Pavel Haas Quartet

The Pavel Haas Quartet has been called “the world’s most exciting string quartet” (Gramophone). Since winning the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy in spring 2005, they have established themselves as one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles, performing at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and recording six awardwinning CDs. Based in Prague, the quartet studied with Milan Skampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet, and still enjoy a close relationship with him.

In the 2017/18 season the quartet will give their debuts at Vienna Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin and the Taipei National Concert Hall. They will perform Martinů's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra with the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra under Tomáš Netopil in the orchestra's season opening concerts. They will return to the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, LG Arts Center Seoul, SWR Schwetzinger Musikfestspiele and tour to the US and Asia.

The Pavel Haas Quartet record exclusively for Supraphon, and their next recording of Dvorak's String Quintet No. 3 with violist and former member of the Pavel Haas Quartet Pavel Nikl, and Piano Quintet No. 2 with Boris Giltburg will be released in autumn 2017. Their previous 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. This is the fourth time the quartet have received this prestigious award, and Gramophone commented: ‘Their sound is, as always, immediately recognisable – partly due to the sheer richness of timbre but also the sense of four personalities at play… at times it’s hard to believe you are in the presence of only four players, so intense is the sound.’ The quartet 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, and 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 disc featuring Prokofiev’s String Quartets Nos 1 & 2, and received yet another Gramophone Chamber Music Award in 2007 for their recording of Janáček’s Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ and Haas’s Quartet No.2 ‘From the Monkey Mountains’.

In 2007, the Cologne Philharmonic nominated the Quartet 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 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.