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Product Description ------------------- 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 ------ "...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