STUTTGARTER ZEITUNG DANCE ON SIXTEEN STRINGS Impressive performance by the young Pacifica Quartet in Mozart Hall November 10, 2005 The Scherzo sweeps by the audience like an elusive, mysterious will-o-the-wisp. The young American Pacifica Quartet played Bela Bartok’s Fourth String Quartet with dizzying speed, ghostly pianissimo, and breathtaking intensity in the Mozart Hall. With great passion, the four players enjoyed to the fullest the deceptively simple motives and Bartok’s purposefully stark contrasts in this five-movement quartet. Despite the tightly structured music, the Pacific seeks out the melodic, the musical gestures. Powerful effects like the percussive rapping with the wood of the bow on the strings, hollow tones when the musicians draw their bows across the bridge, the rasping notes of the pizzicato, all demonstrate a rich culture of sound and an intensity of expression. Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson (violins), Masumi Per Rostad (viola), and Brandon Vamos (cello) celebrate the quiet middle movement with delicacy and the instinctive sureness of a sleepwalker, and they approach the Coda of the finale with excited, passionate playing. A willingness to take risks without ever losing control is an outstanding quality of the Pacifica Quartet, which is barely known here. The musicians attack Josef Haydn’s String Quartet Opus 71 No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Quartet No. 1 with tremendous verve. Slower sections glow with rich and colorful musicality. Crackling tension and light-footed dance dominate the filigreed detail of the classical movements. The interplay between the dance mode and the lyricism of the central movements in both Haydn and Tchaikovsky is particularly delightful. The audience rewards the Quartet with rousing applause. The Pacifica Quartet, which has already received renowned chamber music prizes in the United States, is a real discovery. Although its technique is of the highest order and its musicality far transcends mere routine, this Quartet is truly distinguished by its proverbial “instinctive understanding” and unified breath.