Classical Californians: Lesley Robertson

Marco Borggreve

Our Classical Californian this time is Lesley Robertson, violist, and one of the founding members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which has long been the quartet in residence at Stanford University. The other founder, violinist Geoff Nuttall, died of pancreatic cancer in the fall of 2022. Robertson celebrates the more than thirty year history of the ensemble with some of her favorites, including (of course) the father of the string quartet, Joseph Haydn. There's also music by Osvaldo Golijov, a dear friend to the ensemble, as well as a Music@Menlo performance of music of Anton Webern, and a choral work sung by iSing Silicon Valley.

She begins with the first movement of Haydn's Op. 20, No. 3. Press play to hear her introduction!

Then there's a 3-part work by Osvaldo Golijov, Lullaby and Doina (and the Gallop that follows):

From a Music@Menlo performance, here's the St. Lawrence Quartet with Anton Webern's Langsamer Satz:

The girl's choir iSing Silicon Valley is up next, with music of James MacMillan, Os Mutorum.

And her final selection, Haydn again, is from Op. 20, No. 5, the third movment.

Some final thoughts from Lesley Robertson...

And you can hear that opening of the Sunrise quartet by Haydn right here:

And to see Geoff Nuttall and the members of the St. Lawrence Quartet in action, here's a TEDx Talk they gave at Stanford, about Haydn's sense of humor...