© Petra Hajská
On 12th June 2023, the Pavel Haas Quartet played their BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert in the Wigmore Hall, having Suk’s Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘St. Wenceslas’, Martinů’s String Quartet No. 2 and Korngold’s String Quartet No. 3 on the programme. An amazing review by Richard Morrison was published in The Times yesterday:
“In the 21 years since these brilliant young Czechs first performed together, the Pavel Haas Quartet has demonstrated compelling powers of sonority, precision and technique. Sometimes in this lunchtime recital you could close your eyes and imagine an entire string orchestra playing, so full and ferocious were the fortissimos. At other times it felt as if you were hearing echoes of an ancestral viol consort drifting over the centuries. What really sets this quartet apart, however, is the attitude embodied in its name: an unwavering integrity, a belief that everything it plays is a matter of life and death. That attitude infused every note in this recital of three not-very-familiar works from different decades of the early 20th century.”
You can listen to the concert on BBC Radio 3 HERE.