The Pacifica Quartet has released its new album The Korngold Collection on the Cedille Records label.

The release features Erich Wolfgang Korngold's three string quartets: No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16, No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 26, and No. 3 in D Major, Op. 34, as well as the Piano Quintet in E Major, Op. 15, and the String Sextet in D Major, Op. 10. The quartet is joined on the final two works by pianist Orion Weiss, violist Milena Pájao-van de Stadt, and cellist Eric Kim.

While Korngold is associated closely with his film soundtracks, this album showcases the composer as a lauded creator of chamber music. Several of the works on the album's program, such as the Piano Quintet, demonstrate Korngold's tendency to draw on his other compositions.

"We believe that this music should be played, and we want younger musicians to be out there playing it," said Brandon Vamos, the cellist of the Pacifica Quartet. "It is so special, communicative, expressive, with incredible harmonies and melodies, and such a unique voice that only Korngold has. A child prodigy and proclaimed genius by Mahler at the age of ten, it's amazing to see how well the music is written."

"It has emotion that really reaches a listener, and we hope people will realize the greatness of this music," Vamos continued.

Find the full album below:

 

The Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet, which consists of violinists Simin Ganatra and Austin Hartman, violist Mark Holloway, and cellist Brandon Vamos, was founded in 1994 and has won accolades including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, Chamber Music America's Cleveland Quartet Award, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. The ensemble is currently the quartet-in-residence at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where they have served for ten years, and leads the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School.