This is the second instalment in the Pacifica Quartet’s three-disc project exploring the ‘sounds of America’ in anticipation of the 250th anniversary in 2026 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Pacifica’s commitment to representing the diversity of American voices is reflected by the selection of composers on each release.

The inclusion of a repertoire staple as ubiquitous as Dvořák’s Op 96 to begin the album is intended to sound the theme of American folk music as a fertile source for composers – more specifically, in the form of the African American Spiritual, which the visiting Czech composer famously praised as the most authentic foundation for ‘future music in [America]’. The claim that Dvořák actually derived some of his material from such sources is a matter of dispute – violinist Austin Hartman’s booklet notes take this assertion at face value – but what matters here is the validation to do so that he was perceived to have given to American composers who heeded his advice.

The Pacifica’s warmth of phrasing, dynamic control and superbly coordinated ensemble balance make for a pleasurably engaging account that accentuates the work’s unfeigned simplicity and even homespun aspects. Yet what illuminates Dvořák’s familiar score is the context in which Pacifica embed it by juxtaposing three later works that blend the American vernacular with the string quartet idiom. Florence Price’s String Quartet in G from 1929, which preceded her increasingly recognised orchestral oeuvre, has survived in only two movements. Hartman, who takes no position on whether this is an unfinished torso, suggests that its folk-like aspects draw on the music Price knew from her native Little Rock.

The most interesting discovery on the album is the music of Louis Gruenberg, the son of Russian immigrants who studied piano as a boy at the National Conservatory in New York while Dvořák served as its director. Remarkably versatile, Gruenberg found success composing for Hollywood but also produced a prolific catalogue of operas and concert music. The Pacifica’s account of Four Diversions from 1930 brings out his savvy assimilation of dance, jazz and folk elements of the era with electrifying vitality.

Commissioned specifically for ‘American Voices’, James Lee III’s Pitch In is the most recent of the Michigan-born composer’s several collaborations with the Pacifica Quartet. Lee sets a text by the poet Sylvia Dianne Beverly (‘Lady Di’) that calls attention to food insecurity. His well-intentioned score conveys its social justice message through an expansion of the string quartet medium to include a children’s choir, the Chicago-based Uniting Voices (beautifully prepared here by their president, Josephine Lee).