Opus13

​Perennially modern music.

The string quartet Opus13, founded at the Barratt Due Music Institute in 2014, is made up of Sonoko Miriam Welde and Edvard Erdal, violin, Michael Andreas Grolid, viola and Daniel Thorell, cello.

In this concert they perform Caroline Shaw's work for string quartet from 2015, Plan & Elevation, and Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet from 1826.

'In Plan & Elevation we hear meditative sounds, minimalistic elements and references to great works from the past, which Caroline Shaw brings into the present in her own beautiful way,' says Welde, who is looking forward to presenting Shaw alongside Beethoven's opus 130: 

'His string quartet with the Grand Fugue is one of the most monumental works ever written for quartet. It includes the incredibly beautiful sensitive Cavatina movement. The Grand Fugue must be one of the best instances of old music that will never cease to be modern. It was Beethoven's original finale movement for the quartet, but his publishers considered it too demanding for audiences, and asked Beethoven to compose a new finale. More intense and epic music is difficult to find,' Welde continues.

In January 2023 Opus13 received Equinor's Classical Music Award – the first String Quartet to do so – after gaining second place in the Banff International String Quartet Competition in Alberta, Canada in September. 

Photo: Bjørn Wad