In the News

Although they have long lived in the United States and travel widely, there is some sense, perhaps only felt locally, that the St. Lawrence String Quartet is “our” quartet.  Probably this feeling comes from their long connection with Banff, the Banff Centre, the Banff International String Quartet Competition, their winning of the competitions, violinist Geoff Nuttall’s presence as a recent juror for the competition, and Barry Schiffman, the director of the competition, who was the original second violinist of the quartet.

In its 27-year history, the St. Lawrence String Quartet has staked its place as not just the leading foursome of Canadian origins (though its members reside principally in California) but indeed as one of the most notable in the world. One cannot escape feeling that every note, rest, bow stroke, breath, and phrase has been poked, prodded, worried about, argued over, and not yet put to rest — without sacrificing the sense of spontaneity in performance. 

The St. Lawrence String Quartet was once again in town. For my money, the group is the most exciting string quartet working today. It plays with vim and vigor and amplitude of feeling and sound and keen intelligence. It “brings it,” as some people say.

Of all the Emerson String Quartet’s achievements during its 41-year existence, one that gives Philip Setzer special pride is its early and vigorous advocacy for the string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich. These days, when performances and recordings of most of the composer’s 15 quartets proliferate, that doesn’t seem like a big deal.

I know a lot of you around here recall watching with admiration and amazement the steady rise of the Emerson String Quartet as they moved from complete unknowns to a place at the very pinnacle of the string quartet world.

The Emerson String Quartet has been a dominant fixture in the chamber-music scene for so long now that it takes a considerable leap of imagination to picture what it was like for the ensemble 40 years ago, at the beginning of their adventure. The world was a vastly different place, of course, when they embarked on that debut season in 1976—though the sense of one crisis overlapping the next remains eerily familiar.

Balakrishnan says he has tremendous respect for Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, but his musical world encompasses much more. Rarely do you hear a piece of music with such a wide range of cultural references that doesn't sound like a collage. Tree of Life sounds wholly integrated — a single musical ecosystem, made from many species.

In 1969 David Balakrishnan, then a teenage violin student, attended a Jimi Hendrix concert in Los Angeles that led him to reconsider his approach to his instrument, and to music more broadly. He began learning some of Hendrix’s guitar solos on the violin, and he decided that his repertory should embrace both classical music and pop. As a composer he extended that philosophy to his own music.

The string quartet scene, too, buzzes with crossover energy. On Monday at Zankel Hall, Brooklyn Rider performs selections from its new album, “Almanac” (Mercury Classics), featuring pieces commissioned by a rainbow of musicians from the worlds of folk, indie rock and jazz.

Brooklyn Rider is pleased to announce the first personnel change of its ten-year history. Over the coming months, the group welcomes aboard cellist Michael Nicolas, thereby enabling present cellist and founding member Eric Jacobsen to focus more fully on his burgeoning conducting career. Nicolas, a former classmate of Jacobsen’s at New York’s Juilliard School, is an especially natural fit for the pathbreaking string quartet.