Tuesday, April 19, 2008
8:00 p.m.
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
PAVEL HAAS QUARTET
Veronika Jaruskova, violin
Maria Fuxova, violin
Pavel Nikl, viola
Peter Jarusek, cello
At a time when one can still hear live performances by the great string quartets of the age—the Emerson, Takács, and Tokyo Quartets, for example—there is also a wealth of fine musicianship among younger quartets. That would certainly include the Pavel Haas Quartet from Czechoslovakia (Veronika Jaruskova and Maria Fuxova, violin; Pavel Nikl, viola; Peter Jarusek, cello). Winners of the most important string quartet competition, the Paolo Borciani Competition, in 2005, they are among a small number of newer performers honored by the European Concert Hall Organization. In 2007-08, the quartet will play concerts in London’s Barbican Centre and Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie in Cologne, and many other venues. Their Middlebury program will consist of Janácek’s "Kreutzer Sonata," Dvorák’s "American" Quartet, and Beethoven’s Opus 132. Sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series.
Reserved Seating. Tickets: $15/12/5
http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
Pre-performance dinner: Rehearsals Cafe, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $15
Program:
JANACEK Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata")
Adagio
Con moto
Con moto
Con moto
DVORAK Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 ("American")
Allegro ma non troppo
Lento
Molto vivace
Finale: Vivace ma non troppo
Intermission
BEETHOVEN Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
Assai sostenuto – Allegro
Allegro ma non tanto
Molto adagio
Alla Marcia, assai vivace
Allegro appassionato
For additional program notes, please contact Events and Residency Manager Allison Coyne Carroll at carroll@middlebury.edu
Ensemble Biography:
PAVEL HAAS QUARTET
Since winning the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy in Spring 2005, the Pavel Haas Quartet have quickly become known to audiences, critics and promoters around the world as one of today's most exciting young string quartets. Based in Prague, they have spent the past years travelling throughout Europe to study with some of the masters of the quartet world, including members of Quartetto Italiano, Quatuor Mosaiques and the Borodin and Amadeus Quartets. They continue to have a close association with Milan Skampa (Smetana Quartet) in Prague and Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) in Basel.
The 2006/7 season has seen the Pavel Haas Quartet perform extensively across Europe. Highlights have included concerts at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Philharmonie Essen and tours of Germany, Italy and Great Britain. Their performance at the Wigmore Hall in July 2007 will be followed by further concerts there in 2008 and beyond.
In 2006 the Quartet was nominated by the Cologne Philharmonie as one of the European Concert Hall Organisation's 'Rising Stars' and will tour ECHO venues throughout 2007/8. Tour dates include appearances at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Salzburg Mozarteum, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Cité de la Musique, Paris, Cologne Philharmonie, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Stockholm Konserthuset, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall, New York. Other forthcoming highlights include major tours of the USA, Japan and Australia, a debut at the Berlin Philharmonie, concerts in Barcelona and Madrid and return tours of the UK and Germany.
From September 2007 to September 2009 the Pavel Haas Quartet will be BBC New Generation Artists. This scheme selects twelve exceptionally talented young artists and groups to perform a number of BBC studio recordings and high profile UK engagements.
The Quartet's debut CD on Supraphon was released last year to outstanding reviews. The recording, of Haas Quartet No. 2 and Janacek Quartet No. 2 'Intimate Letters', was voted one of the CDs of 2006 by The Daily Telegraph, CD of the Week by BBC Radio 3 and Chamber Choice by BBC Music Magazine. Following its release the Quartet was named Newcomer of the Year in the 2007 BBC Music Magazine Awards. The Quartet's next disc will see them complete their recordings of the all the string quartet works by Haas and Janacek, featuring Janacek's Quartet No. 1 'Kreutzer Sonata' and Haas' Quartets Nos. 1 and 3.
The Quartet take their name from the Czech composer Pavel Haas (1899-1944) who was tragically deported from Czechoslovakia in 1941 and died at Auschwitz three years later. His legacy includes three wonderful string quartets. As well as Haas, the quartet are passionately committed to the Czech repertoire while their performances of Mozart and Beethoven have also received extraordinary acclaim.
Artist Websites:
http://www.artsmg.com/pavelhaas/haas.htm
http://www.intermusica.co.uk/artists/string-quartet/pavel-haas-quartet/biography
PRESS QUOTES:
"The Pavel Haas Quartet from the Czech Republic were sensational... their account of Beethoven's 3rd Rasumovsky quartet, from the miniscule pianissimo at the start to the thrilling, almost orgiastic Russian dance at the end, was breathtaking." --The Independent
"Newcomer of the Year" --BBC Music Magazine Awards 2007
"What is so impressive about this debut is the group's bold, original approach to this famous repertoire. They are technically beyond reproach and convey, with almost graphic immediacy, Janacek's searing passion. They present us with the finest, most vivid account of Haas's second quartet on disc. A very special group." --BBC Music Magazine, April 2007
"Czech chamber music making of the highest order, both in terms of the work and the performance… not just technically outstanding but also as emotionally committed as Janacek was to Kamila Stosslova… exhilarating… a match for just about any recording in the Czech tradition." --BBC Radio 3, Disc of the Week, December 2006
"...a brilliant and instructive recording of Janacek's oft-recorded Second Quartet. The prizewinning Pavel Haas Quartet comprises four relative youngsters, but the precise calibre of their ensemble, their minute attentiveness to one another and the subtle way each member is given space by the others at key solo moments both here and in Haas's Second Quartet make this not just an intelligent, fresh reading, but also a beautifully crisp, clear one." --The Strad, October 2006