Product Description
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The dynamic, Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet and
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestras superstar clarinetist Anthony
McGill join forces for the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms
widely considered the greatest chamber works for clarinet and
strings. Both are mature masterworks inspired by phenomenal
clarinetists of the day. The Pacifica Quartet and clarinetist
McGill have concertized coast-to-coast, performing the quintets
for enthusiastic audiences in the San Francisco Bay area; St.
Paul, Minn.; Chicago, Boston, and other cultural centers,
including an in-studio concert from New Yorks WQXR radio. The San
Jose Mercury News lauded their approach to the Mozart Quintet:
What a sweet kiss of a performance: mellifluous, ephemeral,
luxuriously fine. The San Francisco Chronicle called the
collaboration a model of conviviality and responsiveness. A Twin
Cities reviewer said the artists engaging performance of the
Brahms Quintet made the melodies feel almost improvisational and
praised the seamless integration of the clarinet and strings.
Mozart & Brahms Clarinet Quintets is McGills first commercially
released album as featured soloist and his Cedille Records debut.
This is the Pacifica Quartets ninth Cedille album. The albums
producer is multiple Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. Record buyers
are familiar with the Pacifica Quartets polished, full-blooded
approach to late-classical repertoire from the ensembles multi-CD
set of Mendelssohns complete string quartets on Cedille Records.
Gramophone called it one of the best, lauding the quartets
distinctive tonal quality, clear and luminous. Londons Daily
Telegraph praised the box set as the new benchmark for its ideal
Mendelssohnian blend of fire and grace. The St. Louis
Post-Dispatch procled it sets a new gold standard [for these
works] bring[ing] a freshness and emotional commitment to these
appealing compositions. The Pacifica demonstrated its prowess in
late Romantic repertoire on its Cedille album of Dvoáks String
Quartet No. 13 and String Quintet, Op. 97, with guest violist
Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet. American Record Guide said,
The playing is wonderful,while Strings magazine said the Cedille
exemplifies the power of Dvoáks Quintet. The Pacifica
Quartets 2014 North American concert schedule includes Pasadena,
Calif.; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Bloomington, Ind.; Rochester,
N.Y.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. European tour cities include Antwerp, Belgium;
Paris, France; London and Manchester, England; Mannheim and
Munich, Germany; and Florence, Italy. In addition to his regular
performances as principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera,
McGills 2014 concert schedule includes engagements as soloist
with the Baltimore Symphony and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras
and with Philadelphias Orchestra 2001 and chamber music
performances with the Schumann Trio and Pacifica Quartet.
Review
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"...The collaborations in both pieces have a sense of
and flexible unity, as if the musicians had worked
meticulously on every detail of phrasing, balance and pacing.
The performances are sleek, in the best sense of the word, with
an emphasis on the Classical side of these works. The Mozart
quintet sounds at once noble and buoyant, its transcendent second
movement almost floating on air, and the variations of the finale
are deftly characterised." --Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone,
December 2015