This year there are two names in the pot rubbing shoulders with the likes of Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Steve Gadd band and David Byrne – to name but a few – for the 2019 Grammy awards.
The two Danish entrants – conductor Thomas Dausgaard and Den Danske Strygekvartet (Danish string quartet) – have been nominated in the ‘Best Orchestral Performance’ and Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance’ categories respectively.
Den Danske Strygekvartet’s CD ‘Prism’ contains works written by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Bach and, according to Politiken’s music critic Thomas Michelsen, the group have “now worked their way up to a level where they are respected and recognised all over the world and get really good reviews, both in the US and other places.”
Bigging up Nielsen
Dausgaard’s recording consists of Carl Nielsen’s symphonies No 3 (Sinfonia Espansiva) and 4 (The Inextinguishable), and he made it conducting the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Of that, Michelsen says that “Carl Nielsen is big in Denmark but he is a little exotic abroad. Because of his Danish background, Dausgaard is a conductor who really knows Carl Nielsen and his music.”
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The Grammy awards, which give out prizes in 84 categories, will take place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2019.
