Has this ever happened to you? You agree to do something, then realize you have half the time to complete it that you expected.

Sure it has. But you weren't performing all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets.

Last year, the Danish String Quartet planned to spend a fortnight in St. Paul performing the complete Beethoven quartets as Schubert Club artists-in-residence. When COVID scotched that, they insisted on making good on their promise, but found only a one-week window in their schedule to get it done.

So here they were Friday night, performing the first of six concerts they'll present during a week in St. Paul. And the audience surely left St. Paul's United Church of Christ with a strong sense of why this group is the buzz band of the moment among string quartets. It was a performance full of bold choices, impeccable chemistry and plenty of insight into how Beethoven gradually unleashed romanticism upon the world.

And that's how most of the six concerts are constructed: Starting with one of the composer's early quartets, moving to his middle period, then finishing with one from his final years, when he was reinventing the form in ways that puzzled musicians of the time.

The Danish String Quartet did an admirable job with the concert-closing Op. 131, even if it didn't quite explode off the stage like some movements from the works on the concert's first half. On the Op. 18, No. 3, the foursome found the fist-waving railer at the forces of destiny hiding inside Joseph Haydn's jovial template.

The chemistry between the four came through clearly — three of the four members have been playing together since childhood — particularly when they tossed themes among themselves like bantering buddies. Yes, there were storms, but playfulness was never far from earshot.

From the composer's middle years came his Seventh Quartet, Op. 59, No. 1, and the Danes (OK, the cellist is Norwegian) gave a sense of Beethoven feeling more confident about eschewing convention and forging his own path. The musicianship was expert as each member seized the spotlight on solos rich in tone and emotion, then embraced opportunities to combine their forces on passionate, spine-tingling unison passages.

The playfulness in the first two works was largely absent from Op. 131 — Beethoven's 14th, written a year before his death. There was a weighty sadness about the first four movements of the seven-part magnum opus, the music finally bursting free on the agitated fifth movement, one of the classical genre's most eloquently expressed anxiety attacks. The ensuing sad interlude provided three minutes of absorbing beauty, but the galloping finale didn't feel as alarmingly urgent as it should.

That said, the lengthy standing ovation and multiple bows were well deserved. And, after 2½ hours of Beethoven, it's to the foursome's credit that they offered an encore, a string quartet arrangement of the composer's popular piano work, "Fur Elise." If they make a habit of encores during this demanding week, their work ethic is off the charts.

Danish String Quartet

What: The complete Beethoven string quartets.

When/where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, St. Paul's United Church of Christ, 900 Summit Av., St. Paul

Tickets: $5-$45; 651-292-3268 or schubert.org.

Rob Hubbard is a freelance classical music critic. • wordhub@yahoo.com