The Pavel Haas Quartet is firmly established as one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. The Quartet is revered across the globe for its richness of timbre, infectious passion, and intuitive rapport. They perform in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and have won five Gramophone Awards and numerous others awards for their recordings. In 2022, the prestigious BBC Music Magazine ranked them among the 10 greatest string quartet ensembles of all time.

The Quartet regularly appears at major venues including Wigmore Hall, London; Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Berlin; Musikverein, Vienna; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Tonhalle, Zürich; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; BOZAR, Brussels; NCPA, Beijing; LG Arts Centre, Seoul and Carnegie Hall, New York.

In the 2023/2024 season, the Quartet will return to the Wigmore Hall for four concerts and will also appear at Rudolfinum Prague; Reduta Bratislava; Teatro La Fenice; Liverpool Philharmonic Hall; Göteborgs Konserthus; National Concert Hall, Dublin; Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; and Philharmonie Luxembourg. Further afield, the Quartet is touring the United States in March 2024 and Asia in May 2024. The ensemble will also perform at leading Czech festivals, including Dvořák's Prague and Prague Spring. Since September 2022, the Pavel Haas Quartet has been Artist-in-Residence at the Dvořák Prague Festival and has curated several chamber music concerts, including programming all the Dvořák String Quartets and chamber music works over these three seasons.

The Pavel Haas Quartet records exclusively under the Supraphon label. Their most recent recording of the Brahms Viola and Piano Quintets with Boris Giltburg and their former member, Pavel Nikl, was released to critical acclaim in May 2022. The recording was described as “radiant and vivacious” by The Strad and was Presto Classical’s Recording of the Week. For their previous album showcasing Shostakovich String Quartets (2019), they received the Recording of the Year by Classic Prague Awards and it was named one of the 100 best records of the year by The Times.

The Quartet has received five Gramophone Awards for their recordings of Dvořák, Smetana, Schubert, Janáček and Haas, as well as Dvořák’s String Quartets No.12 ‘American’ and No.13, for which they were awarded the most coveted prize, Gramophone Recording of the Year in 2011. The Sunday Times commented, “…their account of the ‘American’ Quartet belongs alongside the greatest performances on disc.” Further accolades include BBC Music Magazine Awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2010 for their recording of Prokofiev String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2.

Since winning the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy in 2005, further highlights early on in their career included a nomination as ECHO Rising Stars in 2007, participation in the BBC New Generation Artists scheme between 2007-2009, and the Special Ensemble Scholarship the Borletti-Buitoni Trust awarded them in 2010.

The Pavel Haas Quartet was founded in 2002 by violinist Veronika Jarůšková and violist Pavel Nikl, who was a member of the ensemble until 2016, when he left due to family reasons. Yet their collaboration has continued – Pavel Nikl has been a permanent guest of the ensemble for string quintet performances. The members of the quartet studied with the late Milan Skampa, legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet. The ensemble takes their name from the Czech-Jewish composer Pavel Haas (1899-1944), who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in 1941 and tragically died at Auschwitz three years later. His legacy includes three wonderful string quartets.

source: artevisio

Since its formation in 2000, the Quartetto di Cremona has established a reputation as one of the most exciting chamber ensembles on the international stage. Regularly invited to perform at major music festivals and halls in Europe, North and South America and Far East they have garnered universal acclaim for their high level of interpretive artistry.

Highlights of recent and upcoming seasons include performances at Wigmore Hall (London), at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), at the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, at the Brucknerhaus (Linz), at the Rudolfinum (Prague), in Geneva, Stockholm, Schwarzenberg, Kuhmo, Mumbai, Taipei, Beijing, and for the Fundación Juan March in Madrid, and the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in New York. North American tours are regularly planned twice a year, with the Carnegie Hall debut scheduled for October 2023 as well as a re-invitation from the CMS in March 2024 at the Lincoln Center.

The Quartet has also collaborated with numerous artists such as Eckart Runge, Till Fellner, Pablo Barragan, Kit Armstrong, Miguel da Silva, David Orlowsky, the Emerson String Quartet, and the Pavel Haas Quartet.

On the discographic side, a new CD will soon be released with the ensemble´s own version of The Art of Fugue, performed with seven instruments so as not to alter the original writing of Bach's score.

Previous recordings include: “Italian Postcards” (2020, Avie Records); a double CD dedicated to Schubert (2019, Audite); the complete Beethoven String Quartets (2018, Audite). Both of them were received with great interest by international critics, as well as winning discographic prizes.

Frequently invited to present masterclasses in Europe, Asia, North and South America, the members of the quartet have been professors at the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona since 2011.

Prezented in 2019 with the “Franco Buitoni Award” in 2019 by BBT for their constant contribution to the promotion of chamber music in Italy and around the world, they are ambassadors for the international project “Friends of Stradivari” and honorary citizen of Cremona. They also endorse “Le Dimore del Quartetto” and Thomastik Infield Strings. 

source: Quartetto di Cremona

The Bennewitz Quartet is one of the top international chamber ensembles, a status confirmed not only by their victories in two prestigious competitions – Osaka in 2005 and Prémio Paolo Borciani, Italy in 2008, but also by the critical acclaim it receives. As early as 2006, the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote: “... the music was remarkable not just for its clarity of structure, but for the beautiful tonal palette and purity of intonation in its execution. Only very rarely does one experience such skilfully crafted and powerful harmonies... Great art.” The ensemble has received various awards on the Czech music scene as well. In 2004, the quartet was awarded The Prize of the Czech Chamber Music Society, and in 2019, the four musicians won the Classic Prague Award for the Best Chamber Music Performance of the year.

The quartet currently performs at major venues both in the Czech Republic and abroad (Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Berlin, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, The Frick Collection New York, Seoul Art Center, Rudolfinum, and others), and is regularly invited to festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Luzerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, and Prague Spring. The group has had the privilege of working with various outstanding artists: Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alexander Melnikov, Vadim Gluzman, Isabel Charisius, Pietro de Maria, Reto Bieri, Danjulo Ishizaka, and others.

The Bennewitz Quartet especially enjoys playing and performing on the Czech domestic music scene. Particular highlights have included their cooperation with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and its conductor Jiří Bělohlávek for a performance of Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra. The group has made a recording of both quartets by Leoš Janáček for Czech Television in the unique space of Villa Tugendhat in Brno. Czech Radio regularly records major concerts performed by the quartet.

The members of the quartet place a lot of emphasis on the inspiring and sometimes challenging choice of their concert repertoire. In 2012 and 2015, the ensemble performed in one evening the complete set of Bartók’s six string quartets in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and in Swedish Upsala. In 2014, the four presented a premiere of The Songs of Immigrants by Slavomír Hořínka in Konzerthaus Berlin. In 2019, the quartet added a new CD to its discography featuring the music of the persecuted Jewish composers H. Krása, V. Ullmann, E. Schulhoff and P. Haas under the Supraphon label.

In the 2023/24 season, the Bennewitz Quartet will return to a number of European venues (Stuttgart, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Linz, Bilbao) and will make their debuts in Klagenfurt, Darmstadt, and Duisburg. The quartet will again perform in the United States and Canada, and will continue its various concert projects in the Czech Republic, including its collaboration on an integral performance of Dvořák's string quartets as part of the Dvořák Festival Prague. The ensemble is currently preparing to release a new CD featuring string quartets by "those who used to play together" - Haydn, Mozart, Vaňhal and Dittersdorf.

Since 1998, the quartet has borne the name of the violinist and director of a music conservatory in Prague, Antonín Bennewitz (1833–1926), who greatly contributed to the establishment of the Czech violin school. The most significant musicians who can be counted among his disciples are Otakar Ševčík and František Ondříček, and above all Karel Hoffman, Josef Suk, and Oskar Nedbal who, under Bennewitz’s influence, formed the famous Bohemian Quartet.

source: www.bennewitzquartet.com

Founded in 1994 while the members were still students, the ZEMLINSKY QUARTET has become a much-lauded example of the Czech string quartet tradition. The Zemlinsky Quartet won the First Grand Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2010. They have also been awarded top prizes at the Banff International String Quartet Competition (2007), Prague Spring International Music Competition (2005) and London International String Quartet Competition (2006), where they also received the Audience Prize. The Quartet was the recipient of the Alexander Zemlinsky Advancement Award in 2008. Other notable prizes include Beethoven International Competition (1999), New Talent Bratislava (2003), Martinů Foundation String Quartet Competition (2004), and the Prize of Czech Chamber Music Society (2005). In the season 2016/17, the Zemlinsky Quartet was appointed as the residential ensemble of the Czech Chamber Music Society.

The Zemlinsky Quartet performs regularly in the Czech Republic and abroad (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Monaco, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Canada, the USA, Brazil, Japan, South Korea). Recent major appearances of the Zemlinsky Quartet include London’s Wigmore Hall, Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Library of Congress, Place des Arts in Montreal, Prague Spring Festival, and their New York debut at the Schneider/New School Concerts Series. Their vast repertoire contains more than 350 works ranging from Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Dvořák to works by contemporary composers. The Zemlinsky Quartet often cooperates with other renowned Czech and foreign artists (N. Mndoyants, F. Klieser, J. Brown, M. Collins, K. Zehnder, M. Kasík, I. Kahánek, M. Kaňka, K. Untermüller, the Pražák Quartet, the Prague Chamber Ballet, and others). The ensemble also regularly records for Czech Radio. The members of the quartet are also individual prize winners of several competitions (Concertino Praga, Spohr International Competition Weimar, Tribune of Young Artists UNESCO, Rotary Music Competition Nürnberg, the Beethoven International Competition, the Kocian International Competition).

Between 2007 and 2018, the Zemlinsky Quartet recorded exclusively under the French record label Praga Digitals. Their first 4-CD set of Dvořák’s early works for string quartet received the coveted French award, “Diapason d´Or“ prize in March 2007. In 2014, the Zemlinsky Quartet became only the fourth quartet in history to record the complete string quartets by Antonín Dvořák. Other Praga Digitals releases include all the string quartets and early chamber music of Alexander Zemlinsky, a 4-CD set of Schubert’s early quartets, a rare disc of Spanish music for strings, the famous quartets by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, five Mendelssohn-Bartholdy string quartets, works by A. Glazunov, and a relatively unknown but excellent piano quintet by M. Weinberg (in cooperation with the young Russian pianist Nikita Mndoyants). The ensemble has produced two CDs in cooperation with the Pražák Quartet (Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Strauss, Brahms, Martinů). In cooperation with the Kocian Quartet, the ensemble has recorded the complete string quartets by Czech contemporary composer V. Kalabis. Many recordings of the Zemlinsky Quartet have received universal critical acclaim in various publications such as The Strad, Gramophone, Diapason, and Fanfare magazines.

While students at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts Prague, the ensemble was coached by members of renowned Czech string quartets including the Talich, Prague, Kocian and Pražák Quartets. The ensemble also took part in several master classes including ProQuartet, in France and Sommerakademie in Reichenau, Austria, where they were awarded First Prize for the best interpretation of a work by Janáček. From 2005 to 2008, the quartet studied with Walter Levin, the first violinist of the LaSalle Quartet. Their recent mentor has been Josef Klusoň, violist of the Pražák Quartet.

Between 2006-2011, the Zemlinsky Quartet were Assistant Quartet-in-Residence at Musik-Akademie Basel in Switzerland. Music education is an important part of their professional life and during their tours, the quartet is often invited to give master classes to students of all ages. They also perform educational concerts for students. František Souček and Petr Holman were recently appointed Professors at the Prague Conservatory.

The Zemlinsky Quartet is named after the Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher Alexander Zemlinsky (1871–1942), whose enormous contribution to Czech, German and Jewish culture during his 16-year residence in Prague had been underrated until recently. His four string quartets (the second one being dedicated to his student and brother-in-law Arnold Schönberg) are part of the basic repertoire of the ensemble. Since 2005, the quartet has maintained a special relationship with the Alexander Zemlinsky Foundation in Vienna.

source: zemlinskyquartet.cz