New Works in New Ways

I had been anticipating the St. Lawrence String Quartet for weeks – now that may make me sound like some sort of chamber music aficionado,  but really I’m just a fan. I looked forward to the Beethoven String Quartet and I was really excited about the John Adams work . All this by way of saying I had high expectations. From the moment the first violinist started to talk, I knew I was not going to be disappointed.  I loved his enthusiasm and less than formal approach and actually found his ‘walk through’ of the Beethoven really interesting in a way that those things usually aren’t. (His good looks didn’t hurt either) The Beethoven is an amazing piece of music – if you just heard parts of it you might think it was 20th century. For me the best thing about seeing chamber music performed live (especially quartets) is that watching the interplay between the musicians really helps you appreciate the interplay of the music. The passionate performance of this piece left me with chills.  To hear the John Adams piece played by the group it was written for was thrilling and I found the piece both accessible and fun. I’m pretty sure that the people who didn’t leave after the Beethoven were not sorry. As for me, I could have watched the entire program all over again.