St. Lawrence String Quartet

The Canadian St. Lawrence quartet is one of the leading string quartets from across the pond. The St. Lawrence Quartet have a strikingly brilliant timbre which clearly distinguishes them from their European contemporaries. The American composer John Adams (1947) has composed a new work for them whose Belgian premiere you can witness! The St Lawrence quartet inserts Adams between two heavyweights of the quartet genre. Haydn's String Quartet in F, op. 77 No. 2, is the last quartet he completed. It has often been suggested that Haydn suffered from writer's block at the end of his life after the impressive quartet debut by the young Beethoven. In the String Quartet in A minor, op. 132, the older Beethoven comes to the fore. The third movement is entitled 'Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenden an die Gottheit'. Beethoven wrote it after a heavy and prolonged illness. It is a solemn, chorale-like adagio of surreal beauty. One of Beethoven's most exciting and impressive pieces of music!