The St. Lawrence String Quartet has been around since 1989. It has a couple of Grammy nominations under its belt, maintains a loyal international audience and is respected by its peers.
And Sunday was a big day for the group.
It marked the concert debut of its new member, second violinist Scott St. John, who has replaced Barry Shiffman, a cornerstone of the quartet for 17 seasons.
With that sort of shake-up, you figure there must have been at least a little bit of nervousness up on stage at Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium.
If so, it sure wasn't apparent. Not at all.
In a Stanford Lively Arts program of Mozart and Shostakovich, the quartet performed with refinement and fire, and, if anything, showed off a new finish to its sound.
St. John has collaborated with the St.
Lawrence for years. He and Geoff Nuttall, the group's first violinist, met as 10-year-olds in London, Ontario. Shiffman (now music director of the Banff Centre, a world-famous cultural nexus in the Canadian Rockies) remembers St.
John beating him in summer camp music competitions when they were teenagers.
Now, St. John seems to have slipped straight into the group's comfort zone as it begins its ninth season in residence at Stanford.
Its performance of Mozart's String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K. 575, was silvery-gorgeous, naturally proportioned and, again, comfortable.
You could see it in the group's gestures. Nuttall, the St. Lawrence's most demonstrative player, was, within a few bars, lifting his right knee way into the air, his sign of engagement with the Muses.
St. John and the others were in close eye contact and trading quick smiles, obviously feeling content.
And that's how the music sounded: serene, ethereal, playful.
In the Menuetto (the third movement), short phrases would be spun out by one player, completed by the next, then passed through to the others, in an exquisite, sustained weaving. The final Allegretto pointed at Beethoven, with Nuttall pushing his band mates toward an edgier synchronicity.
Shostakovich's String Quartet No.
7 in F-sharp minor, Opus 108, composed in the Soviet Union in 1960, embraced moods far darker than Mozart could have imagined. This is music of soul punishment, opening with shadowy singsong melody.
Cellist Christopher Costanza began pumping out an ostinato-like riff, taken up by Nuttall and reinforced by quavers from St.
John and violist Lesley Robertson. The group's brew became bracing; you could practically smell it, like bitter coffee from across the room.
St.
John opened the second movement with ghostly spidery figures, answered with a wisp of long-lined melody from Nuttall, up above. Now the music sounded like exposed nerve endings: long, quiet groans from cello and viola, while the violins dripped short phrases, as if into an open wound.
The closing Allegro brought on a pummeling, shredded figure, then air-raid sirens from Nuttall, and deep run-ups, out of a cave or maybe a prison, from Costanza's cello.
The work's extended ending, sheer eeriness, felt like the period of hiding that follows a round of torture.
Poor Shostakovich. But what a performance by the St.
Lawrence.
The program also featured a guest artist, pianist Pedja Muzijevic, who has collaborated with the St. Lawrence for nearly 15 years.
He and St. John gave a clear, empathetic reading of Mozart's Sonata in E minor for Piano and Violin, K. 304, a melancholy and even mournful work composed in the summer of 1788, when Mozart's mother died.
To close Sunday's concert, Muzijevic joined Nuttall, Robertson, and Costanza for Mozart's Quartet for Piano and Strings in G minor, K. 478.
The pianist performed with real elegance and lyricism and a dose of formality that added just the right amount of spine to his flawless lines.
With the work's great melodies and bounding emotions, there wasn't a lot to complain about, although there were a few glitches in the strings and the overall sound wasn't as beautifully balanced as in the quartet performances. But maybe it was just me; hearing St. John with his new teammates had spoiled me.
News RSS