When last heard in Cleveland, the Pacifica Quartet threw caution to the strings and performed the five avant-garde quartets of Elliott Carter - in one evening. The group was back Tuesday at Oberlin College's Finney Chapel with more intriguing music, though firmly rooted in tonality.

The Pacifica musicians brought the same expressive intensity and flexibility to quartets by Mendelssohn, Hindemith, and Smetana that they had applied to Carter two seasons ago. This is a group that breathes as one, trades phrases with subtle generosity and switches character easily on demand.

Mendelssohn's moody Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, is another remarkable creation by a precocious 18-year-old. How this young composer could plumb the emotional depths with such cogency is one of those Mendelssohnian miracles.

The score's darkness found elegant champions in the Pacifica players - violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson (both Oberlin alumni), violist Masumi Per Rostad and cellist Brandon Vamos. Every lyrical gesture proceeded with utmost inevitability, the slow movement's inspired lines touched with special poetry, and the dramatic episodes received impassioned shading.

The musicians were keenly attuned to the stark contrasts in Hindemith's Quartet No. 3, Op. 22. Its five movements explore a spectrum of atmospheres and musical arguments. Hindemith, who played most of the instruments for which he wrote, tests the resiliency of his interpreters in his richly woven narratives. The Pacifica players worked beautifully en masse and as solo voices.

A listener could feel like an earsdropper while immersed in Smetana's Quartet No. 1 in E minor. Subtitled "From My Life," the score is the Czech composer's musical diary, including a reference to his increasing deafness (the high E in the first violin in the finale).

The Pacifica's performance conveyed Smetana's gamut of sentiments with warm, robust urgency. The folksy moments had enormous kick, the quiet passages patience and breadth. This was bold artistry.

For something entirely different, the Pacifica goosed a Piazzolla tango as an encore. Here is music so seduced by itself that it erupts in a series of upward slides. Very racy. Very nice.