Per Nørgård was born in Gentofte, Denmark in 1932. He studied with Van Holmboe privately at age 17, and then formally at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, with Holmboe, Høffding and Koppel. From 1956 to 1957, he subsequently studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who had taught a host of renowned and leading composers of the time. Nørgård began teaching at the Odense Conservatory in 1958, and then at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in 1960. His students at the latter included the composer Carl Davis. From 1958 to 1962, Nørgård worked as a music critic for the newspaper Politiken but left to teach composition at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg in 1965. There he taught Abrahamsen, Gefors, Rasmussen and Sørensen.
His early influences were Sibelius, Nielsen and Van Holmboe but by the 1960s he began exploring European modernism and then developing a serial compositional system based on the "infinity series". Later he became inspired by the Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli, who inspired many of Nørgård's works.
Nørgård has composed six operas, two ballets, eight symphonies and other pieces for orchestra, several concertos, choral and vocal works, a very large number of chamber works and ten string quartets) and solo instrumental works. He has also composed music for several film.
Nørgård is also a prolific writer of music articles.

As its report time, at school, and I'm feeling lazy, I'll leave the explanation behind Nørgård's 10th string quartet to the composer himself. It's not been an easy week chez Merl either, so I could do with a break......

"During the composition of my tenth string quartet a flower-name, høst-tidløs, came to my mind – and it would not me leave again. [høsttidløs is actually autumn crocus in English, but the composer prefers harvest-timeless, to maintain some of the associations of the Danish flower-name, red.]
The paradoxical union of a seasonal time (harvest) and no-time-at-all was a good fit to the sections of the work that I had composed at that time, and I decided to tentatively stick to that title for the work-in-progress, and now, having finished the piece, I can say that is is still a fitting title – and it stands. Enough about the title, I will go on to describe the music, a somewhat more precarious project.
My tenth string quartet is probably the most basic string quartet that I have composed; melodically – and in sound – it employs the naturally based overtones and undertones* (perceived at major and minor, respectively), and rhythmically it is based on growth, on the principles of the Golden Section, and the structure itself contrasts abundance and exuberance with sections of immobility and contemplation.
However, Melos, melody, is definitely the dominating aspect of my STRING QUARTET NO. 10; behind even the most rhythmically complex or pure sonoric sections lies a firm – if hidden – basis of melodic or polyphonic ideas."

So there you go... Well you heard what Nørgård said, it's melodic and it's also very appealing. The work was composed in 2004-2005 for the Kroger Quartet. It was premiered by the same ensemble in 2006. It's just a quarter of an hour long and begins gently and percussively. Eventually the music becomes a little more abstract but just as attractive and after a silence there's a real feeling of growth (of flowers blooming) and the ensemble begin a more vibrant phase with agitated violins. Eventually the gently percussive beginning returns and a more barren section introduces pizzicato, some slides and a little abstraction. In the middle section the music is lively and still replete with slides but it's more intense and darker too. Soon the violins ethereally take the lead and there's an almost dreamy quality to the music. A firm rhythm breaks out just past the 3/4 mark and theres plenty of bustling and energetic action. Eventually the rhythm calms and a sombre and serious, mysterious soundscape takes charge which leads us to a gently fading outro.
There is only one 'official' recording of the work, by the dedicatees of the piece, the Kroger Quartet, who recorded it in 2008. It appeared on the Dacapo label along with recordings of SQs 7, 8 and 9. It's a clear, clean recording in a fine acoustic and the Kroger are perfectly attuned to this music (unsurprisingly). Even if there were other recordings available this would still be a highly recommended recording.
There is another recording available and this is on Souncloud, by the
Del Sol Quartet and it was recorded live at the Other Minds Festival in
December 2006 but it's not an official release. Whilst nowhere near as convincing as the Kroger recording it's still well performed and, as a freebie, is a good way to familiarise yourself with the piece.