Steve Smith on the Pacifica Quartet

"Cycles are nothing new for the Pacifica Quartet, which recorded all of Mendelssohn’s quartets for the Cedille label from 2002 to 2004 and which firmly cemented its place among today’s elite ensembles with its complete traversals of Elliott Carter’s five string quartets in concerts at the Miller Theater in 2002 and at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in 2008. The Pacifica recorded Mr. Carter’s works for the Naxos label. The first volume won a Grammy Award, and the feat made a durable impression, not least on the composer himself. 'Obviously I never had the idea that these pieces would all be played in a string,' Mr. Carter said in a recent conversation at his Greenwich Village apartment. 'They were not composed like that. Each one’s about 10 years apart. What interested me was the fact that one string quartet related to another one, but that they understood how to keep it as though they were not all sounding alike. I thought they caught that very well, and that impressed me a good deal.' For the Pacifica members, working with Mr. Carter helped to enrich their understanding and interpretation of his works" ("An Ensemble with Many Homes Finds Another," New York Times, 10/18/09).