Press: Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets
The dynamic, Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra’s 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 York’s 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 McGill’s first commercially released album as featured soloist and his Cedille Records debut. This is the Pacifica Quartet’s ninth Cedille album. The album’s producer is multiple Grammy-winner Judith Sherman.