Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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The mighty Pacifica Quartet celebrated the Library's Stradivari Anniversary with a pair of concerts designed to give more listeners a chance to hear our fabled instruments in person. Straddling a century of American music, the concert included several works held in manuscript at the Library—George Crumb's "Black Angels" for amplified string quartet and the first version of Samuel Barber's famous "Adagio for Strings." Charles Ives' fascinating second quartet rounded out the first half, followed by Dvořák's op. 96 quartet, the perennial favorite nicknamed the "American." This video includes excerpts from the performance of works by Ives and Dvořák.

Program:

[0:00] Introduction
[8:19] Charles Ives
String Quartet no. 2

[33:50] Antonín Dvořák
String Quartet in F major, op. 96, "American"

Participants:
Pacifica Quartet
Austin Hartman and Simin Ganatra, violinist
Mark Holloway, violist
Brandon Vamos, cellist

For transcript and more information, visit loc.gov/item/video-11659