Hard to Spell, Easy to Enjoy

Spell checkers go a bit crazy when anyone writes about the Pacifica Quartet. With names like Simin Ganatra, Masumi Per Rostad, Brandon Vamos, and Sibbi Bernhardsson, there’s lots of double-checking to get the names right. Even so, they admit that people still mix up their names.

The names may run the ethnic gamut from Pakistani to Japanese to Hungarian to Russian to Icelandic, but the music they produce highlights their cohesiveness and closeness. They’ve been together a long time, and known each other even longer — since they were teenagers. “All of us knew that this was the type of music and music-making we wanted to do,” says Bernhardsson.

Since then, they’ve made a name for themselves as an award-winning and mesmerizing string quartet and as champions of contemporary music. They are in demand for performances around the world, in addition to being the Faculty Quartet in Residence at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and the Quartet in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they just finished performing the entire Shostakovich quartet cycle (Rostad notes that “there seemed to be a lot of Russians attending those concerts”). In addition to a Grammy win and other honors, they’re also only the second chamber music ensemble to win the Avery Fisher Career Grant (in 2006).

It’s obvious that any chance to hear the Pacifica Quartet perform will be musically interesting and rewarding. Like all great musicians, they’re always excited about upcoming performances. But there’s an undercurrent of additional excitement when they speak about their upcoming appearance as part of the San Francisco Performances series. Not only are they returning to a city they enjoy and the West Coast, where they got their start, but Bernhardsson also calls their presenter’s skill at showcasing them “a good example of what should be.” They’re excited, too, about the music; Rostad simply refers to it as “a really cool program.” And it’s a chance for them to work again with clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann. Says Rostad, “He’s a beautiful player.” Bernhardsson agrees, calling him “one of the most important composers in Europe and a fantastic clarinetist.”

Widmann and the Pacifica Quartet first worked together five years ago. Now they’ll be performing that same piece the five of them played at that time, Brahms’ Quintet in B Minor for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 115. The quartet will also perform a new composition by Widmann, Quartet No. 3, Hunting Quartet. To say that they’re excited about being able to work with a living composer and get his input on their interpretation of his work is a mild description of their enthusiasm.

It’s a performance that is shaping up to be interesting and challenging, a mix of old and new, and well worth putting on your personal calendar to attend.