THE PAVEL HAAS QUARTET TO MAKE A NEW CD

The Pavel Haas Quartet’s action-packed concert season is in full swing. What is awaiting the world-renowned Czech ensemble over the next few months?

Following concerts in early January in Paris and Edinburgh, the PHQ will give three performances at the International String Quartet Festival in Heidelberg, Germany. In February, they will visit the Benelux countries and give recitals in The Hague, Maastricht, Ghent and other cities. In March, the Pavel Haas Quartet have scheduled concerts in Madrid and Bilbao, at one of which they will be performing Antonín Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 3, Op. 97, together with a former member, the violist Pavel Nikl. Next up are recitals at the exquisite Philharmonie Luxembourg hall and in Dortmund. At the end of March, the Pavel Haas Quartet will launch a tour of the west coast of the USA, which will encompass seven concerts in San Francisco, Napa Valley, Portland and elsewhere.

At the end of May and the beginning of June, the PHQ will give two recitals in the UK, the first in Guernsey and the second at St. John’s Smith Square in London, where they will play Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 91, alongside the Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin. Subsequently, the ensemble will appear at the famous Wiener Konzerthaus and in Thun, Switzerland, performing Schubert’s String Quintet in C major with the Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh.

The June programme will include concerts within the Schubertiade festival in Schwarzenberg, Austria, where the Pavel Haas Quartet have been regularly invited since 2007. This year, they will perform Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, together with the Israeli clarinettist Sharon Kam. In July, the ensemble are scheduled to appear at five concerts within the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland, at the Cheltenham Festival in the UK, and at the international festival in Póvoa, Portugal. The PHQ will round off their season in July at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, where alongside a guest, the Scottish pianist Barry Douglas, they will be performing Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F major, Op. 34, and Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 3, again with Pavel Nikl.

In addition to giving numerous concerts, in the spring the Pavel Haas Quartet and two guests will be recording a new CD, which will be made up of Dvořák works. We asked the cellist Peter Jarůšek about the selected repertoire: “The two Dvořák quintets – the String Quintet No. 3, Op. 97, and the Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 91 – are very close to our hearts. We are delighted to have the opportunity to make a recording of String Quintet No. 3 with a former member of ours and close friend Pavel Nikl. When it comes to the other guest, the Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg, we have wanted to record Piano Quintet No. 2 ever since we performed it with him for the first time.”

The album will be recorded at the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague. The new CD, the seventh the PHQ will have made with Supraphon, is scheduled to be released in the autumn of 2017.

For detailed inormation please visit www.pavelhaasquartet.com/en/concerts/