MICHAEL Dahlenburg is one of Australia’s foremost cellists, but there are more strings to his bow and he’s also co-artistic director of the 37-year-old Australian String Quartet, about to perform in Canberra.

A legendary performer and conductor, Dahlenburg has played with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Flinders Quartet, and has conducted the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Australian National Academy of Music, as well as many Youth Orchestras.

When I catch up with him by phone to the ASQ’s headquarters in Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium of Music, I discover that actually all four members of the quartet are in fact co-artistic directors, a unique model, he believes. The executive director manages “the other side of the fence”, leave the four musicians to make the artistic side of the enterprise a success.

“It’s a responsibility, sure,” he says, “but no one would argue that it’s not a unique privilege to have that opportunity – I’m not just an employee.”

At first glimpse, the ASQ’s publicity makes it sounds as if they’re about to perform a staggering 11 new works on stage, but in fact November is Ausmusic Month and 11 works are being trickled out over the month, including eight recordings of “encore” works by Australian composers David Paterson, Kate Neal, Sebastian Collen, Holly Harrison, Joe Chindamo, Alice Chance, Harry Sdraulig and Matt Laing, released digitally via ASQ’s “Australian Anthology.”

There’s also been an ABC Classics physical CD release of three quartets by composer Paul Stanhope, who has a strong relationship with the quartet. Indeed, one of the first things that Dahlenburg did when he joined the ASQ in November 2020 was to record one of those.

The quartet, he says with some pride, pivoted to commissioning projects during lockdown when no one was touring or doing anything much.

“We asked ourselves, how we could engage with Australian composers who really struggled during the lockdown period, when commissions were very low, so we encouraged composers to write a short piece of music – miniatures – giving them things to do… the response was terrific, so soon as we got out of lockdown, got into an ABC studio in Adelaide to record them.”

And as seasoned concertgoers know, such miniatures can also a serve a vital function in providing musicians with petite encores to play when the audience applauds loudly enough. Who knows? We might even get to hear one of them in Canberra.

The Stanhope compositions were not the only major work on their radar, with virtuosic new work, String Quartet No.2, commissioned from Sydney composer from Jack Symonds through their Richard Divall Australian Music Fund. That will be premiered in Canberra on the first leg to their coming national tour.

“It’s an enormous work that Jack Symonds has written specifically for the ASQ to excite an emotional and physical reaction,” Dahlenburg says, explaining that it has been very carefully juxtaposed with a performance of Beethoven’s revolutionary late Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op.131.

“We’re so very proud of the work, and so pleased that it’s being very well received… All the hard work is worth it.”

“Music does not have to be pretty or beautiful, but it can be… some people may find it beautiful,” Dahlenburg says, quoting American critic Harold C Schonberg, who once said of a composition: “The music is not pretty or even attractive, it merely is sublime“. And talking of unprettiness, their choice of a late Beethoven, so different from other Beethoven, means that Symonds’ music is a perfect match.

“Music doesn’t always have to be pleasing in order for you to feel something,” Dahlenburg says.

Australian String Quartet, Gandel Hall, National Gallery, 2pm, Sunday, November 20. 

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