Leoš Janáček: String Quartet No. 1
Pavel Haas: String Quartets Nos 1 & 3
“This is doubly true of Janáček’s First Quartet, played with a combination of passion and finesse that’s often breathtaking… This wonderfully played, intelligently planned, and beautifully recorded release belongs in every serious chamber music collection.”
ClassicsToday, November 2007
“It’s an outstanding disc from this young Czech ensemble, up there with the finest modern recordings and it’s the CD Review disc of the week.”
BBC Radio 3, November 2007
“The young Prague ensemble address this music on merit, without a hint of sentimental retrospect. The sheer brio of their playing invests all three works with such vigour and narrative momentum that they sound like a first performance, fresh off the page.”
Evening Standard, December 2007
“Die Vehemenz und spieltechnische Virtuosität des Ensembles hinterlassen starke Eindrücke, nicht minder die überaus sensible Abstufung in den verinnerlichten Abschnitten… Man erlebt in der Wiedergabe des Pavel Haas Quartetts den großen Gefühlsrausch, hört aus der Musik förmlich die Handlung heraus.”
Klassik.com, December 2007
“Demonstrating the same boldness and originality that characterised their stunning debut disc the Pavel Haas Quartet, armed with a new second violinist, deliver totally compelling and warmly recorded performances of the Janáček First Quartet and the First and Third Quartets by their namesake.”
BBC Music Magazine, January 2008
“The Haas Quartet negotiate Janáček’s fervid narrative without over-playing the drama, and they obviously relish its novel and occasionally abrasive sound world… This is a superb release that deserves not merely bask in the reflected glory of its predecessor, but to share in it. The sound is first-rate.”
Gramophone, April 2008
“A visceral and luminous account of ‚The Kreutzer Sonata‘”
Presto Classical, May 2014