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Dvorak: String Quartet No. 13 in G, B192
String Quintet in E flat, B180, 'American'
By Peter Rabinowitz

The young Pacifica Quartet are known for their passionate dedication to new music -- and their first release was devoted to the three quartets of Easley Blackwood, the last of which had been written specifically for them (reviewed in the September 2000 issue). As this splendid follow-up makes clear, however, the group has more in common with the versatile young Juilliard Quartet than with the more parochial Kronos or Arditti. For even in this familiar nineteenth-century terrain, they hold their own against the established mainstream ensembles.

True, the Pacifica show their modernist credentials by serving up finely detailed interpretations that favour intellectual coherence over rhapsodic gusto. In the tricky opening bars of the Quartet, for instance, or in the Scherzo of the Quintet, the exactitude of their rhythms, the focus of their tone and the concentration with which they treat articulation and dynamics give the gestures a definition next to which those of the more effusive Melos Quartet seem slightly approximate. Similarly, the transparency of their textures in the Quintet makes even The Lindsays seem clotted.

Yet for all their precision, the Pacifica performances are neither steely nor sterile. The lyrical passages, especially in the slow movements, are spun out eloquently; and the group's sensitivity to the music's kaleidoscopic colours -- coupled with the bold spring of their rhythms (listen, in particular, to the infectious conclusion of the Quintet) and the keen differentiation of voices in the more conversational passages -- invests the faster music with tremendous vitality, even at unhurried tempos. The Pacifica may be more refined, less hearty, than, say, the Talich (the feathery touch of the quietest passages is almost miraculous), but they're never fragile. And while they may sacrifice something of Dvor·k's rough humour, they compensate by giving these works -- rarely celebrated for their concision -- an unexpected cogency.

Michael Tree is a superb collaborator and it was an inspired idea to have literary critic (and amateur cellist) Wayne Booth team up with musicologist Yonatan Malin for the detailed notes. The engineering is up to Cedille's usual high standards, too. Enthusiastically recommended.