Some might argue otherwise, but working the classical beat for the Georgia Straight doesn’t allow for the asking of many stupid questions. So it was amusing to pull up a press release for the Borealis String Quartet, obviously written prior to October 26, and find the local foursome flaunting their connection to a certain disgraced CBC Radio host—and even more amusing to use it as an excuse to ask what’s probably the second-stupidest question of my journalistic career.

Did Jian Ghomeshi keep his hands to himself while presiding over the photogenic violinist Patricia Shih and her Borealis colleagues’ first radio broadcast, circa 2004?

“Yes, yes he did,” says the ensemble’s other violinist, Yuel Yawney, in a telephone interview from his home in Richmond. “He behaved himself, and there is nothing that is newsworthy to report there.”

Asked if he’d cleared that answer with his lawyers, Yawney laughs and allows that both the news release and the scandal were “unfortunate in so many ways”. “But he [Ghomeshi] did have a positive influence at the beginning of our career, when we were performing for the Great Canadian Music Dream competition,” he continues. “We won the B.C.–Yukon division and went to the finals in Toronto—which was quite astonishing in that we were the only classical group competing. The others were more in the popular vein, or world music—that sort of thing. So it was wonderful that people responded so well to what we play.”

The Borealis musicians made their mark with a zippy and abridged rendition of the final movement from Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 9 in C Major but also through their energy, dynamics, and enthusiasm. “The passion that we have is very palpable to our audiences,” says Yawney, “and that draws them in.”

Further expression of the quartet’s creative approach to classical music will be found in its upcoming Centuries: A Sonic Journey program, in which Shih, Yawney, violist Nikita Pogrebnoy, and cellist Bo Peng will traverse four centuries of classical music in 100-year intervals, beginning with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata for Violin and Continuo in C Minor. Here, too, they’re taking some liberties: while Bach’s original was penned for violin and harpsichord, they’ll be playing a new arrangement by Iranian-born, Vancouver-based composer Farshid Samandari.

“In the context of this program, we wanted something written early, but there isn’t anything actually in the repertoire written for string quartets at that time, 1714. The string quartet, as a genre, didn’t really exist. But Farshid was able to find that piece, and he’s done a wonderful arrangement which brings out all the counterpoint that’s so typical of Bach. Each individual instrument has an active role, so it’s a pleasure to play.”

From there, the Borealis players will progress through Franz Schubert’s Quartettsatz in C Minor [D. 103], from 1814, and Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet, written at the start of the First World War, before concluding their survey with a score so new it’s not yet complete.

“We’re getting it in installments, but it’s looking to be a very nice piece,” Yawney says of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra music director Bramwell Tovey’s Did You Ever Dance With Him?. “Of course, I’m really going out on a limb here because I have’t had a good chance to dig in to it, but it seems to be a contrast between lyricism and a strong intensity of sound. It’s thematic: he has in mind the onset of World War I in 1914, and he was intrigued by some writings about the prime minister of England at that time, the mistress he had had, and their mutual friend, a young soldier who passed away early in the war. And the question arose, ‘Did you ever dance with him?’ Hence the title.

“He has dramatic contrasts, from fortissimo with forced distorted tones to a very sublime, soft, and more intimate sound,” the violinist continues, “but also interspersed with dancelike elements, obviously referencing the title. So I’m quite excited about putting it together with my colleagues.”

The Borealis String Quartet plays the Orpheum Annex on Friday (November 14).