The Pavel Haas Quartet was founded in 2002 by the violinist Veronika
Jarůšková and the violist Pavel Nikl, who was a member of the ensemble until
2016, when he left due to family reasons. Yet their collaboration has
continued – Pavel Nikl has been the ensemble’s permanent guest for
string quintet performances. Since 2004, the second violin has been played by
Kateřina Gemrotová Penková, Marie Fuxová and Eva Karová Krestová. Since
2016, the viola has been played by Radim Sedmidubský.
Following their victory in the Prague Spring Festival Competition and Premio
Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 2005, the Pavel Haas Quartet soon
established themselves as one of the world’s most exciting contemporary
chamber ensembles. Performing at the most renowned concert venues around the
globe, the PHQ have to date recorded six critically acclaimed CDs, which have
received numerous prestigious awards. The ensemble members studied with Milan
Škampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet, with whom they have
worked and been friends over the long term.
In 2007, the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) named the Pavel Haas
Quartet one of its Rising Stars, following which they were afforded the
opportunity to give numerous high-profile concert appearances all over the
world. Between 2007 and 2009, the Pavel Haas Quartet held the title of BBC New
Generation Artist. In 2010, the ensemble was granted a classical music
fellowship from the Borletti–Buitoni Trust.
The Pavel Haas Quartet have exclusively recorded for Supraphon. Their very first
album (2006), featuring Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate
Letters”, and Pavel Haas’s String Quartet No. 2, “From the Monkey
Mountains”, earned the ensemble their first Gramophone Award. The Daily
Telegraph named it CD of the Year. The second album, completing the mapping of
Leoš Janáček’s and Pavel Haas’s quartet works, garnered enormous
acclaim too. Gramophone wrote about it: “To describe a CD as musically
important is to court a certain level of controversy … but I'll stick my neck
out and claim extreme importance for this release.” Their third CD, featuring
both Sergey Prokofiev quartets and the Sonata for Two Violins, won
France’s Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2010. The fourth album, containing
Antonín Dvořák’s quartets in F major, the “American”, Op. 96, and in G
major, Op. 106, received the 2011 Gramophone Award in the Chamber category, as
well as the most coveted prize of all: Recording of the Year. The Sunday Times
gave the album the highest possible rating: “Their account of the American
Quartet belongs alongside the greatest performances on disc. In this repertoire,
they are simply matchless today.” In 2014, the Pavel Haas Quartet received yet
another Gramophone Award, for the album of Schubert’s String Quartet in D
minor, “Death and the Maiden”, and String Quintet, recorded with the German
cellist Danjulo Ishizaka. Their most recent CD, featuring Smetana’s String
Quartets Nos 1 and 2 (2015), earned the ensemble their fourth Gramophone Award
and second BBC Music Magazine Award. Gramophone emphasised that: “Their sound
is, as ever, immediately recognisable – partly due to the sheer richness of
timbre but also the sense of four personalities at play… At times it is hard
to believe you are in the presence of only four players, so intense is the
sound”.