Declarations: Music Between the Wars Cedille Records CDR 90000 092 November 18, 2006 By Geoffrey Norris With typical adventurousness of programming, the exceptional Pacifica Quartet has put together a trio of works written between the two world wars, not necessarily drawing any parallels but illustrating the diversity of expression that can be voiced through the quartet medium. The earliest piece here is Hindemith’s Quartet No 4 of 1922, a tough, furrow-browed work, played here with a fine blend of sinew and sensibility. The String Quartet (1931) by the American composer Ruth Crawford Seeger is grittily atonal, but the absence of any harmonic centre is amply compensated for by the ingenuity of the textures, sometimes haunting, sometimes vividly expressionist, and often with spry, quick-fire interplay between the instruments. Janácek’s passionate writing in his Second String Quartet (“Intimate Letters”), and the Pacifica’s astute, spontaneous way of playing it, poignantly attest to the mix of anguish and tenderness that coloured the composer’s relationship with the young Kamila Stösslová, a love affair that, despite (or perhaps because of) its tribulations, fuelled some of his finest late music.