GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2018

On 31 August, the winners of the Gramophone Awards 2018 were announced. The Pavel Haas Quartet’s Supraphon album featuring Antonín Dvořák’s quintets prevailed in the Chamber category. The prestigious accolades will be handed over on 13 September 2018 within the Gramophone Classical Music Awards ceremony at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden, London.

The “Oscars for classical music” have been annually awarded by the critics of the British monthly Gramophone. Since 1923, every issue has included reviews of albums, interviews with artists, profiles of musicians, reports from recording studios and articles about the latest trends in the development of audio-visual technology. The jury elect from among hundreds of records six best albums in each category.

This year, the Pavel Haas Quartet, who have exclusively recorded for the Supraphon label, received their sixth Gramophone Award. The album with Antonín Dvořák’s Quintets, Opp. 81 and 97, also features special guests: the Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg (the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2013) and the violist Pavel Nikl, one of the ensemble’s founding members. The Pavel Haas Quartet’s being at home with Dvořák’s music has also been confirmed by other accolades they have received for the recording (Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month, etc.).

“It’s simply incredible. When in 2006 we won our first Gramophone Award, we were shocked. And although this is our sixth Gramophone Award, we are still astonished. We feel immensely honoured, yet also deem our success somewhat binding. We are happy that our concerts, as well as recordings, make it clear that in addition to exerting huge efforts we put our hearts into the music we perform. We feel greatly motivated for the new season!”, says the cellist Peter Jarůšek.

Supraphon’s di­rector, Iva Milerová, adds: “We at Supraphon are proud to have released albums by the Pavel Haas Quartet, an ensemble who have gained the highest number of Gramophone Awards in the Chamber category in history. We highly regard the quartet’s members for their brilliant work and approach to music, as well as for their being noble people. Collaborating with them is a true pleasure for us.”

At the end of October, Supraphon will also release the Pavel Haas Quartet’s album of Dvořák’s quintets on vinyl. At the same time, the label will produce on vinyl another of their acclaimed recordings, that of Dvořák’s string quartets, Opp. 106 and 96, which in 2011 won the Gramophone Award in the Chamber category and was named Record of the Year.

The Pavel Haas Quartet gave their first concerts in the 2018/19 season at the International Music Festival in Edinburgh and at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Austria. This year, they are scheduled to make more frequent appearances in the Czech Republic. As the ensemble-in-residence of the Czech Chamber Music Society, they will perform at three concerts at the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, with the first of them, featuring as a guest the pianist Boris Giltburg, planned for 8 October. Furthermore, at the end of October the Pavel Haas Quartet will appear at the Leoš Janáček Music Marathon in Ostrava, at the Lípa Musica festival in Nový Bor (along with the pianist Lukáš Vondráček and the violist Pavel Nikl). In early December, the ensemble will perform at the Janáček Brno festival. During the autumn, the Pavel Haas Quartet will also return to such renowned venues as the Wigmore Hall in London, Bozar in Brussels and the Teatro della Pergola in Florence. Furthermore, they will visit Oslo and Bergen, and give their debut concert in Hanover.

In 2019, the Pavel Haas Quartet will tour Europe and North America. In May, they are scheduled to record a new Supraphon album, featuring Dmitry Shostakovich’s string quartets, which is expected to be released in the autumn of 2019.

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/…ers-revealed