St. Lawrence

Geoff Nuttall, violin Owen Dalby, violin Lesley Robertson, Christopher Costanza,

Sunday, March 28, 2021

4:00 p.m.

Virtual Concert Program

String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 I. Allegro ma non tanto (1770-1827) II. Scherzo: Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto III. Menuetto: Allegretto IV. Allegro—Prestissimo

Second Quartet (2014) John Adams (b. 1947)

String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp” Ludwig van Beethoven I. Poco adagio–Allegro (1770-1827) II. Adagio, ma non troppo III. Presto–Più presto quasi prestissimo IV. Allegretto con Variazioni

St. Lawrence String Quartet

“Modern,” “dramatic,” “superb,” “wickedly attentive,” “with a hint of rock 'n roll energy” are just a few ways critics describe the St Lawrence String Quartet, renowned for the intensity of its performances, its breadth of repertoire, and its commitment to concert experiences that are intellectually exciting and emotionally alive.

Recent highlights include performances with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony in John Adams's Absolute Jest for string quartet and orchestra, and the European premieres of Adams's second string quartet. Committed to collaboration with living composers, the SLSQ's fruitful partnership with Adams, Jonathan Berger, Osvaldo Golijov and many others has yielded many fine additions to the quartet literature. The Quartet is also especially dedicated to the music of Haydn and recorded his groundbreaking set of six Op. 20 quartets in high-definition video for a free, universal release online in 2018. According to The New Yorker, "No other North American quartet plays the music of Haydn with more intelligence, expressivity, and force"

Established in Toronto in 1989, the SLSQ quickly earned acclaim at top international competitions and was soon playing hundreds of concerts per year worldwide. It established an ongoing residency at Spoleto Festival USA, made prize-winning recordings for EMI of music by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Golijov, earning two Grammy nominations and a host of other prizes before being appointed ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University in 1998.

At Stanford, the SLSQ is at the forefront of intellectual life on campus. The SLSQ directs the music department's chamber music program and frequently collaborates with other departments including the Schools of Law, Medicine, Business and Education. The Quartet frequently performs at Stanford Live, hosts an annual chamber music seminar, and runs the Emerging String Quartet Program through which it mentors the next generation of young quartets. In the words of Alex Ross of The New Yorker, "The St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection."

Notes

JOHN ADAMS (b. 1947) Second Quartet (2014)

Commissioned by Stanford Lively Arts, The Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall Corporation, the Juilliard School, and Wigmore Hall, London, John Adams’ Second String Quartet was composed for the St. Lawrence String Quartet and premiered by the Quartet in 2015. Speaking of his relationship with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Adams says:

String quartet writing is one of the most difficult challenges a composer can take on. Unless one is an accomplished string player and writes in that medium all the time⎯ and I don’t know many these days who do⎯ the demands of handling this extremely volatile and transparent instrumental medium can easily be humbling, if not downright humiliating. What I appreciate about my friends in the St. Lawrence String Quartet is their willingness to let me literally improvise on them as if they were a piano or a drum and I a crazy man beating away with only the roughest outlines of what I want. They will go the distance with me, allow me to try and fail, and they will indulge my seizures of doubt, frustration, and indecision, all the while providing intuitions and frequently brilliant suggestions of their own. Quartet writing for me seems to be a matter of very long-term ‘work in progress.’

The stand-alone movement, Andantino; energico, begins with a gentle melody drawn from the opening movement of Beethoven’s Opus 111 piano sonata and grows in complexity until arriving at the energico. Here, Adams plays with the shortest of the Diabelli Variations which is driven by a series of chromatic appoggiaturas and emphatic gestures. The busy and convivial mood reaches hyperactivity among the four voices for the boisterous finale.

—Alessandra Rose Aquilanti

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