St. Lawrence String Quartet

[thoreau]

David's boss gave us her tickets to this afternoon's performance by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. It was interesting to discover this originally Toronto-based quarter now calls Stanford University here in Palo Alto home - so they played to an enthusiastic home crowd. Their program included the Strauss String Sextet from Capriccio, Berg's Lyric Suite and finally the Dvorak Sextet in A. For their 20th anniversary concert - they played as a sextet with the two members who had moved onto other projects over the 20 years. It made for a thrilling program. The Strauss was playful, lyrical and stunning. The Berg, the ever-modern bizarre atonal music was very intense. It included sounds by the violinists playing wood side down on their bows - and at times hitting the body of the instrument. The contrast between the first two pieces could not have been starker. After intermission they played the beautiful and instantly recognizable Dvorak. Overall a fine fine program. David and I both noticed the "San Francisco factor" at this performance. When you go to the symphony or opera in SF - you see all ages including children. But down here in Palo Alto - it was a much more mature crowd. I was probably the youngest man in the house. It made me wonder what will happen when this generation of benefactors and audience moves on to the afterlife. The St. Lawrence String Quartet is worth seeing if you see them on your classical performances venue's calendar. Check them out at their website.

Comments

[paulintoronto.livejournal.com]

We saw the St. Lawrence String Quartet play when they were still in Toronto. They did a pretty rambunctious and delightful performance of one of R. Murray Schafer's weird and wonderful string quartets. I thought they were fabulous.