Miami Sun-Sentinel Miami Sun-Sentinel December 10, 2003 By Alan Becker, Special Correspondent Ensemble in residence at both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, in less than a decade the Pacifica has managed to achieve status as one of the best quartets playing today. The reasons could clearly be heard in Sunday's program. Mendelssohn's Quartet in E-flat was an excellent choice to begin the concert. Although this early work does not have one of the celebrated scherzos that were to bring fame to the composer, the brief Canzonetta movement has a gossamer central section that seems to have wandered in from his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Pacifica players caught all the joy and creative subtlety the young composer built into his music, and played with ravishing tone and a rare unanimity. Haydn's Lark Quartet in D major, Op. 64, no. 5, is a deceptively simple-sounding composition that represents the composer at his sunniest. Once again, the Pacifica Quartet gave a superlative performance that banished all thoughts of any difficulties. This was not "edge of the seat" playing, yet their assured style prevented any sense that mere virtuosic display has taken over at the expense of purely musical values. The performance of Dvorak's Quartet in D minor, Op. 34, gave us the opportunity to hear the composer at his understated best. Fully realizing Dvorak's horizontal harmonics and his unique ability to advance things along through ostinatos, short rhythmic motifs and tremolos, the players were able to convince without hitting us over the head. As an encore, in memory of Miami Beach composer Maurice Gardner, a movement from his Quartet No. 5 was played. Gardner wrote the piece for the Pacifica Quartet, and they captured all the Bartok-like Magyar elements to perfection. Alan Becker is a freelance writer in Davie.