PAVEL HAAS QUARTET

Pavel Haas Quartet is recording a new album and settin off on a concert tour in Europe, Australia and South Korea

CONCERTS AROUND EUROPE AND COLLABORATIONS WITH EXCEPTIONAL MUSICIANS

The internationally successful Pavel Haas Quartet is performing on February 18th and 21st at the Wigmore Hall in London, where they’ll be playing with the Scottish percussionist Colin Currie in a program consisting of music by Czech composers Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Pavel Haas, and the English premiere of the Quintet for two violins, viola, cello and marimba by Jiří Gemrot. For their concerts in Spain, France and Denmark (see tour dates below for more info), Pavel Haas Quartet will collaborate with the outstanding German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka, the Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin and with the Argentinian mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink.

The most important date this year for all admirers of the multiple award-winning Pavel Haas Quartet is April 17th, when Supraphon is releasing their sixth studio album (SU 4172–2). Following their 2014 Gramophone Award-winning recording of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor ‚Death and the Maiden‘ and the Quintet in C major, the Quartet are returning once again to the work of a Czech composer.

On their new CD the Quartet will be playing Bedřich Smetana’s Quartet No. 1 in E minor ‚From My Life‘ and Quartet No. 2 in D minor. Supraphon is releasing the album globally on the same day, and it will also be available on digital music services such as iTunes or Spotify.

You can, however, have a taster right now by watching the live performance of the first movement of Smetana’s Quartet No. 1 ‚From My Life‘ at http://y2u.be/daHu4cy4NDM. The members of the Quartet discuss their close relationship to Smetana’s music in the accompanying video at http://y2u.be/M4a6ROCfieA.

A PRESTIGIOUS RESIDENCY AND DISTANT JOURNEYS

Apart from the concerts already mentioned, during the first half of this year the Pavel Haas Quartet will take up the highly prestigious residency at the Bodenseefestival, which has taken place for the past 25 years close to Lake Constance. The Quartet will be also organising a masterclass as part of the festival. A further highpoint of the first half of the year for the Quartet will be their participation in the renowned Australian Musica Viva Festival and a concert in South Korea in June.

“If we didn’t rehearse hard we wouldn’t have anything to risk or any direction in which to develop. We understand the music perfectly, as this is the only way that we can penetrate to it's heart and create something lasting on stage that will stay with the audience,” said the cellist Peter Jarůšek about their preparations for this concert tour.

THE FAMOUS ENSEMBLE IN THREE SENTENCES

Pavel Haas Quartet was formed in 2002 and bears the name of Pavel Haas (1899–1944), a Czech composer of the first half of the 20th century. Since 2004 the Quartet has won many prestigious awards, including first place in the Prague Spring International Music Festival, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice, the MIDEM Classical Award, and three Gramophone awards (including the Recording of the Year Award). The Quartet consists of Veronika Jarůšková – 1st violin, Marek Zwiebel – 2nd violin, Pavel Nikl – viola and Peter Jarůšek – cello.

The British magazine Gramophone wrote that the Pavel Haas Quartet "represents the best qualities of the Czech tradition – warmth, sonorousness, individuality, intensity.”