"Thirteen years sounds like a long time," said violinist Barry Shiffman, "but it takes time to develop that unique sound, to have four voices act like one and yet still be independent. It takes many years."
Shiffman ought to know. As a founding member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, he and his colleagues have spent 13 years together, polishing and honing their abilities.
They'll be bringing their talents and music to Salt Lake City on Monday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m., as part of the Chamber Music Society subscription series. Tickets may be purchased by calling 561-3999.
All of the quartet members are originally from Canada and met at the Banff Arts Center in Banff, Alberta. Although each had previously been there at various times and in various combinations, it wasn't until 1988 that they came together and decided to make a go of it as a quartet.
"Our main objective was to be able to play the music that we loved and to be able to work with some of the important names amongst living composers," Shiffman said. "(We wanted) to feel like we could do a good job on both the old music and the new music. We're pretty happy. We feel that we're pretty true to our original goal."
Roughly 20-25 percent of the repertoire played by the quartet comes from living composers, Shiffman estimated, and about half of those are composers from Canada. Although they definitely make an effort to support the voice of Canadian composition, Shiffman says he also does a lot with American composers. Last year the quartet commissioned five new works, and it awaits more to be completed this year.
"That process of creating with a composer present is what keeps us going," he said, "and it is not isolated from interpreting the music of Beethoven or Brahms, who have been dead for a long time. When you work with a living composer, it's easier to interpret the music of the old guys, because you see how a composer thinks. I don't have any doubt that they thought the same way. It frees the interpretive process more for older composers, as well."
When the St. Lawrence Quartet comes to Utah, it will present Mozart's Quartet No. 16 in E-flat Major, Tchaikowsky's Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, and a newer piece, "Miracles and Mud," composed by Jonathan Berger in 1999. Shiffman said "Miracles and Mud" is about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
Both nationalities drink two kinds of coffee — "miracle," the instant kind, and "mud," a Turkish blend that often has a mud-like residue at the bottom of the cup. The premise of the piece is that if these two different nations can peacefully agree on two different coffees, why not other things?
Shiffman said he looks forward to coming to Salt Lake City because he knows the audience is appreciative of newer music. "We're confident to bring anything to Salt Lake because we know the audience is going to be with us and trust us."
The group keeps a balance between older and newer pieces, and the formula seems to work well. Shiffman estimates the quartet spends 200-250 days a year on the road, in addition to directing the chamber music and string program at Stanford University in California. And the quartet's members are guest lecturers at the University of Toronto every couple of months, where Shiffman and violinist Geoff Nuttall got their degrees.
Busy? Yes. But the group loves what it does. "We're very lucky," Shiffman said. "We can pay our rent and play Beethoven quartets in the evening. It's pretty cool."
He added that cellist Marina Hoover's baby is now 1 1/2 years old, Hoover brings the child along on tours. "She's done remarkably well with that," Shiffman commented, "having both a cello in tow and a child. She did a concert with us, I think it was 20 days after giving birth."
Each of the others also has a unique place in the group. Shiffman describes violist Lesley Robinson as the outdoorsman of the bunch. "I know that when we have Salt Lake on the calendar, that means we have a day of holiday following, because Lesley's off skiing the hill."
As for Geoff Nuttall, "he is the 'Mad Max' of the group," Shiffman said. "He is very physical player, and it's very natural to him. Having gone to school with him (at the University of Toronto), I know there's nothing that he does that's a put-on. It's all just the way he is. He'll move, almost jump out of his seat and kick his legs and gyrate and bounce up and down.
"For a traditional chamber music audience, sometimes they're deeply concerned. They write letters that are hilarious. We've had a couple of letters that are amazingly amusing. One woman suggested that he should get looser-fitting underwear and that she's canceling her subscription. Another wrote in and said she wanted to marry him."
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com