Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (1932–2016) wrote string quartets all his life. Fourteen in all; the first three dating from 1959, the last ones from 2013.

Launching its complete cycle of Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s string quartets, the Nordic String Quartet here presents the first six quartets. Honesty meets schoolboy pranks, obstinacy meets doubt, yes meets no – Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s string quartets are full of such clashes. We start at one point and end at a totally different one. Never fusty, often entertaining, always adamant.

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was a unique personality and a major figure in Danish musical life and one of the most important composers from Northern Europe in the 20th and 21st century.

Nordic String Quartet is a young, highly skilled quartet, formed by professor Tim Frederiksen, and thus following the successes ofthe Danish String Quartet and Nightingale String Quartet.

The album is the first in a series of three with the complete string quartets by Gudmundsen-Holmgreen – all in all 14 string quartets. All works on the first album are world premiere recordings.

Nordic String Quartet:
- Hei∂run Petersen (Faroe Islands) (violin)
- Mads Haugsted Hansen (Denmark) (violin)
- Daniel Eklund (Sweden) (viola)
- Lea Emilie Brøndal (Denmark) (cello)