Pavel Haas Quartet

In the 2018/19 season the Quartet will perform three concerts at the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague as artist-in-residence of the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society. They will return to the Edinburgh International, Schubertiade and East Neuk Festivals as well as to the Wigmore Hall, Paris Théâtre de la Ville, Bozar, Munich Herkulessal, De Doelen, Florence’s Teatro della Pergola, Philharmonie Essen, the Oslo Quartet Series and tour to the US and Canada.

The Pavel Haas Quartet record exclusively for Supraphon. For their latest release in autumn 2017 of Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 and String Quintet No. 3 with Boris Giltburg and their former member, Pavel Nikl, they were awarded their fifth Gramophone Chamber Music Award. Diapason d’Or chose the disc as Album of the Month and commented: “It is difficult to overestimate their expressive intensity and opulent sound production… …Robust or lyrical, rounded or trenchant, tenderly bucolic or tempestuous, the musicians embrace and revel in it all.” The Quartet’s recording of Smetana’s String Quartets Nos 1 & 2 was awarded both a BBC Music Magazine Award and a Gramophone Chamber Music Award in 2015 and they won the same prize in 2014 for their recording of Schubert’s String Quartet ‘Death and the Maiden’ and the String Quintet with cellist Danjulo Ishizaka. Their account of Dvořák’s String Quartets No.12 ‘American’ and No.13 was awarded both the Gramophone Chamber Music Award and the most coveted prize, Recording of the Year in 2011. The Sunday Times commented: ‘Their account of the ‘American’ Quartet belongs alongside the greatest performances on disc.’ The Quartet also won the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2010 for their recording featuring Prokofiev’s String Quartets Nos 1 & 2, and received yet another Gramophone Chamber Music Award in 2007 for their disc of Janáček’s Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ and Haas’s Quartet No.2 ‘From the Monkey Mountains’.

In spring 2005, the Quartet won the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy and in 2007 the Cologne Philharmonie nominated them as ECHO Rising Stars, resulting in a tour to major concert halls worldwide. The Quartet took part in the BBC New Generation Artists scheme between 2007-2009, and in 2010 was awarded the Special Ensemble Scholarship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

The Quartet are based in Prague and studied with the late Milan Skampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet. They take their name from the Czech composer Pavel Haas (1899-1944) who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in 1941 and tragically died at Auschwitz three years later. His legacy includes three wonderful string quartets.

2018/19 season / 481 words. Not to be altered without permission.