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Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Pavel Haas Quartet
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 13th April 2015
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Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2015, Disc of the Month
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2015
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Winner - Chamber
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2016, Chamber Winner
The PHQ understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana’s vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly – and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something....
Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Pavel Haas Quartet
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 13th April 2015
-
Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
-
Gramophone Magazine, May 2015, Disc of the Month
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2015
-
Gramophone Awards, 2015, Winner - Chamber
-
BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2016, Chamber Winner
The PHQ understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana’s vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly – and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something....
About
Following their 2014 Gramophone Award-winning recording of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' and the Quintet in C major, the Quartet are returning once again to the work of a Czech composer.
On their new CD the Quartet will be playing Bedřich Smetana’s Quartet No. 1 in E minor 'From My Life' and Quartet No. 2 in D minor.
Pavel Haas Quartet was formed in 2002 and bears the name of Pavel Haas (1899-1944), a Czech composer of the first half of the 20th century. Since 2004 the Quartet has won many prestigious awards, including first place in the Prague Spring International Music Festival, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice, the MIDEM Classical Award, and three Gramophone awards.
Gramophone wrote that the Pavel Haas Quartet "represents the best qualities of the Czech tradition – warmth, sonorousness, individuality, intensity.”
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
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Smetana from the Pavel Haas Quartet
13th Apr 2015
James listens to the Pavel Haas Quartet's new disc of Smetana's String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2.
Awards and reviews
-
Presto Recording of the Week13th April 2015
-
Sunday Times2015Albums of the Year
-
Gramophone MagazineMay 2015Disc of the Month
-
Presto Recordings of the YearWinner 2015
The PHQ understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana’s vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly – and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something. This is extraordinarily bold playing – and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music.
3rd May 2015
in their native repertoire they are well nigh incomparable. I have not heard an account of “From My Life”...that prepares us so starkly, in its turbulent opening Allegro vivo appassionato, for its tragic outcome...And it’s hard to imagine a more compelling or harrowing take on the less frequently programmed D minor quartet.
