Rational Exuberance: The Joyous Athleticism of St. Lawrence String Quartet

P    lay every concert like it’s your last; every phrase like it’s the most important thing you’ve ever said... Remember that the only reason you’re there is to make people cry and sweat and shiver, and give them that incredible sense of creation happening before your eyes [ears]. That’s the [only] reason to play. Otherwise there’s no point.”
  —  Geoff Nuttall, violinist, SLSQ.

T  he St Lawrence String Quartet performance in Kansas City’s Folly Theater last night, as part of the Friends of Chamber Music’s 2009-10 season, was superb.

• Haydn: String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2
  
• Mendelssohn: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80
  
• Beethoven: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

T he interpretations were spirited, to the outer limits of spiritedness—often drawing upon auxiliary abductor and adductor muscles for the most vigorous bowing. The exertion and enthusiasm are sometimes so great that, well, your feet simply become airborne:



U nconventional… unique even, Geoff Nuttall’s foot-action. No, the gestures of all of SLSQ’s members are beyond exuberant, really. But never to the point of becoming ‘spectacle’.

T    hese are fearless musicians whose spontaneity stretches past conventional interpretation and probes the music’s imaginative limits.”
  —  The Washington Post.

T he lively, extraordinary mindfulness of the quartet was captivating, vibrant, alive. Watching them and listening to them, it is possible believe that playing music as they do is the ultimate antidote to ennui of everyday life. The majority of people in the audience may not be suffering from any diseases or obvious pathologies. But if there are blocked arteries or high blood pressures, this activity and these sounds must surely help to reverse them!

W hat I mean is, SLSQ performs as though string performance practice were ‘dance’. Their motions are more ‘balletic’ than merely musicianly, and this fact lends itself toward emotionally concentrating or intensifying their musical expressiveness. Fascinating!

W ho knew that great strength in rectus abdominis muscles is needed to play stringed instruments this passionately? Wow! Bravo!

• St. Lawrence String Quartet website
  
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