PAVEL HAAS QUARTET NOTCH UP THEIR THIRD GRAMOPHONE AWARD!

On Wednesday 27 August 2014, Gramophone magazine announced the winners of the Gramophone Awards 2014. The Pavel Haas Quartet’s Supraphon album featuring Schubert works was named Recording of the Year in the Chamber category. The Gramophone Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 17 September 2014 at St John’s in Westminster.

Britain’s Gra­mophone Awards, dubbed the “classical music Oscars”, have for 38 years been bestowed by Gramophone magazine critics. The monthly, published since 1923, contains CD reviews, interviews, artist portraits, as well as articles about the latest trends in the development of audiovisual technology. From among hundreds of recordings released between 1 June and 31 May, the jury shortlists the best six for each of the categories and at the end of August announces the award-winners – see here: www.gramophone.co.uk/awards/2014

The Pavel Haas Quartet have won this year’s Gramophone Award in the Chamber category for their Supraphon album featuring Franz Schubert’s String Quintet and String Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden”. “It is a great honour for us! We are thrilled that our interpretation of Schubert has captivated world-renowned specialists amid fierce competition from a host of other new recordings. After all, these are major chamber opuses that have been recorded more than a thousand times…,” says Pavel Haas Quartet cellist Peter Jarůšek.

CELEBRATION OF CZECH MUSIC AT WIGMORE HALL

The feted ensemble, however, are by no means resting on their laurels. Far from it. In the new season, the Pavel Haas Quartet will join a special Wigmore Hall project which within four performances will present Czech music, including works by Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček and Bedřich Smetana, as well as the contemporary composer Jiří Gemrot, who has written a new piece for the Pavel Haas Quartet. The ensemble have invited along to the individual concerts internationally renowned guests: the mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, the pianist Nicolas Angelich and the percussionist Colin Currie. The first concert, on 7 September in London, will feature Bernarda Fink singing Janáček’s Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs and the Pavel Haas Quartet performing Intimate Letters. The concerts will subsequently be held in November in Brussels and Amsterdam.

A NEW SUPRAPHON ALBUM IN THE PIPELINE

“In the autumn we’ll start making a new Supraphon album. We as an ensemble deem it important to always record music emotionally close to us. This time it will be the complete Bedřich Smetana string quartets.

String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, “From My Life”, and String Quartet No. 2 in D minor. The CD is scheduled to be released next year,” Peter Jarůšek reveals.

GERMAN TOUR AND MORE BY YEAR’S END

Before giving several autumn concerts in Germany (Nuertingen, Erlangen, Goettingen), the Pavel Haas Quartet will appear on 2 November at the Saloncino del Teatro della Pergola in Florence and on 8 November at the Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht. Besides works by Czech composers, the programme will also include Dmitry Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor. At the end of November and the beginning of December, the ensemble are also scheduled to appear in Luxembourg and Austria. The Pavel Haas Quartet will round off this year’s concert activity on 13 December with another London performance.