Reviews

The Pacifica String Quartet

MUSIC REVIEW- THE NEWS-TIMES, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2004

Pacifica Quartet gives first class performance

By Jim Pegolotti
NEWS-TIMES MUSIC CORRESPONDENT

NEWTOWN – Sunday’s concert by the Pacifica Quartet – four young musicians with the intriguing last names of Ganatra, Bernhardsson, Per Rostad and Vamos – brought ensemble playing of the first rank to a capacity audience in Edmond Town Hall.

These vibrant and personable musicians currently call the Midwest their home, where they have prestigious faculty residencies at both the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and the University of Chicago.

To prove their versatility in musical styles, the Pacifica musicians concluded the concert with the bright sounds of the world of Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847).

The weather outside was springlike, but Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violinists, Masumi Per Rostad, violist, and Brandon Vamos, cellist, were in no rush to enjoy the weather.Instead they provided the audience with three major works of the quartet repertoire:Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet in E-flat Major “Harp,” Paul Hindemith’s String Quartet, Op.22, No.3, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in D Major, Op.44, No.1.

Beethoven’s “Harp” quartet, one of his so-called middle period chamber works, takes its name from some of the unique plucking sounds of the instruments in the first movement. It is full of Beethoven trademarks, including dramatic changes in intensity and calm, reflective melodies. The musicians provided both brashness and pliancy as needed. However nothing in the theme and variations of the final movement prepared the listener for the brilliance of the final measures. Here the four instrumentalists nearly set their wooden instruments on fire with a prestissimo ending not soon to be forgotten.

Paul Hindemith (1895 – 1963) taught at Yale from 1940 to 1953. As violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson explained to the audience, Hindemith’s influence on music students persists today through the use of the German-born composer’s texts on music and composing. Hindemith’s third string quartet emerged in 1922 from a Germany in turmoil. It has a significant dark side, emphasized by the scoring, which persistently emphasizes the lower tones of all four instruments.

Hindemith, though a modernist, is seldom dissonant, and usually modestly lyrical. In several movements, certain folk elements appeared, with the instruments strummed as guitars, while in the concluding rondo movement, the brilliant violin of Ganatra seemed pitted against some dark force of the world. Cellist Vamos and violist Per Rostad gave special energy to the Hindemith score, and overall it was a compassionate performance of this work.

To prove their versatility in musical styles, the Pacifica musicians concluded the concert with the bright sounds of the world of Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847). The Quartet in D Major provides two outer movements of brisk melody, contrasted with two quieter inner movements.

Though there was not one of Mendelssohn’s trademark scherzos, the finale made up for it with a saltarello, a “jumpy” Italian dance that prefigured the lively final movement of the composer’s Italian Symphony. All was performed in perfect rhythm and intonation, and, as throughout the concert, the control of dynamics was impeccable.

It should be noted that Simin Ganatra, the first violin, was admirable in her leadership. With flawless playing, echoed by violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson, she never relied on mannerisms to bring attention to herself. Yes, at times a certain rhythmic pulse would cause the four to sway in unison, but that made it all the more evident that they were imbued with the passion of the music.

All in all a terrific concert. But the impact of the Pacifica Quartet did not end there. On Monday morning, at Newtown High School, they met with the music students. With the Meserve Foundation providing funds for this event, the quartet members played for the students “up close and personal.” They also listened to the students perform and gave them technical tips. But perhaps the best advice given was to always play with “heart and conviction.” On Sunday the Pacifica Quartet proved they practice what they preach.