Heinde Haas

At the end of April 1791, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart applied for the position of second Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, hoping to inherit the position from Leopold Hofmann, the incumbent Kapellmeister, the City Council of Vienna accepted Mozart’s petition in a strongly worded decree as a basis for the text in the vocal passages of his Sieben Klangräume accompanying the Unfinished Fragments of Mozart’s Requiem KV 626.

French pianist Monique Haas recorded the piano works of Debussy and Ravel twice, once in the late '50s and early '60s for Deutsche Grammophon and again in the late '60s and early '70s for Erato. The later recordings are released here in this six disc set from Warner Classics. As on the earlier set, Haas' performances are elegantly stylish, technically impeccable, consummately musical, and quintessentially French. Pick any piece by either composer at random, and you'll see. Try her bright but sensual Suite Bergamasque with its ravishing Clair de lune or her brilliant and visionary Études with their astounding concluding Pour les accords. Or try her recklessly virtuosic Gaspard de la nuit with its frightening Scarbo or her sweetly swaying Valses nobles et sentimentales with its heartrending Épilogue. There are only two meaningful differences between Haas' recordings: in the earlier performance, she is more passionate and impetuous while in the later performances she is more measured and thoughtful.

Formé au Sweelinck Conservatorium d’Amsterdam, au Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles et à la Sorbonne à Paris, passionné par la facture des instruments anciens, imprégné de culture classique française et fasciné par le Japon, le claveciniste Frédérick Haas s’interroge sur le sens à donner aujourd’hui aux musiques des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles en empruntant des chemins atypiques. Celui des croisements de cultures, des mises en regard, des expériences humaines et artistiques – "autant d’antidotes à certains stéréotypes véhiculés par l’approche dite “historiquement informée” d’aujourd’hui".

What an outstanding release! Pavel Haas was one of the many Czech/Jewish composers interned by the Nazis at the Terezin concentration camp before being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. His three string quartets are extraordinary pieces, continuing the line of development inaugurated by Janácek both in their exploration of unusual sonorities and in their use of folk and popular music for much of their melodic substance. The Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 previously were recorded by the Hawthorne Quartet as part of Decca’s Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) series dedicated to works suppressed by the Nazi regime, but these performances are superior in every way.

Daniel Haas formerly playing bass for Ange teams up with Yves Hasselmann (from Traveling) to offer us a great album. On this album Hasselmann's keyboards create an impressionistic and suggestive music, with an atmosphere in turn serene, nostalgic and dreamlike which is sometimes evocative of Catharsis or Fuhrs and Frohling.

Frédérick Haas possède une connaissance approfondie de la facture des instruments, et des secrets de leurs réglages. C’est cela qui lui permet ce dialogue si intime avec l’instrument. Car le clavecin de Haas est tout sauf métallique. Sous ses doigts d’une précision jamais répétitive, l’écriture ciselée et fort ornementée de D’Anglebert résonne avec l’amplitude de l’orchestre lullyste, tandis que le claveciniste nous submerge de couleur. Peut-on vraiment croire que l’intégralité du programme a été enregistré sur ce clavecin Henri Hemsch de 1751 tant l’artiste parvient à tirer de sonorités différentes de cet assemblage savant? A la manière d’un peintre, Haas sculpte chaque pièce comme un petit chef-d’œuvre.

Their recording of the American Quartet and String Quartet No. 13, Op. 106 (Gramophone Award - Recording of the Year), elevated the Pavel Haas Quartet among the finest performers of Antonín Dvorák's music. This position was subsequently confirmed by a recording of the composer's quintets, made with the violist Pavel Nikl, a founding member of the ensemble, and the pianist Boris Giltburg, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. The album received the most coveted classical music accolades (Gramophone Chamber Award, BBC Radio 3 Record Review Discs of the Year, Diapason d'Or, etc.). While recording the Dvorák quintets, the logical idea of a Brahms album was born.