In the opening concert of the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, the past and present will come together in a spectacular way. In Adès’ The Four Quarters, the composer’s historical awareness merges with his contemporary musical language. In Three Divertimenti Adès’ fellow Brit, Britten, references his later string quartets. And of course, Schubert’s Der Tod und das Mädchen is an immortal masterpiece.

In Der Tod und das Mädchen, Schubert uses his own song as the theme for the variations of the second movement. The entire quartet is in a minor key, with the typical Schubertian melancholy evoked by a single major turn. The Danish Quartet, four modern thirty-somethings who love vintage cars and video games, fully understand the weltschmerz of ripe Schubert.