Album
Pavel Haas Quartet
Smetana: String Quartets No. 1 in E minor & No. 2 in D minor
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Catalogue Number: SU 4172-1
Published: 25th October 2019
Genre: Chamber Music
Format: 1 LP
Bedřich Smetana - String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, "From My Life" (1876), String Quartet No. 2 in D minor (1882-83)
Pavel Haas Quartet: Veronika Jarůšková - 1st violin, Marek Zwiebel - 2nd violin, Pavel Nikl - viola, Peter Jarůšek - cello
"The recording captures the quartet as if they were in your living room ... This is the kind of disc that makes record reviewing the best job in the world." Gramophone Awards. "These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique." BBC Music Magazine. "This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." Gramophone
"In their native repertoire they are well nigh incomparable." The Sunday Times
When the most prominent critics across the board concur in the opinion that an album is extraordinary, it certainly deserves to be released on vinyl. Although Smetana's chamber pieces are few in number, each of them - personal, many a time harbouring a bold autobiographical statement - constitutes one of the cornerstones of Czech chamber music. Smetana wrote his two quartets in the twilight of his life, when he was afflicted by deafness. String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", is a programme work: "My aim was to depict in tones the course of my life ... the piece is of an intimate nature; therefore I deliberately wrote it for 4 instruments, which should converse as though within a close circle of friends..." Owing to its being composed in an unconventional manner, String Quartet No. 2 comes across as a 20th-century work. The Pavel Haas Quartet's award-winning album has been released by Supraphon for vinyl fans and lovers of perfect sound on a top-quality LP (180g virgin vinyl, DMM cutting), supplemented by a Hi-Res digital version.
Smetana's intimate and timeless music, as performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet - for the first time on vinyl
Pavel Haas Quartet: Veronika Jarůšková - 1st violin, Marek Zwiebel - 2nd violin, Pavel Nikl - viola, Peter Jarůšek - cello
"The recording captures the quartet as if they were in your living room ... This is the kind of disc that makes record reviewing the best job in the world." Gramophone Awards. "These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique." BBC Music Magazine. "This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." Gramophone
"In their native repertoire they are well nigh incomparable." The Sunday Times
When the most prominent critics across the board concur in the opinion that an album is extraordinary, it certainly deserves to be released on vinyl. Although Smetana's chamber pieces are few in number, each of them - personal, many a time harbouring a bold autobiographical statement - constitutes one of the cornerstones of Czech chamber music. Smetana wrote his two quartets in the twilight of his life, when he was afflicted by deafness. String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", is a programme work: "My aim was to depict in tones the course of my life ... the piece is of an intimate nature; therefore I deliberately wrote it for 4 instruments, which should converse as though within a close circle of friends..." Owing to its being composed in an unconventional manner, String Quartet No. 2 comes across as a 20th-century work. The Pavel Haas Quartet's award-winning album has been released by Supraphon for vinyl fans and lovers of perfect sound on a top-quality LP (180g virgin vinyl, DMM cutting), supplemented by a Hi-Res digital version.
Smetana's intimate and timeless music, as performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet - for the first time on vinyl
Reviews
“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.”
Gramophone, 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.”
The Sunday Times, 3rd May 2015
“These are definitive performances in which nothing is taken for granted, enhanced by a resonant acoustic which gives opulence to the weightier sections… These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique.”
BBC Music Magazine, July 2015
“In the autobiographical No 1 what captivating lyrical ardour and devastating emotional candour these superlative young players display … a disc to treasure.”
Classical Ear, July 2015
“There's a current of joy here, both in the act of music-making and in the artists' evident love of the music itself.”
Sinfini Music, November 2015
“The Pavel Haas Quartet plays the two quartets with tremendous drive. The music sounds wild, raw, full of accents and partly quite sharp. Instead of surrendering to the Czech richness of colour, the four musicians present the two string quartets as precursors of modernity.”
Pizzicato, December 2019
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Bedřich Smetana
String Quartet No. 1 in E minor "From my Life"
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| 1. | Allegro vivo appassionato | 07:43 | |
| 2. | Allegro moderato a la polka | 05:43 | |
| 3. | Largo sostenuto | 09:05 | |
| 4. | Vivace | 06:10 | |
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Bedřich Smetana
String Quartet No. 2 in D minor
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| 5. | Allegro | 05:32 | |
| 6. | Allegro moderato. Andante cantabile | 05:50 | |
| 7. | Allegro non piú moderato, ma agitato e con fuoco | 04:46 | |
| 8. | Finale. Presto | 02:53 | |