Based in Prague, the Pavel Haas Quartet studied with some of the masters of the quartet world including members of Quartetto Italiano, Quatuor Mosaïques, Borodin Quartet and Amadeus Quartet, as well as with Walter Levin in Basel. They have worked particularly closely with Milan Skampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet, and continue 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. 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 and recorded four award-winning CDs, receiving great acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

 

This season the Quartet returned to the Edinburgh International Festival, the Schubertiade, the Dvořák Festival in Prague, and the Wigmore Hall, as well as playing concerts in major venues in Berlin, Munich, Geneva, Madrid and San Francisco. Last autumn they performed a four-concert residency for the BBC in London, followed shortly by their inaugural concerts as the first-ever Artists in Residence of Glasgow Royal Concert Halls. In 2007, the Cologne Philharmonic 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. Recently they toured Australia, the USA, and also Japan, where they recorded a concert of Janáček and Haas for NHK television. In 2010, the Quartet was awarded the Special Ensemble Scholarship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

 

The Pavel Haas Quartet has released four discs on the Supraphon label, all of which received glowing reviews and numerous awards. The first is a recording of Janáček’s Quartet No.2, Intimate Letters, and Haas’ Quartet No.2, From the Monkey Mountains. The second disc features Janáček’s Quartet No.1, Kreutzer Sonata, and Haas’ Quartets Nos.1 and 3. Early in 2010 they released a disc of Prokofiev’s Quartets Nos. 1 & 2, which as described was “an instant classic”.

 

PROGRAMME

 

String Quartet No.1                 Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)

 

Born in Prague, Schulhoff died in 1942 in the Wulzburg concentration camp. He studied in Vienna, Leipzig, and Cologne where he gained recognition as a concert pianist. As a young man he leant towards the radical trends of the avant garde and became a prominent champion of jazz.

 

A new creative period began on his return to Prague in 1923 and the following year, during which he composed this quartet, was one of the most prolific of his life. By this time he was able to synthesize the avant garde with traditional European musical thought. New idioms appeared in his work predominantly from Slavonic folklore, characterized by dance-like vivacity with sharp rhythmic figures.

 

The success of his dance suite, Five pieces for string quartet, stimulated composition of this quartet which is written in a standard sonata movement cycle of four movements, although their sequence is changed with the slow movement (Andante molto sostenuto) postponed to the end of the quartet. After the three dance-like and neo-folkloric movements, among which in the second movement there is a suggestion of the grotesque, there comes a melancholy nocturne which offers scope for quiet meditation on the temporal joys of human life. In the mirror of this movement, the entire previous round dance is transformed into a recollection into the past, into a drama.

 

Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (1893)                 Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

          Animé et très décidé

 

Debussy’s only string quartet, written for the Ysaÿe Quartet in 1893, is unique. It shows Debussy at the beginning of his career, clearly leading the way to a new kind of music. The whole-tone scale is an important element in the quartet’s melodic line. The cool restraint and sensitivity suggest rather than state. Debussy was more concerned with the sensuous quality of musical sound than with form and structure. This new music reflected the aims of the symbolist poets and painters and along with L’après-midi d’un faune established the impressionist style in music. In this quartet, the orthodox methods of development are still in evidence and the form of the individual movements conforms to the traditional pattern. However, there is also a feeling of great originality in Debussy’s use of short melodic figures, of sustained thrills, colourful tremolos and repeated notes. The music is characterized by refinement, elegance, delicacy of expression and by a variety of veiled colours unknown in earlier compositions.

 

The opening notes of the quick first movement are of overriding importance as they make up the germ cell from which the entire quartet unfolds and grows. Following the short motif and its repetitions, three other melodies are heard. The various themes are then heard in an imaginative procession of shapes and guises until the movement reaches its conclusion.

 

The second movement, a scherzo, is the most startling. In its combination of arco and pizzicato scoring and frenzy of cross rhythms, one loses track of any thematic thread and is forced to appreciate the texture alone. The result is almost orchestral in its variety and stands as the earliest model for quartet writers of the 20th century, Webern and Bartók, for whom timbre assumed a dominant role.

 

After a false start by the second violin and viola, the Andantino opens softly singing a languid melody that gently rocks back and forth. The viola introduces two new themes, the last of which is worked up into an impassioned climax. The quiet rocking theme of the opening of the movement then returns.

 

The Finale opens quietly with the original motif. Then the mood grows more animated as the cello presents a fugue-like passage. A more rapid cluster-of-notes theme on the viola follows. Eventually, shared notes of both themes accompany the motif in a grandiose elongation. Finally, the scherzo rhythm begins an exciting coda which ends with a bounding run up to the final G major chord.

 

 INTERMISSION

 

String Quartet in F, Opus 96 “American”                              Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

            Allegro ma non troppo

Lento

Molto vivace

Finale: Vivace ma non troppo

 

As a youth, Dvořák, who was a chamber music player, greatly admired the works of the classical masters. However, in his early twenties he was strongly drawn to the folk idiom of Bohemia, which he realized could be a source of inspiration for his own music. It is not surprising that on Dvořák’s arrival in New York in 1892 to take up position as director of the National Conservatory of Music, he should be drawn to Black American music. In the summer of 1893, while residing in Spillville, Iowa , he listened with great interest to the Black plantation songs and the songs of the American Indians. In this small Bohemian farming community he wrote the American Quartet and the Viola Quartet Op. 97, both of which show a distinct “American” influence. The Quartet, which characterized Dvořák’s impressions of American folk music, does not contain direct quotations but was written in the spirit of American folk melodies. It reveals his depth of feeling, the resourcefulness of his technique, and his boundless imagination. Subtle contrasts of texture and tone colour, along with melodic charm combine to make Opus 96 one of his finest works.

 

In the introduction to the Allegro, the viola sings a jaunty melody against a rustling tremolo chord in the violins. The second theme played by the first violin is more tentative and subdued. The development is based on the first theme and is followed by a fugato derived form the second theme, which serves as a transition to a repeat of both themes.

 

The Lento, which is considered to be the best movement of the quartet, is distinguished by its lyrical beauty, depth of expression, and transparent harmonies. It is a lovely flowing melody, played by the first violin and cello, under which the second violin and viola maintain a murmuring accompaniment.

 

The third movement is a simple delightful bagatelle built on a single theme that has a vivacious rhythmic opening clause and a gentle rocking close. Structurally, the movement can be divided into two parts arranged in ABABA sequence. The first part “A” is thought to have been inspired by songs of birds in the Iowa woods. The second “B” theme is a slower version of “A” and has a mysterious mood that provides a contrast to the first.

 

The Vivace is a gay rondo in which a skipping rhythmic pattern is heard throughout. Other high-spirited melodies follow. Finally, after a short chorale-like strain, thought to have been derived from hymns Dvořák enjoyed playing at the church services in Spillville, the Quartet ends in a burst of good spirits.