Heinde Haas

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.

FonoForum 05 / 09: »Auf einem außerordentlich klangschönen Cembalo von Jean-Henry Hemsch (1751) trägt Frédérick Haas die Suiten 1 und 5 aus dem ersten sowie die Suiten 6, 7 und 8 aus dem zweiten Buch von François Couperin vor. Sehr gut gelingen ihm dabei die eleganten, geschmeidig inegalen Seiten dieser anspruchsvollen Musik, etwa in den berühmten ›Baricades mistérieux‹ oder den gleich darauf folgenden ›Bergeries‹.«

The Pavel Haas Quartet, one of the very finest chamber ensembles of the present time, earned for their first two CDs (Janáček, Pavel Haas) numerous prestigious accolades (Classic FM Gramophone Award, BBC Music Magazine Award, Cannes MIDEM Classical Award, etc.). With the Prokofiev pieces featured on this album the Quartet has for the first time entered the field of the Russian (or, if you will, international) repertoire.

The most popular Dvořák’s chamber repertoire performed by one of the world’s most exciting string quartets..

Second in popularity only to the Ninth Symphony "From the New World," Dvorák's Twelfth String Quartet – which was dubbed the "American" Quartet by the public and media rather than the composer himself – is a work nearly synonymous with the composer's tenure in the United States. These were not the only two works inspired by his cross-sea voyage, however. The Thirteenth String Quartet in G major, Op. 106, though not imbued with the same folkloric characteristics, also came about following the composer's return from the States. The popularity of the "American" Quartet has resulted in a work that is arguably overplayed, making it difficult for new ensembles to find anything new or unique to say about it.

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".