Don Satz chickens out of reviewing op.  13, and asks for audience
participation:

My collection of the Nielsen String Quartets includes the Viola Quintet
and <At the Bier of a Young Artist> on Bis (CD 503-504) and all pieces
are performed cleanly and with suitable intensity (and generally excellent
intonation) by the Kontra Quartet.  It is the only performance I own of
this piece so I have no way to compare it with any other.  I confess that
I was more immediately drawn to the op.44, but I have been totally charmed
by op.13 and the rest of the chamber music of Nielsen with very little
effort.  This music is VERY easy to love.

The first movement of op.13 (Allegro energico) is very strong and full of
folk-like themes and passion.  It sounds like a slightly cooled-off Dvorak
string quartet.  There's lots of busy accompaniment under the main
melodies, reminiscent of the nearly constant activity in some of
Mendelssohn's string quartet movements (see Mendelssohn's op.  44 #2).
There is also a frequent brief uncertainty about key feeling, but it is
temporary and keeps things from getting too predictable.  This is a
characteristic of the music of Nielsen in general.  The undercurrent of
accompaniment activity is probably one element of what Andy Carlan terms
the "spaciousness" of Nielsen.

Second movement is called Andante amoroso, and it is a gently moving
melody with close accompaniment.  This movement, too, reminds me a bit of
Mendelssohn string quartet slow movements the way the melody and harmonies
fan out from each other, intertwine, and stay more or less in a middle
range for each instrument.  This movement is very song-like (and the
limited range contributes to the song-like effect).  Listen for the
rippling of the accompaniment.

Third movement (Allegro molto) is a burlesque-like romp.  Very good
natured.  I'd start with this movment if I were a first-time listener
to this quartet.  You might experience love at first sound.  After about
a minute and a half it changes style.  This movement sounds like a minuet
and trio form.

Fourth movement (Allegro inquieto) starts out with a proud sound, a rousing
folk-like statement.  Nielsen expands and noodles around for a few moments,
comes up with a very gentle second theme for contrast, and finally throws
in some of the thematic material from previous movements, tying it all
together in slightly under six minutes.

It would be very difficult NOT to like this quartet.  Furthermore, it
doesn't seem too technically difficult and would probably be fun for a
good amateur quartet to work on.

Mimi Ezust <[log in to unmask]> Cheering for Nielsen