural Foundation, the Norwegian Arts Council.
Listen to the album from Spotify here!
Listen to the album from Apple Music here!
Archive
This album was recorded over a longer period of time.The works are Norwegian contemporary favourites often performed by the Oslo String Quartet.
Ketil Hvoslef: String Quartet nr. 3 (Commisioned and premiered by OSQ)
Arne Nordheim: Five Stages for Four (Commisioned and premiered by OSQ)
Rolf Wallin: Couriosity Cabinet
Magnar Åm: are also we carried (premiered by OSQ)
Listen from your streaming platform here!
major minor
The present recording features both one of the longest and one of the shortest quartets in the string quartet repertoire. There is no denying that Schubert's last string quartet is great in every sense of the word, but Beethoven's “Quartetto Serioso”, although minor in size, is by no means dwarfed by it when it comes to sheer artistic quality; both quartets are indeed major works and a staple on the diet of any string quartet of merit. Even so, the concept of minor and major immediately springs to mind when contemplating putting these two completely different masterpieces on the same album. Duration apart, there is the obvious question of tonality: one work in F minor, the other in G major, which is simple enough and by itself justifies the album title. But things get more complicated the moment we subject the two works to a closer scrutiny.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Quartet no. 11 in F minor op. 95
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Quartet no. 15 in G major D887 op. 161
Buy from 2L here!
Listen from Apple Music here!
Listen from Spotify!
The Schubert Connection
The String Quartet in G minor by Edvard Grieg is quite unlike other string quartets. Indeed, its originality is so marked that it is easy to imagine it has no predecessor in the string quartet repertoire. However, since no quartet is written in isolation from what has gone before, it must be assumed that some work, or works, in the string quartet tradition served as a model for Grieg. It is strange that no effort has been made by musicologists or others to enquire into this. Until now, that is. By placing side by side two works that at first sight seem fairly different, this recording aims to bring into the open, for the first time, the fascinating details that link them.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27
Buy from 2L here!
Listen from Apple Music here!
Listen from Spotify here!
Oslo String Quartet Jumping Wide
Popular tunes arranged for String Quartet by Øystein Sonstad
Isa Gericke, soprano
Ernesto Manuitt Hernádez, vocal
Recording from Sofienberg Kirke in Oslo.
Producer and engineer: Jørn Pedersen
Fabra, FBRCD-08 (2010/11)
Listen from your streaming service here!
Grieg Revisited
Fabra, FBRCD-06 (2010)
Grieg: Ballad, Bergljot and Quartet in F
Lise Fjeldstad, narrator
Recorded and produced by Jørn Pedersen.
Recording from Sofienberg Kirke in Oslo, January and March 2010
Listen from your streaming service here!
Wilhelm Stenhammar: String Quartets 3-6
CPO: 7774262 Double cd/sacd
Recorded in Jar Kirke in Oslo 2006 & 2007
Producer: Jørn Pedersen
Engineer: Goeff Miles
Listen from Spotify here!
Listen from Apple Music here!
"Oslo Strykekvartett faller oppover"
Oslo Stringquartet plays a collection of popular tunes arranged for String Quartet.
Recorded in Lommedalen Church by Andrew Hallifax
Mastered by Audun Strype
Listen from your streaming service here!
Voces Intimae
Jean Sibelius: String Quartet "Voces Intimae"
Hugo Wolf: "Italian Serenade"
Alban Berg: "Lyric Suite"
Recorded in Lommedalen Church February 2002
Producer: Jørn Pedersen
Engineer Goeff Miles
Listen from Spotify here!
Johan Svendsen: String Quartet and Quintet
Quartet in A minor op. 1
Quintet in C major op. 5
Recorded in Østsiden Kirke in Fredrikstad February 2001
Producer: Krzysztof Drab, engineer Geoff Miles
(CPO 999858)
The Silver Cord
Magnar Åm: Sølvtråden (The Silver Cord)
Ragnar Söderlind: Quartetto No. 2, Op. 71
Lasse Thoresen: Aion
ACD5028
Recorded in Eidsvoll Church
Producer: Krzysztof Drab
Engineer Erik Gard Amundsen
Listen from Spotify here!
Listen from Apple Music here!
Carl Nielsen: String quartets VOL.1
Oslo String Quartet
Recorded in Ris Church in Oslo April 1997 by Morten Lindberg
Producer: Krzysztof Drab
NAXOS 8.553907
Listen from Spotify here!
Carl Nielsen: String quartets VOL.2
Oslo String Quartet
Recorded in Ris Church in Oslo May 1998 by Morten Lindberg
Producer: Krzysztof Drab
NAXOS 8.553908.
Listen from Apple Music here!
Norwegian 20th-cent. String quartets
Oslo String Quartet.
Kvandal, Janson, Egge and Valen.
Recorded in Sofienberg Church in Oslo December 1995 by Morten Lindberg.
Producer: Sean Lewis. Released 2000
NAXOS 8.554384.
Listen from Spotify here!
Listen from Apple Music here!
Grieg, Monrad Johansen: String quartets
The very first Oslo String Quartet album
Recorded in Main Studio, NRK Oslo, October 1993
Producer: Krzysztof Drab
NAXOS 8.550879
Knut Nystedt:String quartets
Oslo String Quartet
Recorded by Pro Musica/ Jørn Pedersen in January 1994 in Salen, Ski
Producer: Krzyzstof Drab
SIMAX PSC 1114