PRESS ACCLAIM
 

“ It's a modern string quartet that brings flexibility, dramatic fire and…a hint of rock 'n' roll energy…”
Los Angeles Times

 

 “The players irrepressibly tore into Beethoven's Quartet in E-Flat, Opus 127….The fast movements in both Haydn and Beethoven began to approach jazz…. Enthrallingly inward-searching. The quartet...digs for emotion at all costs.”
Los Angeles Times

 

 “An ensemble that [projects] an irresistible exuberance in performances, and [links] that sense of joy with artistry of subtlety and finesse....who would prefer bland polish over this group’s style of vital risk-taking?"

Boston Globe

 

”Brilliant….the performance showed not only virtuosity, intelligence and imagination but also extraordinary passion.”

New York Times 

”A rare gift for combining interpretive spontaneity and fierce musical commitment.”

New York Times
 

“Impassioned performances full of operatic lyricism and structural insight”

The New Yorker

 

 

“These are fearless musicians whose spontaneity stretches past conventional interpretation and probes the music’s imaginative limits.”
The Washington Post
 

“An almost disturbing intensity that held the audience spellbound. The performance bristled with the electricity the ensemble has become known for…This was an almost impeccable, powerful performance, with entrances coordinated with absolute precision, sharply etched phrases and carefully judged silences…remarkable.”

New York Times

”Superb…enthralling and terrifying…an outstanding performance.”

Boston Globe

“A sound that has just about everything one wants from a quartet, most notably precision, warmth and an electricity that conveys the excitement of playing whatever is on their stands at the moment.”
New York Times 

“A freshness and élan rich in the very lightness of being…the St. Lawrence Quartet made a convincing case for being the top quartet of the post-Emerson generation.”
MusicalAmerica.com (Wes Blomster)

“Faultless, instantly compelling performances….Forget its "youth culture" image; if the St. Lawrence can build on this brilliant debut, a great future surely awaits.”
BBC Music Magazine  [Awarded 5 stars]

“Expressive tension was unrelenting, even in the still, shivering harmonics of the first movement.  The performance had a dangerous, unchecked edge; I have never heard anything quite like it.”

New York Times
 

 “The St. Lawrence is first and foremost, I think, about risk taking: about playing on the emotional edge; about performing, not to ‘get it right,’ but because the music has something to tell us that we cannot live without; something that could make you change your life.”

 Toronto Globe & Mail

“This is what makes the SLSQ one of the great quartets of our time: their incandescent imagination; the graceful lucidity with which they reveal form; their intuitive ability to slip into the skin of their composers; their infectious sense of discovery and creation, even in performance.”

National Post (Canada)

 

 “The St. Lawrence String Quartet [play] with imagination, sensitivity, sensational physical abandon, and a complete lack of emotional inhibition.”

Boston Globe

 

 “Dazzling...beyond superlatives…it was like hearing this work [Dvorak’s ‘American’] for the first time.”

Salt Lake Tribune

“Incendiary….The performance of the formidable Beethoven String Quartet in B-Flat Major (Op. 130) was revelatory, as if at every juncture to say, ‘Wow! Isn't this amazing?’”
Kansas City Star