Declarations: Music Between the Wars

"Like so many recent Cedille releases, the repertoire is so intelligently chosen (all three works are roughly contemporaneous, dating from 1922-31), so interestingly varied, and the engineering so impressively lifelike, that this disc adds up to considerably more than the sum of its highly enjoyable parts. This is a challenging release, but one that no admirer of top-notch quartet playing will want to miss. It provides an excellent opportunity to get to know music that many collectors might not otherwise rank high on their list of priorities, but that is well worth hearing nonetheless. In short, this is everything that an important new recording should be."(ClassicsToday.com)

On its new CD, Declarations, the Pacifica Quartet mines the artistic ferment of the interwar years with a program of gems from the 1920s and early 30s. Hindemith's stunning String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22 (1922) takes listeners on an amazing musical journey. Janácek's fervent String Quartet No. 2 ("Intimate Letters") from 1928 expresses the mature composer's white-hot passion for a much younger woman. And the Pacifica revives the most significant composition by American Ruth Crawford Seeger: her dramatic 1931 String Quartet, which noted composer and critic Virgil Thomson hailed as "a noble piece of work."

The "magnificently polished" (New York Times) Pacifica Quartet delivers precisely what these inventive and emotionally complex works demand: "playing of the most sublime kind, utterly absorbing in its subtle expressiveness." (London Daily Telegraph). Hear for yourself why so many critics have declared their admiration for the Pacifica Quartet and its musical choices.