"Take note: this is one of the most polished and musically exciting young string quartets in the world today." Washington Post, April 2008
Veronika Jaruskova – Violin
Eva Karova – Violin
Pavel Nikl – Viola
Peter Jarusek – Violoncello
Since winning the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy in Spring 2005, the Pavel Haas Quartet has performed at the world’s most prestigious concert halls, receiving great acclaim from audiences and critics alike.
In 2009/10 the Quartet will debut at the Lucerne Festival, the Schubertiade, the Frick Collection in New York, the BBC Proms and the Berlin Konzerthaus as well as make return visits to Vienna Konzerthaus, Barcelona Palau de la Música, Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. They will also undertake major tours of the USA and Australia. In autumn 2009 the Quartet will release its third disc on the Supraphon label with recordings of Prokofiev’s String Quartets Nos.1 and 2.
Recent highlights for the Quartet include performances at Carnegie Hall, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg and performances at the Louvre, Paris. The Quartet recently toured to Japan, recording a concert of Janáček and Haas for NHK television. In 2007, the Cologne Philharmonie 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 from 2007–2009, participating in BBC studio recordings and high profile UK engagements. Their recording of Beethoven string quartets was the cover CD for the 2009 BBC Music Magazine’s Awards issue.
The Pavel Haas Quartet has released two discs on the Supraphon label. The first recording of Janáček Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ and Haas Quartet No.2 ‘From the Monkey Mountains’ 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. The Quartet’s second disc was released in autumn 2007 and saw them complete their recordings of the string quartet works by Haas and Janacek, featuring Janacek’s Quartet No.1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ and Haas’ Quartets Nos.1 and 3. Gramophone commented “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 particular release.”
Based in Prague, the Quartet has studied with some of the masters of the quartet world including members of Quartetto Italiano, Quatuor Mosaiques, Borodin Quartet and Amadeus Quartet, as well as with Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) in Basel. The Quartet has worked particularly closely with Milan Skampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet, and continues to enjoy a close relationship with him.
The Quartet takes its 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. As well as Haas, the Quartet is passionately committed to the Czech repertoire while their performances of Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, Mozart, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Ravel have also received extraordinary acclaim.
The Pavel Haas Quartet is represented by Intermusica.
September 2009 / 465 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
Wigmore Hall / Dvorak, Smetena & Haas
“In emotional terms, they seamlessly drifted between fervour and introspection – glorious quartet playing”
The Strad, June 2009
“That sense of total conviction owed much to this marvellous quartet. The leader Veronika Jaruskova plays with fiery energy and an intonation that never wavers; the cellist Peter Jarusek produces an immense tone with an appearance of almost nonchalant ease. And all four play with a wonderful sense of unanimity.”
The Telegraph, March 2009
Edinburgh International Festival / Pavel Haas & Janacek
“Named after the Czech composer who died at Auschwitz, [the Pavel Haas Quartet] are passionate and virtuosic, the vivacity of youth matched by musical maturity. Haas never heard his Third String Quartet performed, but he has rarely had more focused champions, his jazzy inflections and complexities attacked with brightness and sensitivity. To end, Janácek's brilliant labour of love, String Quartet No 2 (Intimate Letters), was etched with restless, turbulent passion.”
The Times, August 2008
April U.S. tour / Janácek, Dvorak, Beethoven & Smetana
"Take note: this is one of the most polished and musically exciting young string quartets in the world today."
Washington Post, April 2008
"...with full-blooded passion and finely nuanced playing, the young musicians conveyed the yearning of the opening Adagio [in Janacek's String Quartet No 1], the urgency of its bittersweet motif and the ironic joviality of the second-movement polka."
New York Times, April 2008
Janácek String Quartet No.1, Haas String Quartets Nos.1 & 3 / Supraphon
"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 particular release...This is a superb release that deserves not merely to bask in the reflected glory of its predecessor, but to share in it. The sound is first-rate."
Rob Cowan, Editor's Choice, Gramophone, April 2008
"It's an outstanding disc from this young Czech ensemble, up there with the finest modern recordings and it's the CD Review disc of the week."
BBC Radio 3 CD Review, November 2007
Recital at the Wigmore Hall, London / Beethoven & Janacek
"What impressed most was that the quartet's instinctive ensemble was capable of embracing the subtlest shades of attack and release with complete unanimity."
The Strad, October 2007
Recital in Weilburg / Mozart, Dvorak & Beethoven
"It was an exquisite occasion for chamber music, which lived up to the highest expectations: the Pavel Haas Quartet from Prague, one of the most famous ensembles of the younger generation"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 June 2007
Haas & Janacek String Quartets / Supraphon
"The young and dynamic Pavel Haas Quartet triumphantly announce their arrival on the recording stage with this first-rate example of the music of their namesake. … Both work benefit from "streamlined but full-blooded playing", ensuring eager anticipation for a follow-up album."
Gramophone Chamber Music Award 2007
"[In Janacek's String Quartet no.2] the players revelled in pointing up the work's searing trills, steely harmonics, vibrant folk influences and craggy angularity... An inspiring and energising experience."
The Stage, October 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 Newcomer of the Year Award 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 CD 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
"Haas's quartet gets a brilliant performance that combines lyricism with urbane wit. The Janacek is harrowing in its immediacy…"
The Guardian, October 2006
"...a superlative ensemble, as one would expect from a group coached by the Smetana Quartet's Milan Škampa."
The Telegraph, October 2006
"To its composer, Janácek's second string quartet, Intimate Letters, was a work seemingly 'carved out of living flesh'. That's just how it sounds in this brilliant account from a gifted Czech group. Bold in attack, tempo and texture, they never slip and always give us passion… A CD sequel is essential."
The Times, October 2006
East Neuk Festival, Scotland / Haas, Smetana, Mozart
"…a unique mix of impeccable technique and warm, interactive ensemble playing. Their performances of Haas, Smetana and Mozart's sinewy Dissonance quartet were sensational."
The Scotsman, July 2006
St Magnus Festival, Orkney, Scotland / Maxwell Davies, Beethoven, Janacek
"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, June 2005
"The Pavel Haas gave a magnificent performance of Beethoven's third Razumovsky, with the finale as exciting and explosive as I have heard it. They combine virtuosity with a full, glowing sound, and their style is discreetly aristocratic."
The Sunday Telegraph , June 2005
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